Problems Formatting SD Card/Working In Phone

dmw_4814

Senior Member
Nov 8, 2010
251
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Cleveland, OH
I seem to be having problems formatting my Sandisk 64GB MicroSDXC (Class 10) card in FAT32 & having it work in my AT&T Galaxy S3. The card comes preformatted in exFAT, and it works in the phone just fine that way. But, I heard it's best to format it in FAT32 due to some issues I saw about some people having some of their music files not show-up (if they have a rather large music collection, which I do - 85GB's worth!) in whatever music playing program they're using, so I'm attempting to format it with FAT32 to avoid that. Now, Windows 7 (x64) does NOT allow you to format drives via FAT32 (unless you go into DOS), so I've used a couple of different programs (Fast32Format, EASEUS PartiionMaster); I got a message on my Galaxy S3 saying my SD card was damaged or missing when I used Fast32Format); a bunch of services stopped working on the phone when I formatted it using EASEUS PartionMagic, and I even tried formatting it in NTFS (which I think that Android doesn't support) & got a message my SD card was blank and Android wouldn't even mount it!

What am I doing wrong? How can I format it in FAT32 and have it work in my Galaxy S3?!! Do I even really need to use FAT32 instead of exFAT?

Thanks,

Dennis
 

alacrify

Senior Member
Jan 12, 2009
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I seem to be having problems formatting my Sandisk 64GB MicroSDXC (Class 10) card in FAT32 & having it work in my AT&T Galaxy S3. The card comes preformatted in exFAT, and it works in the phone just fine that way. But, I heard it's best to format it in FAT32 due to some issues I saw about some people having some of their music files not show-up (if they have a rather large music collection, which I do - 85GB's worth!) in whatever music playing program they're using, so I'm attempting to format it with FAT32 to avoid that. Now, Windows 7 (x64) does NOT allow you to format drives via FAT32 (unless you go into DOS), so I've used a couple of different programs (Fast32Format, EASEUS PartiionMaster); I got a message on my Galaxy S3 saying my SD card was damaged or missing when I used Fast32Format); a bunch of services stopped working on the phone when I formatted it using EASEUS PartionMagic, and I even tried formatting it in NTFS (which I think that Android doesn't support) & got a message my SD card was blank and Android wouldn't even mount it!

What am I doing wrong? How can I format it in FAT32 and have it work in my Galaxy S3?!! Do I even really need to use FAT32 instead of exFAT?

Thanks,

Dennis
EaseUS worked fine for me - the one thing that screwed me up the first time is when you tell it to format it, you also have to tell it to apply it. And hopefully the "Fast32" was autocorrect - you should just be using FAT32 - and I don't think I changed the block size. HTH
 

Vaesar

New member
Aug 22, 2012
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EaseUS worked fine for me - the one thing that screwed me up the first time is when you tell it to format it, you also have to tell it to apply it. And hopefully the "Fast32" was autocorrect - you should just be using FAT32 - and I don't think I changed the block size. HTH
I apologize for bringing up this old-ish thread, but I always see that every time someone makes a new thread, they get bombarded with "use the search feature", so uhh, I did :p.

I've got a Class 10 SanDisk Ultra 64GB MicroSD XC card, that refuses to work with my Galaxy S3. I've got CM10 on it, do you think that might be the issue? If so, how do you think I can rectify it (what format would work?)

I've used EaseUS to delete the partition, and recreate using FAT32, but no dice, still getting a "damaged card" notification. I can seemingly use the card fine on my PC and my Mac, but nothing on the phone.

Any help would be greatly greatly appreciated :D
 

eduardo_b

Senior Member
Jun 27, 2012
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45°28′N 09°11′E
I apologize for bringing up this old-ish thread, but I always see that every time someone makes a new thread, they get bombarded with "use the search feature", so uhh, I did :p.

I've got a Class 10 SanDisk Ultra 64GB MicroSD XC card, that refuses to work with my Galaxy S3. I've got CM10 on it, do you think that might be the issue? If so, how do you think I can rectify it (what format would work?)

I've used EaseUS to delete the partition, and recreate using FAT32, but no dice, still getting a "damaged card" notification. I can seemingly use the card fine on my PC and my Mac, but nothing on the phone.

Any help would be greatly greatly appreciated :D
Well, this is ominous given that I ordered this micoSD and it just shipped. I read lots of reviews on Amazon and those with S3 phones seemed to have no issues using card as is, although they didn't specify precisely which version of S3 they had. The S3 natively supports 64 GB, so I would think it would work out of the box, so to speak. A number of reviewers said they used this microSD in older phones that supposedly supported only up to 32 GB. They formatted in phone, getting something like 59 GB of usable space.

I'm using stock ROM with CWM on I747.
 
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dntesinfrno

Senior Member
Oct 9, 2012
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Sumter, SC
it is an cm10 issue
A more complete response...its a known issue with AOSP based JB ROM's. This is pulled from the AOKP FAQ, since it is an AOSP based ROM as well this should help you out.

Will my 64 gb sd card work? Except it works fine with a 64GB card. http://rootzwiki.com/topic/28124-doe...card-standard/ The SGSIII is the first phone to support exfatl, but the support is Kernel based, some people are having trouble with the replacement kernels and exfat support. The solution is to force it to format in FAT32. http://www.online-tech-tips.com/comp...ive-to-fat-32/ I know, because I've done it. --- Don't respond without actually doing research. I have no problem spoon feeding information, especially when the information you put out there can increase misinformation. The SGSII also supports a 64GB card as well. http://androidforums.com/samsung-gal...ing-sgsii.html naturefreak85l;

EDIT - Apparently the links are dead, but there a many methods to choose from to format and SD in FAT32.
 
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