# SD card shrinking capacity



## laxma (Aug 6, 2008)

I was just formatting my Lexar 1GB SD card when the windows explorer suddenly stopped responding (I'm using Vista). After that my SD card capacity decreases to 467 MB. I tried reformatting it again, and again..but the capacity stuck at 467 MB. what's wrong with my SD? Is there any application to check the real capacity of flash memory?

thanks a lot...


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## The_Other_One (Aug 6, 2008)

http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/sd/download/sd_formatter.html

Try this.  My GPS constantly saw my SD card as "My Documents" until I formatted it using this program.  It's supposed to format it using SD standards and such.


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## laxma (Aug 6, 2008)

Thanks for the suggestion, I tried the SD formatter from Panasonic. It still shows 467 MB. I format it two times already with that apps. 
I know flash memories are cheap these days and I have more than enough SD cards. I was just curious, where is the rest 400-500MB..


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## WhatsMyUserName (Aug 6, 2008)

Maybe try putting a file on that is bigger than 467MB and see what it does.


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## The_Other_One (Aug 6, 2008)

You did do the full format, correct?  I forget all the options, but do everything avaliable.

And I don't blame you...  I have a 2GB card who's case has fallen off, but I continue to use it in my GPS


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## laxma (Aug 6, 2008)

It refused to copy file larger than 467 MB, it said 'there's not enough space....'.

@ the_other_one
I tried all the options available but the result after format still shows 467 MB. Does this thing ever happen to anyone? 
I've had corrupted SD&MMC before. It showed the correct capacity but at some points failed to write data. but I never had missing capacity.,.except my brain..


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## chibicitiberiu (Aug 6, 2008)

When you right click on the drive in my computer and select Format, in the window that appears you can select the size of the drive you format, under "Capacity". Are there multiple choices? Or just 500 MB or however you said?


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## laxma (Aug 6, 2008)

There just one option. 467 MB. 
I also check with computer management>storage in control panel, it only shows 467 MB. strange..


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## TrainTrackHack (Aug 6, 2008)

I would try going to Disk Management, deleting the partition associated with the SD card and creating a new one that uses full capacity of the SD card, if possible.


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## laxma (Aug 6, 2008)

Yeah, did it already. I thought SD works like harddrive, so I tried to delete the partition and repartitioned it again. But it just doesn't work. 
I tried the command format using vista cmd, but it worked the same as in explorer. 
I tried googling, some guy had the same problem and he fixed it with FDISK, which is not available in vista..


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## jdbennet (Aug 6, 2008)

chkdsk it


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## laxma (Aug 6, 2008)

Shoot..thanks for the suggestion. CHKDSK shows that  442MB of my SD card is bad sectors.... 


F:\>chkdsk
The type of the file system is FAT.
The volume is in use by another process. Chkdsk
might report errors when no corruption is present.
Volume SD1 created 06/08/2008 15:18
Volume Serial Number is B4FA-E8CD
Windows is verifying files and folders...
File and folder verification is complete.
Windows has checked the file system and found no problems.

  490.348.544 bytes total disk space.
      442.368 bytes in bad sectors.
  489.906.176 bytes available on disk.

        8.192 bytes in each allocation unit.
       59.857 total allocation units on disk.
       59.803 allocation units available on disk.


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## jdbennet (Aug 6, 2008)

repair it?
or maybe its fubar'd


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## laxma (Aug 6, 2008)

repair bad sector? is it possible? 
It's not a problem though, I have other cards. 
Now I already know where my 442 MB gone :-D. 
I just remember, I also had a Lexar SD card that went corrupt last year. Mmmm...


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## jdbennet (Aug 6, 2008)

yeah  when you are in windows pop it in a card reader
then right click the removable disk and go into properties
tools -> error checking -> check now

and tick the boxes for "automatically fix filesystem errors" and "scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors"

this is fir xp, dunno about other oses

when you are doing this, do not have any windows open viewing the card nor any apps using it (especially windows readyboost or something) or it wont repair as it will say its in use.


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## TrainTrackHack (Aug 6, 2008)

> and tick the boxes for "automatically fix filesystem errors" and "scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors"


This only fixes file system errors, and marks damaged sectors so that they won't be used to store data and attempts to recover any data that's already saved on it. However, if the SD card is actually damaged (i.e. Checkdisk reports bad sectors), the space lost can't be regained.


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## jdbennet (Aug 6, 2008)

low level format?


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## TrainTrackHack (Aug 6, 2008)

> low level format?


Thisonly writes the disk (well, in this case card) full of ones or zeroes, but no software can fix a hardware problem (well there are a few exceptions, so maybe...oh probably not.)


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## The_Other_One (Aug 6, 2008)

OUCH...  Hehe...  But yeah, if you can zero-write/LLF it, you MAY be alright.  I've fixed hard drives with bad sectors on them.


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## chibicitiberiu (Aug 11, 2008)

Here are the commands for chkdsk.


```
CHKDSK [volume[[path]filename]]] [/F] [/V] [/R] [/X] [/I] [/C] [/L[:size]]


  volume          Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon),
                  mount point, or volume name.
  filename        FAT/FAT32 only: Specifies the files to check for fragmentation
.
  /F              Fixes errors on the disk.
  /V              On FAT/FAT32: Displays the full path and name of every file
                  on the disk.
                  On NTFS: Displays cleanup messages if any.
  /R              Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information
                  (implies /F).
  /L:size         NTFS only:  Changes the log file size to the specified number
                  of kilobytes.  If size is not specified, displays current
                  size.
  /X              Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary.
                  All opened handles to the volume would then be invalid
                  (implies /F).
  /I              NTFS only: Performs a less vigorous check of index entries.
  /C              NTFS only: Skips checking of cycles within the folder
                  structure.

The /I or /C switch reduces the amount of time required to run Chkdsk by
skipping certain checks of the volume.
```

But you are wrong here:

490.348.544 bytes total disk space.
442.368 bytes in bad sectors.
489.906.176 bytes available on disk.

It says 442k bytes bad sectors, not 442 million. It's just 442 Kilobytes, not megabytes.
So you only have 490 MB total space.


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