Samsung 16Gb Class 6 Sdhc Card Play.com Uk

[Dead1nside]

One thing is puzzling me, about my other SD cards. The Samsung Class 6 formats to 15.6GB free space whereas the other two Class 4s I had format only to 14.9GB. I did format them to ext2 when I got them and that reduced the space to around 14.7GB but now I've reformatted one as FAT it won't recover the space. I even tried using the Panasonic SD Formatter on Windows with it. Any ideas?

 

[WizardStan]

One thing is puzzling me, about my other SD cards. The Samsung Class 6 formats to 15.6GB free space whereas the other two Class 4s I had format only to 14.9GB. I did format them to ext2 when I got them and that reduced the space to around 14.7GB but now I've reformatted one as FAT it won't recover the space. I even tried using the Panasonic SD Formatter on Windows with it. Any ideas?

Probably bad blocks. As a block becomes impossible to read or write, the controller simply marks it as bad and never uses it again, thus reducing overall card size. Low quality cards probably start out with bad blocks, and quickly get a few more. Your high quality Samsung is probably much better.

 

[urjaman]

^ Or different partitioning, that might stick.

 

[Dead1nside]

One thing is puzzling me, about my other SD cards. The Samsung Class 6 formats to 15.6GB free space whereas the other two Class 4s I had format only to 14.9GB. I did format them to ext2 when I got them and that reduced the space to around 14.7GB but now I've reformatted one as FAT it won't recover the space. I even tried using the Panasonic SD Formatter on Windows with it. Any ideas?

Probably bad blocks. As a block becomes impossible to read or write, the controller simply marks it as bad and never uses it again, thus reducing overall card size. Low quality cards probably start out with bad blocks, and quickly get a few more. Your high quality Samsung is probably much better.

The thing is, they're brand new. I've only formatted them as ext2 and then written to them once. I believe when they were FAT their total free space was higher, and I assumed that some overheads in ext2 were shrinking the space, but like I say, even returning to FAT retains the scarily low 14.9GB space. It's a Kingston card, and the other one is a PNY.

Edit: I think it may just be the varying quality. As the Samsung is now showing as 15.3GB, so even that's around 300MB from the value I was expecting.

 

[WizardStan]

Edit: I think it may just be the varying quality. As the Samsung is now showing as 15.3GB, so even that's around 300MB from the value I was expecting.

As I suggested, bad blocks. It starts off with a full complement of them, but as the controller tries to write to different ones, it'll just start ticking them as bad. When you formatted to ext2 it flagged a bunch bad; when you formatted back to FAT32, it remembered those blocks were bad so you didn't recover any space.
That's just my interpretation, anyway.

 

[Prometheus]

I believe that Stan is on the right track here. Kingston, for example, is actually a rebadging brand if memory serves, so the quality of the chips used in "their" cards may vary quite a bit. Not all flash chips are created equal (basically they're graded from "A" to "D", with A being the best kind that you would find in the most expensive cards and brands), and you can sometimes gauge this from the retail price of a given brand or model.

 

[Tom`]

I don't know if this is the case here, but note also that it reserves a certain amount of space when you format a drive: it defaults to 5%, but you can change it with the tune2fs command.

 

[meandu229]

Saw this and thought of all you,.
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/transcend-16gb-sd-sdhc-memory-card-/761230 16gb class 10 card By transcend for just £20.89
Im sooo tempted but dont need one

 

[Dead1nside]

Saw this and thought of all you,.
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/transcend-16gb-sd-sdhc-memory-card-/761230 16gb class 10 card By transcend for just £20.89
Im sooo tempted but dont need one

Thanks, I'm tempted as well. I'm sure I can come up with some excuse, like "SD cards can be used in lots of things, not just the Pandora, like digital cameras, or something..."

 

[Dead1nside]

Just to resurrect this thread, on Play.com, the Transcend 16GB Class 10 is now only £17.99 delivered, for 1 day only. http://www.play.com/Electronics/Electronics/4-/16596517/Transcend-16GB-SDHC-Card-Class-10/Product.html

 

[Gren]

^Another fantastic spot!

Typically I read this a day late.......but the good news is that the link still seems to work OK, and I've ordered one of these just now

 

[andyB911]

^Another fantastic spot!

Typically I read this a day late.......but the good news is that the link still seems to work OK, and I've ordered one of these just now

Thanks for the heads up - I got one too :lol: Not sure I need the speed, but seemed such a bargain that shouldn't and couldn't be resisted.

Now when will the prices of 32gb cards come down to a 'reasonable' level I wonder..? In much the same way that I don't need the speed of a class 10, with 2 x 16gb cards I have no real need for the extra space. But that won't spot me as and when they are half their current price.

 

[jaycee900]

^Another fantastic spot!

Typically I read this a day late.......but the good news is that the link still seems to work OK, and I've ordered one of these just now

Thanks for the heads up - I got one too :lol: Not sure I need the speed, but seemed such a bargain that shouldn't and couldn't be resisted.

