Is this a bad microSD card for G1?

[abstracity]

I just bought a Patriot 2GB microSD card, and if I boot with it in the phone, the boot process gets stuck on the image of the "T-Mobile" and "G1" logos. It boots fine with the stock microSD card.

If I take the stock microSD card out when the phone is on and put in the Patriot card, Android picks up the Patriot one in "SD card & phone storage" and all seems to work fine.

I'd like to boot with my new microSD card instead of having to switch cards around during restarts. I have performed a hard reset. Thank you!

Update: SOLVED WITH RC30!

I decided to move the state of my G1 closer to factory condition. I had previously installed ADP1 by Jesusfreke, so I transitioned to RC30 (also by Jesusfreke). And what do you know . . . The microSD card that wouldn't work before in ADP1 is now completely working: booting now works with the card in.

[deserttopping]

welcome to AC.

did you format the card to FAT32?

[abstracity]

Thank you.

Yes, I formatted from Linux with the command: mkfs.vfat -c -F 32 /dev/sdb1. (I had previously checked the partition table with "cfdisk /dev/sdb" and, indeed, it was empty.) The G1 still wouldn't boot after the linux command, so I tryed from Windows: Right-click -> Format, but it still freezes on boot. Android still successfully picks up the Patriot card if I put it in while the phone is on, but restarting still results in a freeze at the "T-Mobile" logo screen.

[rynosaur]

Thank you.

Yes, I formatted from Linux with the command: mkfs.vfat -c -F 32 /dev/sdb1. (I had previously checked the partition table with "cfdisk /dev/sdb" and, indeed, it was empty.) The G1 still wouldn't boot after the linux command, so I tryed from Windows: Right-click -> Format, but it still freezes on boot. Android still successfully picks up the Patriot card if I put it in while the phone is on, but restarting still results in a freeze at the "T-Mobile" logo screen.

Can you set block allocation size with the mkfs command? Windoze would format fat32 by default to 4096 bytes. I wonder if you have a crazy block size by default in linux. Other than that, you may simply have bought a brand of microSD card that doesn't jive with the G1 sd drivers. Others have had problems with certain brands.

[abstracity]

rynosaur, thanks, I'm going to boot into Linux and try. Here is what I typed before I saw your post:

Okay, I just transfered a picture to the Patriot microSD card, ejected the card from Windows, and unplugged the cable, but Android cannot find the Picture! I opened up Terminal Emulator and did a "ls /sdcard" and nothing is shown. "SD card & phone storage" shows: Total space to be 1,945 MB and Available space 1,925 MB.

Any ideas? I bought the card from Frys a few hours ago. It came with mini and regular sdcard adapters. The whole package was only $10. Here is a link: http://www.patriotmem.com/products/d...id=740&type=15.

Should I have bought a SanDisk or something?

[rynosaur]

Any ideas? I bought the card from Frys a few hours ago. It came with mini and regular sdcard adapters. The whole package was only $10. Here is a link: http://www.patriotmem.com/products/d...id=740&type=15.

Should I have bought a SanDisk or something?

I haven't been in that market for a while so I can't judge by price, but I can tell you that SanDisk is know as one of the standards of compatibility when it comes to sdhc cards, I'm sure the same could hold true for traditional microSD cards. Good luck!

[abstracity]

Alright, I formatted the Patriot card with a block size of 4096 in Linux, but Android still didn't read it. I tryed formatting again under Windows but, still, nothing. The thing I don't understand is that when I run "df" in Terminal Emulator it shows this at the bottom:

/sdcard: 1992320K total, 19872K used, 1972448K available (block size 32768)

I've put files on the sdcard in Windows, but when I try to view them on the G1 they don't show up. It appears the microSD card's partition is not properly mounted . . . but yet it is showing up in "df"?

Does anyone have any clues?

[billy_b0b]

sounds like a dead card. i would pick up another one. try keeping to brands like sandisk, kingston for quality

[abstracity]

Thanks for your reply.

The microSD card is readable from Windows and Linux when I plug the USB cable in and mount it. It just doesn't mount in Android. I think the partition table may have got messed up someone in the process. Because if I think about it, the FAT32 partition IS able to be read in Windows and Linux. I can create files on the microSD card in Windows and then open them up in Linux. So the microSD card does work. It's Android that cannot mount the partition the files are in. This is what happened in Terminal Emulator:

# mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p1
mount: mounting /dev/block/mmcblk0p1 on /sdcard failed: Invalid argument

But I can mount it just perfectly fine in Linux

# mount /dev/sdb1 /media/disk
# (No Errors)

The partition is a simple FAT32 one... if Android can't mount that... when the other two operating systems can... then it has to be the partition table that Android doesn't like... right?

[abstracity]

SOLVED WITH RC30!

I decided to move the state of my G1 closer to factory condition. I had previously installed ADP1 by Jesusfreke, so I transitioned to RC30 (also by Jesusfreke). And what do you know . . . The microSD card that wouldn't work before in ADP1 is now completely working: booting now works with the card in.

Any ideas on why Android's boot process would hang with ADP1 but not with RC30? Is it a bug? Thanks so much for the help, everyone!