Peculiar SD Card Behaviour

[Lazarus]

Having filled up one 32GB Class 10 Micro SD Card for playing MP3 CD rips on my Android Tablet, I bought another and have some odd issues with it.

The original Card was a Philips branded one from 7 Day Shop. It has worked perfectly and happily in not only the Android Tablet, but also a Linux Mint lappie and my Win 10 Tablet.

The new one is Kingston Branded and sold as Class 10.

Apart from the fact it actually performs as Class 4, it will not behave consistently in the Linux lappie, sometimes submitting to Formatting and storing data, before losing it again or even not being recognised at all.

It does bu**er all in the Android Tablet, BUT it behaves impeccably and is stable and error free in Win 10.

Whilst I'm sure its a cheap fake, I'm not too bothered as it is happily doubling my Win 10 storage, but I haven't come across such variable behaviour depending upon which device it is used with.

 

[Archive-8]

Does it actually say it's Linux compatible ?

As you rightly said it sounds like a fake.

 

[Channel Hopper]

I've only ever bought one micro card (which was discounted and part of something else), and has been loaded into the Android phone since I took it out of the packet.

I need to take an average of three pictures to get a complete image when it comes to moving things off the phone, and to be honest I've only been hacked off once when I took a video which was corrupted.

Good to know it might be OK in other devices, though I really wouldn't trust it for something essential. How did you get it to confirm Class 4 standard , or was this by comparison with a benchmark test?

 

[Lazarus]

Does it actually say it's Linux compatible ?

As you rightly said it sounds like a fake.

It did format to FAT32 using the Linux Disk (sic) tool and did take (but not retain) Data, once.

 

[Lazarus]

I've only ever bought one micro card (which was discounted and part of something else), and has been loaded into the Android phone since I took it out of the packet.

I need to take an average of three pictures to get a complete image when it comes to moving things off the phone, and to be honest I've only been hacked off once when I took a video which was corrupted.

Good to know it might be OK in other devices, though I really wouldn't trust it for something essential. How did you get it to confirm Class 4 standard , or was this by comparison with a benchmark test?

By the rather crude comparison of peak and mean Data transfer rates when copying files to it and to its good Class 10 predecessor.

 

[jeallen01]

Kingston devices, notably SD cards of various types, are reputedly the most faked of all (and I have had at least one) - so you probably also have one of those, unfortunately

Thus I never buy them nowadays.

 

[Lazarus]

Guess so. Still, it has some use, it appears (For how long, we have yet to discover!).

 

[jeallen01]

Guess so. Still, it has some use, it appears (For how long, we have yet to discover!).

Personally I would not trust it one iota for another moment - return it to the supplier with a "suitably worded reason" for a refund (PDQ), and get something more reliable (Samsung, another Philips, Sandisk maybe).

 

[Lazarus]

Already got another Philips in mind, from the same Supplier as I got the first, known working, one.

This dodgy one will simply be binned - price vs. hassle equation favours that approach.

I've rarely made poor purchases, fortunately, so am not overly fussed.

 

[PaulR]

I bought a 128GB micro SD card recently and, as I do with all cards and sticks that I buy, ran a test on it. It was a fake and I'm currently claiming a refund through PayPal so I shouldn't lose out.

The software I use is called Fake Flash Test. It's quite small so I'll attach it to this post.

I bought another 128GB card and that tested out fine. After the test you have to format the card as all data on it destroyed. I couldn't get the fake card to format at all but I suspect it's only a 2GB card. Unless and until you can format it to its correct capacity I wouldn't put any data on it. And there's a good chance that it won't format at all if it's a card that's been rejected during the manufacturer's testing process.

 

[Lazarus]

I bought a 128GB micro SD card recently and, as I do with all cards and sticks that I buy, ran a test on it. It was a fake and I'm currently claiming a refund through PayPal so I shouldn't lose out.

The software I use is called Fake Flash Test. It's quite small so I'll attach it to this post.

I bought another 128GB card and that tested out fine. After the test you have to format the card as all data on it destroyed. I couldn't get the fake card to format at all but I suspect it's only a 2GB card. Unless and until you can format it to its correct capacity I wouldn't put any data on it. And there's a good chance that it won't format at all if it's a card that's been rejected during the manufacturer's testing process.

It's currently formatted to the stated capacity and still functioning ok in Win 10, with a few Videos on it that play fine. It mounts and unmounts without issue.

All goes tits up if I attempt to mount it in Linux or Android.

Indeed, the reason I got another 32GB one was because of Android's limitations in that regard.

For most purposes, not involving Android, I use Philips 64 GB cards.


I shall, however, run the test you kindly Posted above, tomorrow, and see what that comes up with.

 

[jeallen01]

Paul

Thx - I'll download that tomorrow- could be very useful.

 

[Archive-8]

Thanks @PaulR i will run it on all of my cards & sticks.

 

[PaulR]

Thanks @PaulR i will run it on all of my cards & sticks.

TBH you would probably have found out by now if one were fake as you would have mysteriously lost files. If you do decide to test anything don't forget to copy any files off first!

 

[Archive-8]

TBH you would probably have found out by now if one were fake as you would have mysteriously lost files. If you do decide to test anything don't forget to copy any files off first!

I have a little stock of cards/sticks just in case I need them.

 

[Lazarus]

@PaulR

Quite!

 

[Lazarus]

I have a little stock of cards/sticks just in case I need them.

Ditto.

Much redundancy ..... lots of backups, too.

 

[Lazarus]

Well, the card was clearly corrupt this morning.

Reformatted it and successfully wrote a short video file to it, then ran the tool provided by @PaulR

The tool can't see the card at all!

Card heading binwards.

 

[Lazarus]

Just found another tool which does see it.

Will take 2hrs to complete, so I'll probably have got fed up before then!

 

[PaulR]

Was this other tool called something like HDW2TEST? There's absolutely nothing wrong with it except that it can take a long time to process the large capacity cards we have nowadays and the one I posted is supposed to be quicker in use.