Now when will the prices of 32gb cards come down to a 'reasonable' level I wonder..? In much the same way that I don't need the speed of a class 10, with 2 x 16gb cards I have no real need for the extra space. But that won't spot me as and when they are half their current price.

This is isn't bad for £39.99 out 13th oct, not sure what speed it is though, but the prices are getting down play

 

[TitanUranus]

Damn, I bought my Trancend 16gb for £21 last week, going to use it for temp storage of videos and music. Also, my 8gb 30mb/s Sandisk Extreme got delivered today... that's for my OS and a 1gb swap partition.

Hmm, I also got a high def camera off ebay the other day, maybe £17.99 isn't all that much to pay for another - sadly I have no more money for a week and a half.

 

[Dead1nside]

Just to let anyone know, it appears it wasn't on a 1-day only sale, so it should be around until the end of the Play.com Autumn Sale (but you never know).

I'm going to stick with the 3 16GB SD cards I've already got. Or at least wait until the 32GB ones go down.

 

[kaprikawn]

Transcend 32GB class 10, from Amazon (UK) but sold by KOMPBAY (whoever they are) for £38. Can you get dodgy SD cards through Amazon from third party sellers? I'm holding off personally, if these can sell it at this price, someone more reputable should follow suit. Anyways, link:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003VNKNF0/ref=nosim/?tag=hotukdeals-21

Credit where credit is due, my original source:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/transcend-flash-memory-card-32-gb-c/780278

 

[Tor]

Can you get dodgy SD cards through Amazon from third party sellers?

Yes you can. Don't trust third party sellers. Amazon UK sold me a fake Nokia battery via a third party seller. And SD cards are much worse. If you can't get it through know shops, don't buy. Period. (Amazon itself, and Play.com itself should be OK, just stay off their 3party sellers for such items.)

 

[Kangal]

I just bought 2x microSD Class 6 cards with 32GB capacity. Need one for my SGS, and the other for my Milestone (brand new, a gift for my bro).
I bought both on eBay from a reputable seller with a 7day satisfaction guarantee. The member sells many things but has only recently started auctioning those items in bulk. I won the first two auctions at $66 and $71 respectively, the later one's went for $110 (ahahahaha).
Just got both Kingstong's yesterday and the first thing I did was fire up h2testw 1.4 ... and it turns out the cards are duds!

They have actual storage of <1Gb and the speeds achieved are barely Class 2. And also the packaging didn't have Kingsotng's authentic barcode nor the geniune front case. Even the cards had the "4" in a circle indicating Class 4, when the item is described as Class 6.

I notified seller (they may have been scammed too), they said they will refund my PayPal asap and wanted the items back. Sent them today, lets see what happens.

I thought since 32Gb is the highest limit on many devices, and Class 6 should cover me for a long time, it seemed like a good investment (buying several cards in a row becomes more costly me thinks).
Now how the hell am I going to find those cards again at a good price (both <$150 and I'm happy).
Any sources? Must ship to Australia.

 

[meandu229]

I have to say my pandora seems much more stable and responsive opening programs using a class 10 not a class 2,
But maybe just a placebo effect

 

[Prometheus]

@Kangal - I'm going to repeat my reply from the other thread here, if that's ok (it's just to make sure anyone who needs this info can find it);

I notified seller (they may have been scammed too), they said they will refund my PayPal asap and wanted the items back. Sent them today, lets see what happens.

It's unfortunate that you've shipped the cards out already, as they were your evidence.

Please look up your seller using SOSFakeFlash's search box - you may find that the return address isn't real, or that the cards are simply re-sold to someone else. Both such cases usually end without the victim getting a refund.

Of course, it could be a genuine seller who's gotten caught out, but I've seen so much of this that even I'm getting a bit skeptical nowadays, unfortunately. The warning signs to me are selling the cards in bulk (which is a very common tactic for vendors of fakes), a completely different sort of card being received, and them selling many other things but only recently starting to sell flash media (where vendors of fakes are concerned, this is usually a sign of building up a feedback profile in order to make it more difficult for them to be removed when they start selling fakes).

Transcend 32GB class 10, from Amazon (UK) but sold by KOMPBAY (whoever they are) for £38. Can you get dodgy SD cards through Amazon from third party sellers? I'm holding off personally, if these can sell it at this price, someone more reputable should follow suit. Anyways, link:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B003VNKNF0/ref=nosim/?tag=hotukdeals-21

Credit where credit is due, my original source:

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/transcend-flash-memory-card-32-gb-c/780278

This doesn't sound kosher to me. A Verbatim 32GB Class 6 SDHC Card sold by Amazon themselves is almost £60 - how would a third-party seller, who I would wager most people haven't heard of, be able to undercut this price whilst offering a better card? The notion of selling a genuine 32GB Class 10 card for £38 seems strange to me, as this price appears to represent an enormous monetary loss, given the fact that the profit margins on genuine capacity flash media are actually quite slim.

My conclusion is that I would personally avoid this, because, as Tor notes, fakes have been sold via third-party sellers on some genuine retailers' sites.