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Compact Flash formatting

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chriscaton

Vendor
Dec 11, 2002
92
US
I have a CF card (Sandisk) It has proprietary software residing on it. The card originally had 183MB showing on a disk scan but now only shows 16M. I 've looked at another card which is working ok and it has a 16M partition and another much larger section.

My question is. I would like to duplicate what is on the working card to either the first card or another card. I believe the hardware uses the extra space for storage. Or can someone recommend a utility that might shed more light on whether I actually have a bad card or it's something to do with the software and it's partitioning.

Thanks
 
How are you seeing the card? Are you using a usb card reader? If so, you can usually just format them right from windows. You could copy any data to your hard drive first.
Sorry, this is rather simplistic, but the info you give back might help us to help you.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips
 
Yes, using a USB card reader. have tried the basic formatting within windows. I have tried to drop and drop files. They copy to the disk as expected but I think the real problem is how the disk is partitioned (or lack of partitioning). After formatting in windows is where the card went from showing 183M to 16M where it is today. The acutal files that I need to copy to the disk are just shy of 16M but I think the hardware uses the other section of the disk for additional storage.

This is a telephone voice mail system and I'm interested in replacing the CF cards (a few have gone bad) with working ones.

Ultimately it could just be a bad card. I have not tried Norton's utilities yet to see if it can tell me more

If needed, i could send the format screenshot to help explain this better.
 
After formatting in windows is where the card went from showing 183M to 16M"
When and where did it show as 183mb?
Sorry, i still dont know if i understand.
I dont know if others do.

One thing i could suggest is go to the mfgrs website and see what they have there for:
partitioning and formatting tools
FAQ
other tech info
email support

Who is the mfgr? I imagine the cards are actually 192 mb cards that are supposed to format to around 183 mb or so?



Good advice + great people = tek-tips
 
The card is a Sandisk 192M. It is used in a Nortel Networks Call Pilot voice mail system and contains the operating applications for the voice mail. When that system wouldn't boot I took the card and looked at it in the USB card reader. The disk check process determined it was a 183M formatted from 192M. It showed (I think) two partitions, 1 16M and the other was the rest. Since it wouldn't boot. I moved the files off the card and attempted to reformat the card. That's when it would only return 16M available-where it is now. I can still load the files back on but I think the voice mail requires a larger card finish its booting process. So, I'm guessing either the card is damaged, Nortel applies a special partitioning or special hidden files, or the files I'm trying to move back on the card have a problem.

Obviously, I would like to experiment this way before starting to buy different size CF cards which will probably be next. I think I'll still have to solve the partitioning problem either way. Nortel's solution is to buy another software card (considerably higher) which does work.
 
After reading the info you supplied i get the feeling it may have something to do with the Nortel software that is interfering with the normal formatting or partitioning.
I have to bow out as i know nothing about this software, sorry about that.


Good advice + great people = tek-tips
 
What OS are you using to read/format this flash disk? Is it possible to use a Win 98 computer and boot with a Boot Disk, and use Fdisk to see the partitions on both the "good" and "bad" cards? As an alternative, can you bring up the drive (holding the flashcard) under Disk Management in Win XP?
 
Perhaps when you formatted the card the FAT12 file system was used, which would yield a maximum of 16MB, which you are seeing. You probably want it to be formatted FAT16, perhaps FAT32, but I doubt it.
 
chriscaton,
You said you've 2 partitions on the card, 16m and the rest. Have you tried to remove both partitions and re-partition the card.

It's easier to do this in W2K or XP. OPen control-administrative tools-computer management-Storage-disk management.

Your card should show up as a disk in the disk management window. Right click on each partition and delete. Then re-partition and format the card.

WARNING!! You WILL LOSE all data on the card after doing this. Be careful.

Regards
 
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