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Help Micro SD Broken?

J

Jarglebomb

Lurker
First, just some information about my device...

Manufacturer: Samsung
Model: Galaxy S3 i9300
Software version: CyanogenMod 10.2 (rooted)
Specifics of the problem: I just came home from the shops with a brand new Lexar 32GB Micro SD card. I put it in my phone, plug my phone into my computer and begin copying 15GB of music to the card. There's more than enough room, but after 8GB of music had been transferred, it said that there was no more room on the phone (under Settings > Storage, it said there was only 500KB available).

I cancel the copying process and deleted all of the music I had copied (because I didn't want to copy any duplicates). After deleted, it said that there was only 40MB available. I proceeded to check if it was whether or not my Recycle Bin was empty or not, it wasn't, and now the card is simply not being read. It doesn't appear in the list of storage devices when the phone is plugged in and says "Blank SD card" in the pull-down menu.

Upon clicking it, it offers me the choice to format the SD card to which I click continue, it flashes"Blank SD card" up the top and does nothing more (the same happens when I try to "Mount SD card", under Settings > Storage). Neither rebooting the phone nor re-inserting the SD card has helped. I don't have an adapter to put it in my computer to attempt to reformat it and can't believe I spent $50 for something that doesn't work...
 
mikedt said:
Sounds like you've got a duff or counterfeit SD card there. A counterfeit SD is much more likely though, there's a lot of them around. What actual shop did you buy it from.

You can check it with SD Insight, see if what you've actual got matches what it's supposed to be, i.e. 32GB Lexar.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.humanlogic.sdi
Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick response. I bought it from a JB-HI-FI. Using SD Insight, it returned the following:

Manufacturer: Origin is UNKNOWN.
Model: Blank.
Size: 32GB
Manufacture Date: July 2015

I don't understand how SD Insight can see my SD card, but neither my phone nor my computer can...

Note: It's of a speed class of 10.
 
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OK..UNKNOWN and blank sounds very suspicious. I'm very certain that's a counterfeit. Reported sizes can be faked. You'll probably find that it's only actually 8GB or something, and probably that's why you got the error after transferring 8GB of music

SD Insight on my phone states...
Manufacturer: Sandisk
Model: SU64G
Size: 64GB
Date: March 2014

...which is what mine should be.

For the phone and PC to see it, it has to actually be recognizable as formatted removable media. It's probably now in some corrupted state and so can't be mounted by the OSs. SD Insight just sees its presence and reads the manufacturer information.
 
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I'm absolutely dumbfounded here... To think that a store which is supposed to be reputable would be selling counterfeit products absolutely disgusts me. Does this happen with all counterfeit SD cards (i.e. does it break when you try to copy more than what it can really hold)? Is it possible that it's simply a faulty product? I mean, the phone doesn't even attempt to format it as far as I can see...
 
That's what often happens with knock-off, the real capacity can be much lower than the stated capacity.

Even for reputable retailers, counterfeits can sometimes still get into the supply chain. I'd return it, and demand a real one or a refund.

I'm in China, where these fake SDs come from. And so have to be really careful about purchasing them here. I test them in the store with my device or laptop, in front of the sellers, and many people do that here.

It's same with USB sticks as well, those can be faked in same way.
 
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It's a terrible world we live in, isn't it?

I've stuck the SD card into another phone and it was able to format it and now it appears to be functioning correctly... I'm currently trying to copy the music over again, fingers crossed it was just a one-time-off. If not, I'm definitely going to take your advice and demand my money owed. I can't say I've ever had this experience with a USB before though and wish I and nobody else ever does...

In any case, thanks for the insight on the matter. I can personally say I've definitely learned something today.
 
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