Micro SD Cards

studmuffin007 · Oct 2, 2009

I have just erased 2 Micro SD cards 1x1gig and 1x8gig using the disk utility/MS-DOS (FAT) now the Mac is unable to see any of them and the same goes for my sons Linux laptop, has the Mac damaged my cards?

Thanks

Kevriano · Oct 2, 2009

They need to be formatted as FAT32 for the Mac to read them.

studmuffin007 · Oct 2, 2009

I assumed that the mac would of formatted them as fat32?

Thanks

Kevriano · Oct 2, 2009

No not necessarily. Open Disk Utility and it gives you formatting options in a drop down menu.
By default it would normally format as Mac OS Extended, so they should be readable.
Re-format them to the format you need from there.

studmuffin007 · Oct 2, 2009

I am unable to re-format the cards due to the mac not recognizing them after the last format

Thanks

Kevriano · Oct 2, 2009

Plug one in to a USB port and open Disk Utility, to see if it shows.

studmuffin007 · Oct 2, 2009

Since formatting them they have not shown up since, unfortunately

Thanks

Kevriano · Oct 2, 2009

Even in Disk Utility, not just on the Mac?

studmuffin007 · Oct 2, 2009

Kevriano said:
Even in Disk Utility, not just on the Mac?

Yes, even i am stumped by that one?

Thanks

chscag · Oct 2, 2009

studmuffin007 said:
I have just erased 2 Micro SD cards 1x1gig and 1x8gig using the disk utility/MS-DOS (FAT) now the Mac is unable to see any of them and the same goes for my sons Linux laptop, has the Mac damaged my cards? Thanks

Unfortunately this happens with certain types of Micro SD cards (especially the new U3 smart cards). First, (and it's too late for you) they should never be reformatted. A simple deletion of the contents will usually suffice.

If your son's Linux desktop can't "see" them as well as your Mac, the cards may be ruined. You can try to mount them on a Windows machine to determine if Disk Manager can "see" them. If not, the cards are probably dead.

Regards.

Kevriano · Oct 2, 2009

chscag said:
Unfortunately this happens with certain types of Micro SD cards (especially the new U3 smart cards). First, (and it's too late for you) they should never be reformatted. A simple deletion of the contents will usually suffice.

If your son's Linux desktop can't "see" them as well as your Mac, the cards may be ruined. You can try to mount them on a Windows machine to determine if Disk Manager can "see" them. If not, the cards are probably dead.

Regards.

Well that's what I technically call a major bummer.
Not that common a piece of knowledge as far as I can tell either. Thanks for educating the masses!

studmuffin007 · Oct 2, 2009

Thanks for the replies guy's, now i know not to format any more cards, now for another puzzler,

I have another 8gig SD card un-formatted with data on it and even that wont show up on the mac/disk utility

Thanks

chscag · Oct 2, 2009

studmuffin007 said:
Thanks for the replies guy's, now i know not to format any more cards, now for another puzzler,

I have another 8gig SD card un-formatted with data on it and even that wont show up on the mac/disk utility Thanks

Not sure I understand - the card is unformatted? Did you re-format it somehow? Have you tried to read the card from a PC? Where was the card used?

Regards.

studmuffin007 · Oct 3, 2009

The card is out of my sons DS its used to play games on never been formatted, just used for games and only ever plugged into a mac or Linux box.

Thanks

Micro SD Cards

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