Can a missing sector error be intermittent ?

Kernel_Sanders

I downloaded a programme from BBC iplayer at the library onto an SD card. When I got it home it would play in WMP for a couple of minutes, then stall. The error would be 'The drive cannot find the sector requested' , but when I played it again it was OK at that moment but would then stall at a later point in the recording, with the same message. I thought this was more likely to be a hardware problem, so I tried to copy the file over to my D drive. This process stalled after a few seconds, the error being 'Cannot copy, the parameter is incorrect' Are these errors connected?.

bazster

Could be an issue with the SD card itself, or the card reader. Is it an external card reader, or a built-in one?

If you haven't got anything else that you can test the card in, or a friend/neighbour/whatever whose computer you can try it in, why not take it back to the library and try it again in the computer there? If that can read it OK then you know you probably have a hardware problem rather than a dodgy SD card.

But my money's on the SD card being flaky.

fwor

I've had similar intermittent problems with a faulty (brand new) USB cable on an external card reader, but I'd guess a faulty SD card is more likely.

First thing I'd do would be to test it with h2testw, running it multiple times, and see what that reveals (or use F3 if you prefer Open Source code).

bazster

fwor wrote: »

I've had similar intermittent problems with a faulty (brand new) USB cable on an external card reader, but I'd guess a faulty SD card is more likely.

First thing I'd do would be to test it with h2testw, running it multiple times, and see what that reveals (or use F3 if you prefer Open Source code).

Yes, if it's a USB card reader, I would be suspicious of it or the cable. I've had similar problems with external disk drives which were fixed merely by changing the USB cable.

Kernel_Sanders

Yes, it's a micro SD card in a reader which I prefer for its versatility (is this arrangement less reliable than a 'proper' dongle?) Actually, I recall that in the library, My Computer recognized it as a pendrive, but none of the existing files on it were showing. I moved it to the adjacent port, which seemed to solve the problem, but now I'm thinking the problem is with the card and not the library PC nor Poundland reader!
I'll go to the library again today and test it.

bazster

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

Yes, it's a micro SD card in a reader which I prefer for its versatility (is this arrangement less reliable than a 'proper' dongle?) Actually, I recall that in the library, My Computer recognized it as a pendrive, but none of the existing files on it were showing. I moved it to the adjacent port, which seemed to solve the problem, but now I'm thinking the problem is with the card and not the library PC nor Poundland reader!
I'll go to the library again today and test it.

The finger of suspicion falls...:D

Kernel_Sanders

bazster wrote: »

The finger of suspicion falls...

...on the reader! I tried the card inside my 3 Mobile Broadband dongle and it worked perfectly. It still might not be the reader though because it only has one slot, so the micro SD adapter could be at fault. I don't have a full sized card, but I think I have a spare adapter lying around that I could try.
After downloading this file (at the library), the automatic bit states it is copying the data from CTM3WXIV to H (the pendrive). Google comes up with nothing for CTM3WXIV; is it the RAM?

fwor

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

After downloading this file (at the library), the automatic bit states it is copying the data from CTM3WXIV to H (the pendrive). Google comes up with nothing for CTM3WXIV; is it the RAM?

I think that bit may be a red herring, depending on the browser.

Some save a downloaded file to a temporary location with a random filename (that the browser generates locally), then copy this to your selected destination, and rename it to the proper filename once the copy is complete.

Kernel_Sanders

fwor wrote: »

I think that bit may be a red herring, depending on the browser.

Some save a downloaded file to a temporary location with a random filename (that the browser generates locally), then copy this to your selected destination, and rename it to the proper filename once the copy is complete.

That would explain no search result (browser was IE). If I was downloading a big file at home onto an SD card, and my Windows partitions were nearly full, where would the temporary location be if the download was too large for them; on the RAM?

fwor

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

That would explain no search result (browser was IE). If I was downloading a big file at home onto an SD card, and my Windows partitions were nearly full, where would the temporary location be if the download was too large for them; on the RAM?

Sorry, all of my "test" Windows installations are (were) virtual machines inside Virtualbox and got trashed when my SSD failed 2 weeks ago, so I can't check.

But I'm fairly sure that IE has a config option that defines where downloaded files get stored by default. In the very short term, all downloads will be stored in RAM, but I don't think downloads would end up there unless you actively make a decision to create a temp filesystem in RAM.

bazster

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

That would explain no search result (browser was IE). If I was downloading a big file at home onto an SD card, and my Windows partitions were nearly full, where would the temporary location be if the download was too large for them; on the RAM?

If you really didn't have sufficient disk space the download would simply fail. There will certainly be no provision in the software for it to use RAM instead if there's not enough disk space.