Hi All,

Recently purchased a 64GB micro SD card for my Samsung Galaxy S5 Mini smartphone. The card turned up quickly, but isn't and won't format (exFAT) so doesn't work in the phone (or laptop). I've tried formatting the card in two laptops (Toshiba and HP).

Question is...how can I get around this and format the card so it works?

The phone itself has 16GB of internal memory and I want to expand this to download and store sat nav maps on (for off line navigation).

Any help would be appreciated guys!

Thanks,
Nick

Is the phone able to format it?

[Edited on 18/7/16 by dave_424]

I have used a program called
SDFormatter V4.0
which recovered a card that had an odd format.
https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/

quote:

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Originally posted by dave_424
Is the phone able to format it?

[Edited on 18/7/16 by dave_424]

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First off - yes I've tried mounting it several time in the phone, but it doesn't recognise it.

Both laptops say straight away that it needs formatting, but then fail to do so despite several attempts (trying again now).

Thanks for the software tip - I'll try that next time!

quote:

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Originally posted by nick205
First off - yes I've tried mounting it several time in the phone, but it doesn't recognise it.

Both laptops say straight away that it needs formatting, but then fail to do so despite several attempts (trying again now).

Thanks for the software tip - I'll try that next time!

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quote:

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Originally posted by gremlin1234
I have used a program called
SDFormatter V4.0
which recovered a card that had an odd format.
https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/

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Card seems to formatted and work ok in the laptop, but still a no go in the phone

ebay seller has made a very prompt refund and apologised - will try again tonight and see if I can get it working!

I managed to get a couple of 64gb cards at lidl today, at £13 each.
what mapping app are you going for? I have maps.me, which uses openstreetmap. whole world download is 30GB, so ensure you do that by wifi!

Samsungs are notorious at SD card faults just have a look on line my S4 ate my 32gig card.

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Originally posted by hearbear
Samsungs are notorious at SD card faults just have a look on line my S4 ate my 32gig card.

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Bum!

Micro SD card formatted exFAT fine on the laptop and allows files to and from, but still doesn't work in the Samshite phone. Being honest I'm less than happy with Samshite all round. We have a digi box and TV and both are flaky at best. The older Panasonic TV we have is faultless every time and a pleasure to use.

Checking on ebay the micro SD card I bought was...

"64GB Micro SD Class 10 T Flash Memory card With Adapter For All Android Mobiles"

Looking at the transaction and card itself I can't see a manufacturer name.

Any ideas as to whether I've bought the wrong card?

Thanks,
Nick


ETA...

Looking again at the micro SD card it has micro SDHC on it. Googling what card will work in a Galaxy S5 mini phone Samsung suggest "HC" and "XC" cards should work with the phone. Using the laptop I've put 3GB of data on the card, but it doesn't show up on the phone

Trying to move apps to the SD card using the Samsung App Manager doesn't work either - simply says "not enough space available"

What am I doing wrong (and why did the seller refund it so fast)?

[Edited on 19/7/16 by nick205]

you've not bought the wrong card, you've just bought a generic unbranded one that will be 100% unreliable. However, they messed up when they said SDHC. SDHC only covers up to 32Gb, anything above that is SDXC. That's why a lot of devices can only handle 32Gb.

I'd walk away and go for something a bit more likely to work.

quote:

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Looking again at the micro SD card it has micro SDHC on it.

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Useful detail on SDHC and SDXC (I was just reading the SDHC from the face of the card itself). My irritation is that the laptop card reader did work and now doesn't. The web has a number of reasons for this, but none seem to apply or do anything for me. I'm uninstalling the SD formatting software and will reinstall it to see if that fixes it. In the meantime the phone still can't use the card

ar5e - uninstalling and reinstalling the SD formatter didn't work! Been though Device Manager and no luck either. Looks like it's a bin job and buy a better (branded) card.

Still no joy - off to clean the SD adapter contacts with alcohol and see if that does anything!

Sounds like it's working about as well as you'd expect a very cheap, unbranded 64GB SD card to work...

If your data is in the least bit valuable, get something branded e.g. Sandisk, Lexar, Integral, Transcend, Samsung etc.

quote:

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Originally posted by nick205
Still no joy - off to clean the SD adapter contacts with alcohol and see if that does anything!

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Now got an 8GB micro SD card and the SD adapter, laptop reader and formatting software work fine - next to see what happens in the Samshite.

Right 8GB micro SD card works fine, but not in the Samshite

Have to be honest and say I'm tempted to beat the Samshite to death and get a new phone

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Have to be honest and say I'm tempted to beat the Samshite to death and get a new phone

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Avoid cheap SD cards. Many of them don't have the capacity they state they have. It's possible to "adjust" the capacity identifier in the card so it thinks it has more capacity (until it runs out of memory half way!!!!).... Also the class of card is often less that stated.

If you buy a 64Gb class 10 and actually get a 32Gb (if you're lucky) class 4

Having a quick search online about the s5 mini and SD card problems, have you tried the suggested fixes like clearing cache etc?

quote:

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Originally posted by dave_424
Having a quick search online about the s5 mini and SD card problems, have you tried the suggested fixes like clearing cache etc?

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