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Larry Israel

Q: I have Disk Utility erasing a Micro SD card. It seems to be hung up. How can I safely stop this process and try again?

I have an almost new Micro SD card. I've been having trouble with it, so backed up and then told Disk Utility to erase it and format it as MS-Dos (Fat). It's been grinding away on this for over 12 hours now. It got through the first few things in reasonable time, but now it's been "Partitioning" for the last 8 or 9 hours, and the estimated time to completion is increasing. I'm looking for a way to stop and try again. All I found was quitting Disk Utility, but this says it will leave my SD card unusable.

MacBook Pro, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on Jan 13, 2015 3:28 AM

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Q: I have Disk Utility erasing a Micro SD card. It seems to be hung up. How can I safely stop this process and try again?

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  • Helpful answers

  • by Frank Caggiano,Helpful

    Frank Caggiano Frank Caggiano Jan 13, 2015 6:48 AM in response to Larry Israel
    Level 7 (25,782 points)
    Jan 13, 2015 6:48 AM in response to Larry Israel

     

    All I found was quitting Disk Utility, but this says it will leave my SD card unusable.

    In all likelihood the card is not usable as it is now. If DU erased it and has hung on formatting it then I dought  anything is left on it. If it were me I'd stop DU and try again. 

     

    How big is the SD card? Did you select the option to do a secure erase. Multi passes can take time but this seems excessive.

  • by Larry Israel,

    Larry Israel Larry Israel Jan 13, 2015 8:17 AM in response to Frank Caggiano
    Level 1 (26 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 13, 2015 8:17 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

    Thank you, Frank!

     

    I'm not really trying to save anything off the card. I already did that. I would just like to be able to use it. It's only a couple of months old!

     

    It's a 32gb card from Sandisk. I didn't choose secure erase or any additional options beyond the format type of MS-Dos (Fat), which is what is required for my device.

     

    Here is the message I get when I tell Disk Utility to quit:

     

    "Disk Utility still has some operations in progress. Quitting in the middle of some operations can leave a disk non-operational. Are you sure you want to quit?"


    Now I take this to mean that if I interrupt the process, I don't get a second chance at formatting. Am I correct? Or does it just mean that the disk is not ready to use in it's current state, and I would be able to try again?


    Thank you again!

  • by Frank Caggiano,

    Frank Caggiano Frank Caggiano Jan 13, 2015 10:16 AM in response to Larry Israel
    Level 7 (25,782 points)
    Jan 13, 2015 10:16 AM in response to Larry Israel

    Don;t know if you're still waiting on DU to finish or if you pulled the plug or if ti actually  did finish but here are my thoughts

    "Disk Utility still has some operations in progress.Quitting in the middle of some operations can leave a disk non-operational.Are you sure you want to quit?"


    Now I take this to mean that if I interrupt the process, I don't get a second chance at formatting

    That is definitely one  possible interpertation and to be honest I can't say for certain that isn;t the case. However if DU hasn't finished formatting a 32gb µSD card in 12 hours it is highly unlikely that it will ever finish. And in that case all you can do is quit DU ,there is no other way out. So unless you want to continue waiting you will have to take the chance that the card will not be permanently  destroyed by doing this.

     

    BTW how are you attaching the card to the system? A card reader or a passive adapter in the SD card slot? Have you seen this from Apple About the SD and SDXC card slot - Apple Support if you are using the slot. 

     

    What is the card used in? If the device the card is used in has the ability to format the card you should do the format in the device. This is the recommended way even if DU is able to format it.

     

    good luck

     

    regards

  • by Larry Israel,

    Larry Israel Larry Israel Jan 14, 2015 7:53 AM in response to Frank Caggiano
    Level 1 (26 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 14, 2015 7:53 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

    I did quit and retry. Several times. Quitting in the middle of the format did not make the card unreadable to Disk Utility.

     

    I have tried several different format options–though in the end I must have MS-Dos (Fat). It always seems to hang when partitioning. I wonder if there is a way NOT to partition. I have not asked it to partition. As far as I know, I don't need a partition.

     

    I'm attaching via an adapter in the SD card slot–the kind of device that comes with the Micro SD card.

     

    The card goes in an Android phone. This is where I first noticed problems, and did try multiple times to format it there. It said it did the format, but then when it came to "preparing" the card for use, it always failed. That's why I tried Disk Utility. I've had another SD card that goes with my camera for almost five years. Still working perfectly. This one, just two months old, is doing this. Hard to believe. Those are my only experiences with SD cards.

     

    I'll read the Apple article. Thanks again!

  • by Frank Caggiano,Helpful

    Frank Caggiano Frank Caggiano Jan 14, 2015 8:03 AM in response to Larry Israel
    Level 7 (25,782 points)
    Jan 14, 2015 8:03 AM in response to Larry Israel

    Ah you never mentioned that the card also failed to format properly in another device. That would have been a nice thing to know.

     

    I'd say with it not being able to be formatted in either device the card is no good.

     

    regards

  • by Larry Israel,

    Larry Israel Larry Israel Jan 15, 2015 7:10 AM in response to Frank Caggiano
    Level 1 (26 points)
    Mac OS X
    Jan 15, 2015 7:10 AM in response to Frank Caggiano

    Sorry! I'm fairly new to these cards, so I don't know much about them and I don't know what bits of information are relevant. My initial post was not as obvious as I thought it was.

     

    I still find it strange that a card this new is broken beyond repair. Better find out what my warranty options are. A friend also told me about some apps I could get that are better at fixing these cards than the standard Android system.

     

    Frank, thanks again for helping me. Sorry that I didn't communicate well.

  • by Frank Caggiano,

    Frank Caggiano Frank Caggiano Jan 15, 2015 8:57 AM in response to Larry Israel
    Level 7 (25,782 points)
    Jan 15, 2015 8:57 AM in response to Larry Israel

    Larry Israel wrote:

     

    Sorry! I'm fairly new to these cards, so I don't know much about them and I don't know what bits of information are relevant. My initial post was not as obvious as I thought it was.

    It can be difficult to know just how much information is enough. To little and things can be missed, to much and you run the risk of people zoning out when they read the post.  As a general rule what caused the original problem or how it presented itself  and what steps you have taken to try and fix it are usually good to include in a first post along with the hardware and software being used. If more information is needed it will be asked for. Being that we;re all volunteers and the time delay between responses you want to try and keep the one sentences questions and answers to a minimum.

     

    You're more likely to get answers and resolutions that way.

     

    still find it strange that a card this new is broken beyond repair. Better find out what my warranty options are. A friend also told me about some apps I could get that are better at fixing these cards than the standard Android system.

    It is still possible that the card is ok. But given that it failed to format on two totally separate systems/OS's this seems unlikely. If it failed to format on two separate Macs or two separate Android devices you could say it was some interaction between the card and that particular system.

     

    It is strange but not unheard of for a new device to go belly up. Thats why they invented warranties But seriously things  like this seem to have one of two failure modes, They either die fairly soon or they last forever.

     

    Please if you are able to get the card to work again post back, it will help a lot of other users.

     

    Frank, thanks again for helping me. Sorry that I didn't communicate well.

    Glad to help.  We were all new here at some point I wouldn't  worry about it.

     

    regards