Help SD Card Usage... how and so on.....

[95zx9r]

So I just came out of the dark ages and threw away my torch in exchange for the s3. Where have i been?!

I have a 32GB Sandisk SD card, When i pop it in, phone says 31.24GB total 31.24GB available. I formatted it in the phone, put it in my card reader and transferred 30GB of music to it directly from my computer.

When its in my computer, i dont see the folders created by the phone, music, pictures, etc.... just a LOST.DIR folder.

When i transferred all that music my computer sent it, was showing the drive as only having 2 GB free, and when its back in my phone it shows as having 24GB free and only shows me a portion of the folders of music i sent over.

Could use a little help here. If anyone can clarify the best process for doing what im doing or give me a little help that would be great.

Thanks

 

[SUroot]

A 32 GB card is not 32 GB. Hardware manufacturers use 1 byte x 1000 x 1000 x 1000 = 1GB.

Actually its x 1024 x 1024 x 1024.

Take 32 and divide by 1024 3 times then multiply by 1000 3 times and that's what you have (slightly less due to the format) so 30GB of music is too much.... so what happens is anything over the limit will overwrite stuff on the card, corrupting it.

Corrupt files and files with no file system links end up in LOST.dir.

Hope this helps

 

[sideout]

What's the best way to start off with a new SD card? Format it in your PC first or just put it in the phone? My son will be using it for music.

 

[SUroot]

Id format it in the phone myself

 

[sideout]

Id format it in the phone myself

I will let my son do that before he heads off to college.....I just don't want to do anything to screw it up...lol

 

[SUroot]

It should be fine. Just move music in bite-sized-chunks of a GB or two.

Probably wouldn't go above 25GB of music.

May be worth downloading h2testw.exe for windows to check the formatted card for errors

 

[Jeepmaster]

I have a 32GB Sandisk SD card, When i pop it in, phone says 31.24GB total 31.24GB available.

My 32GB Lexar card actually has 29.81GB of useable space once it's formated for use in the phone.

 

[95zx9r]

A 32 GB card is not 32 GB. Hardware manufacturers use 1 byte x 1000 x 1000 x 1000 = 1GB.

Actually its x 1024 x 1024 x 1024.

Take 32 and divide by 1024 3 times then multiply by 1000 3 times and that's what you have (slightly less due to the format) so 30GB of music is too much.... so what happens is anything over the limit will overwrite stuff on the card, corrupting it.

Corrupt files and files with no file system links end up in LOST.dir.

Hope this helps

thanks, but that doesnt make a whole lot of sense.. i had a 16gb card that i could fill up completely with music, to the last MB... and everything was fine... but now (after further investigation) it seems that even though i have reformatted the card in my phone, sent 4gb of music to it, songs that play no problem from my computer, wont play from the card, even if i transfer them back.. corrupted maybe...

maybe the sd card is junk?

 

[SUroot]

14.9 I think for 16GB...

 

[RickyDavis1051]

I have a 64gb Sandisk and i guess it automatically formated itself to 59.45gb in my phone?

 

[dfran1]

I have a 64gb Sandisk and i guess it automatically formated itself to 59.45gb in my phone?

Thats funny cause I have a sandisk ultra class 6 64gig and my phone shows 59.47 total space after the phone formatted it.

milage may vary from brand to brand (milage meaning free space left after format) even tho .02gb is nothing.

 

[mark r]

I bought a new Galaxy s3 and inserted a new 32 gb sdhc class 10 card from micro center but the phone will not recognize it and neither will my laptop but my old htc incredible will. Tried it many times and always the same story. htc yes, s3 and pc no. what would cause this?

 

[Rolo42]

When i transferred all that music my computer sent it, was showing the drive as only having 2 GB free, and when its back in my phone it shows as having 24GB free and only shows me a portion of the folders of music i sent over.

The 24GB free tells me you are looking at the internal SD card.

Storage capacities are advertised for their unformatted capacity (in addition to using base10 numbers rather than base2). The formatted capacity will vary by file system.

I would reformat the SD card from the phone, then power off, remove it, put it in the PC, copy music to it, safely remove it, install it in the phone, then power on and test it.

 

[SUroot]

I have a 64gb Sandisk and i guess it automatically formated itself to 59.45gb in my phone?

The maths states it should be 59.6 physically.

But yes, it stands to reason a little bit will be lost to the file system during format