SD card, help please

nobby24

I've got a 2gb SD card and I'm loading photos onto it on my laptop. I've loaded quite a lot and according to properties there is about 1,4gb of space left but it won't let me transfer any more images. It says an unexpected error is preventing the operation, the directory or file cannot be created. Does anybody know what this might be?

isofa

As long as you've got all the photos backed up, reformat it and try again. (I'm assuming you are putting photos on it from your laptop, not downloading them from the card to your laptop - if you are recover them with https://www.recuva.com)

Stompa

You didn't get it from eBay did you?

isofa

Ohh good point Stompa - could be a classic case of a scam fake card, where it says it's one capacity, but really is much smaller...

nobby24

No, I bought it from Amazon. When I check the properties it says 'Free space 1,620,967,424 bytes'. It wouldn't say that if it wasn't correct, would it?

fwor

nobby24 wrote: »

No, I bought it from Amazon. When I check the properties it says 'Free space 1,620,967,424 bytes'. It wouldn't say that if it wasn't correct, would it?

Yes it would - the fake cards are loaded with a hacked file system which appears to be the correct size. So most people don't realise they have a fake until they try to write data which fills it beyond its actual size.

If you bought from Amazon themselves it's probably genuine but may be faulty. If you bought from an Amazon third-party seller it's quite likely to be a fake.

zee_2

use, https://www.7dayshop.com for cards ,prices great , i'm disabled and have to watch costs,some small items are free postage , or cost + postage is still a bargin, have used them 5 years never any trouble......zee

sillygoose

could it be the root directory file number limit legacy, it may be formatted as just FAT? From hazy memory FAT used to have a limit of something like 256 or 512 files max in the root of a drive.

Anyway do you have all the pictures just dropped straight onto the card root or in folders? Try removing a few pictures and then create some folders on the card and copy into those. Just a thought.

stuvee02

Oh what a cynical world we live in! :rolleyes:

Yes it is possible that OP has bought a counterfeit card but it is also possible that the card is simply faulty - it does happen y'know.

It's a bit strange that OP says they've loaded quite a bit but still have 1.4Gb showing available but that could just be the nature of the problem? How much capacity have you actually transferred to the card? What is the brand? Also is the fault occurring at the same point with the same files - i.e. is it actually one of the files you are trying to copy that is causing the problem?

If the seller is a marketplace seller on Amazon then you should be able to see from their feedback (assuming they have a reasonable number) if they have a lot of disappointed customers from this kind of problem. If that's the case the card may well be counterfeit. If their feedback suggests they are an honest seller then the card is most likely corrupt or faulty - you can't last long on Amazon selling dodgy gear without being found out by your customers feedback.

Get the SD Formatter program from the SD Association website:
http://www.sdcard.org/consumers/formatter/
The SD Association are the official industry association for SD and SDHC memory formats.

Format the card using that application. If there's any corruption then this formatter should clear it - it's the best I've found.

Once you've formatted the card try loading data to it again - if it still fails then either the card is dodgy as others have suggested or just is a dud card. Whatever the reason if it won't work then contact the seller and see what they suggest. They should either replace it or refund you for it. They may ask you to return the card to them and depending on how long ago it was bought they may expect you to cover the cost of returning it.

If the seller is passing off dodgy gear then they may try to fob you off or ignore you. Give them a chance to respond but if you don't get a satisfactory answer then contact Amazon themselves. I think Amazon suggest you should allow a seller 3 days to respond but any decent seller would respond to an email within 24 hours.

Hope this helps :beer:

Stu