You using the PC to format or an app on the Hermes? There was a bit of trouble with using the Hermes to format the sd card.
Just checkin, you go to bootloader after inserting the sd card, hold power, OK button above the flywheel and reset with stylus? Had people doing hard resets at one point because they didn't know the difference.
Ass you're trying to get Hard SPL on, are you running the SSPL.exe file from the Hermes or the sd card? It has to be transfered to the Hermes and ran from there, NOT the sd card, found this out the hard way too...
And it doesn't matter what case you use to rename, but MUST be hermimg.nbh, had a couple of people name it herming.nbh, WON'T work with any spelling mistakes...

Cheers...