SD cards can have file integrity issues

[Peobody]

This is an FYI advising that if you have a problem with files written to an SD card, check its file integrity.
Yesterday I exported 6 routes from BaseCamp to an SD card that I use in a Zumo XT. One of those routes would not import on the XT. I could not open it in BaseCamp either. I assumed this was due to a corrupted export but I discovered that I could not delete or overwrite that .gpx file on the SD card. I eventually solved the problem by using the Windows chkdsk command to identify and fix a file integrity issue on the card.

[rbentnail]

It's not just the XT affected by this. I fought with the SD card from my 595 too. It's like it was completely locked. I could see the files on it but I could not import them and I not could I write new files to it. A new replacement and all became right again.

[Peobody]

A new replacement and all became right again.

Hmmm.... I hope my chkdsk repair sticks. They are all imported though, and I'll have my laptop along so, no worries Mate.

[danham]

When I was a newspaper editor, we used to reformat SD cards from photographers' cameras after every press run because as pointed out here, file structure can become corrupted and we couldn't afford to lose images on deadline. Erasing files individually is one major cause of directory corruption over time.

This program (Mac and Windows versions) is the most reliable way to guard against this:

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/

-dan

[Peobody]

@danham, do you know whether that SD Formatter program contains an option for formatting as FAT32? I do not find any reference to it in its user manual.

[rbentnail]

@danham, do you know whether that SD Formatter program contains an option for formatting as FAT32? I do not find any reference to it in its user manual.

I've never formatted a card. The 595 and XT did it for me upon insertion.

[danham]

@danham, do you know whether that SD Formatter program contains an option for formatting as FAT32? I do not find any reference to it in its user manual.

Yes, per their FAQ:
What types of SD memory cards can be formatted?

You can format both standard size SD memory cards and microSD memory cards based on the following capacity types:

SD/microSD card: FAT12/16 up to 2GB
SDHC/microSDHC card: FAT32 more than 2GB and up to 32GB
SDXC/microSDXC card: exFAT more than 32GB and up to 2TB

[Peobody]

It's too bad that FAT32 is not an option for SDXC cards over 32GB. I have a 64GB SDXC in my XT. I think I used the HP USB Disk Formatting tool to format it as FAT32 to have the full 64GB available. I'm not sure about that tool though. It's the only one I find on my PC that I believe would have done it.

[rbentnail]

It's too bad that FAT32 is not an option for SDXC cards over 32GB. I have a 64GB SDXC in my XT. I think I used the HP USB Disk Formatting tool to format it as FAT32 to have the full 64GB available. I'm not sure about that tool though. It's the only one I find on my PC that I believe would have done it.

I have a 128gb SD card in my XT. Never formatted it in a computer. The XT did it by simply inserting the card, turning on the XT and answering Yes. Plenty of room on the card, with 9.4gb of music and 4.4gb of 13 waypoints, 15 routes and 2 tracks, I can't imagine I will ever need more than what's available on that card. It's still 106gb free.

[Peobody]

Fascinating Russ. The 64GB SDXC card I purchased was preformatted as exFAT. IIRC, the XT would not recognize it until I reformatted it as FAT32. Using Win10 default formatting resulted in 32GB capacity. It took some research to determine how to take advantage of the full 64GB. Obviously the card format status and/or type determines what needs to be done to the card for it to work in the XT, and a what capacity.