SanDisk 16Gb SDHC reduced to 122Mb after formatting in Vista

yannicus · Apr 29, 2010

Hello all, new to the forum (though an active reader all the time, this is a goldmine of info).

I recently got a micro SDHC for my hero, a 16 Gb monster. Well, it monstrously FUBARed when i tried to format it. It was a second hand deal, but i checked at first and had full capacity. I formatted it in Vista, simple right click and format. I didn't look at the details, just all default settings.
The card is now read as a 122Mb card. I tried formatting it in the phone itself, and with the Panasonic SD format program, to no avail. I am now stuck with the tiniest SDHC card in history.

I've read about this issue and others seemed to regain the original capacity with the panasonic program. I also heard about partition managers working for some, but can't find one for memory cards.

Anyone got any ideas? I can put about five songs on my phone right now...

Thanks ahead of time. And sorry if this has been covered, i searched the forums and found a few articles, but didn't find a clear solution.

Yannicus

yannicus · Apr 29, 2010

Post Scriptum...

PS: the card is a SanDisk class 6 and cost me an arm. >_<

Thanx

kadison · Apr 30, 2010

Where did you get it from? You could have been scammed.

Explosive_Cornflake · Apr 30, 2010

I'd grab a live linux cd and see if you can rescue it. fdisk or something should able to rescue it. I would have some reservations about you being scammed though as mentioned.

yannicus · Apr 30, 2010

I'm looking for an fdisk utility, but not too confident. First of all, its not a SanDisk but a Transcend, my mistake, but i think its fake because the card has no logo on it, or a mention of class 6. Just doesn't look like the one in the picture in the offer (amazon.com second hand) or like the google image results when i search for a class 6 16g microsd.
i wrote back... no answer. Anyway i'll try the fdisk, and see about the linux cd (whenever i figure out exactly what that is). anyway, next time i'll avoid second hand deals, it was too good to be true (30€ when the normal price is twice that).
Thanks for the info anyway, will look into fixing it, but it looks like i got a dodgy deal in the end.

shotgunfool · May 1, 2010

if you paid on a credit card or via paypal you can get your money back, you should also be able to open a case through amazon too, but i have personally not done one through amazon before.

cauli · May 2, 2010

If your phone's rooted & has a decent ROM on it, you already have a linux environment that probably includes parted; that will do a fine job of removing existing partitions, re partitioning & formatting.

Arranmc182 · May 2, 2010

looks like its a scam card thars been hacked to lie about its size i have seen thos on usb drives. you could try gparted live cd and see if that helps at all.

Sent from my aHero using the XDA mobile application powered by Tapatalk

bonesy · May 4, 2010

paragon partition manager should fix it i had same problem with a 1TB hard drive deciding it was only 60GB.
Im not condoning it but i suggest you use your favorite torrent site if you have one,dont think the trial will do it.

drummingfool · May 4, 2010

bonesy said:
paragon partition manager should fix it i had same problem with a 1TB hard drive deciding it was only 60GB.
Im not condoning it but i suggest you use your favorite torrent site if you have one,dont think the trial will do it.

This is also my suggestion. I cant tell you how many times Paragon has saved my ass when it comes to strange partitions. Give it a go.

ddotpatel · May 4, 2010

I'd also name and shame the Amazon trader so the rest of us can keep well clear.

Arranmc182 · May 14, 2010

paragon partition manager should fix it i had same problem with a 1TB hard drive deciding it was only 60GB.
Im not condoning it but i suggest you use your favorite torrent site if you have one,dont think the trial will do it.

Dont pirate software just get the gparted live cd its free and will do the same job.

-------------------------------------
Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App

priyank_bolia · Jan 5, 2011

I had the similar issue, where Windows Vista was showing a 2GB micro SD card as 40 MB. I tried all partitioning software for windows, but nothing works. Then I formatted the card in Mac, and now its showing 1.8GB. You can use some Linux bootable CD, wasting time on windows software is useless.

soopahfly · Jan 5, 2011

Try this before going and pirating something.
http://hddguru.com/software/2007.07.20-HDD-Capacity-Restore-Tool/

I think it should work on SD cards, I've used it on numerous HDD's.

markatmgpc · Jan 21, 2011

I'm constantly using this - HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool at work to sort out cards and usb drives for people, also works to restore a drive after using it for a linux live usb drive.

Once installed right click and run as admin if using win 7

MG

aph · Jan 23, 2011

Arranmc182 said:
Dont pirate software just get the gparted live cd its free and will do the same job.

-------------------------------------
Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App

You wouldn't download a car, would you?

craigbeat · Mar 7, 2011

When you look at it in Vista, what does it say? It could be that you've actually partitioned it and formatted as NTFS which is unreadable on your phone.

ryanraven · Nov 25, 2011

Reformat

Take everything you have off the card first and install this http://www.multiupload.com/IBKQ1A2ENG

Click
Options
Format type - Full Rewrite
Format size adjustment - ON
OK
[ make sure your drive letter is the right one, don't want to format something else ]

Hit - FORMAT

This will wipe the entire card and rewrite it i done it with mine when i thought my ext was dead and just rewrote the entire card but took about 10 minutes for a 4GB so will take a while.

aloism · Feb 28, 2016

check this one

yannicus said:
Hello all, new to the forum (though an active reader all the time, this is a goldmine of info).

I recently got a micro SDHC for my hero, a 16 Gb monster. Well, it monstrously FUBARed when i tried to format it. It was a second hand deal, but i checked at first and had full capacity. I formatted it in Vista, simple right click and format. I didn't look at the details, just all default settings.
The card is now read as a 122Mb card. I tried formatting it in the phone itself, and with the Panasonic SD format program, to no avail. I am now stuck with the tiniest SDHC card in history.

I've read about this issue and others seemed to regain the original capacity with the panasonic program. I also heard about partition managers working for some, but can't find one for memory cards.

Anyone got any ideas? I can put about five songs on my phone right now...

Thanks ahead of time. And sorry if this has been covered, i searched the forums and found a few articles, but didn't find a clear solution.

Yannicus

search google using this key word How-to-format-your-SD-card-back-to-the-original-si, then click on the link with this domain instructables

SanDisk 16Gb SDHC reduced to 122Mb after formatting in Vista

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