128GB sd card showing as 1gb in disk utility, when it shows at all

Question

Level 1

73 points

128GB sd card showing as 1gb in disk utility, when it shows at all

I have 10.8.2 on a 2011 mac air. i have a lexar professional 128gb 400x sdxc card which is full of stuff that I generally read (don't write much to the card when it's in) - big videos, big photos, by design & icon library, etc.

this morning at home I put some files on it, and closed the lid of the mac, then carried it to work. opening the lid and the device no longer shows. i had a system lock due to an app that does it regularly, so I power-buttoned it.

the device took 5-10 insertions to get it to even recognise that a card had been inserted. Disk Utility now sees the disk as an unformatted 1GB memory card, whereas it is in fact a 128 GB single partitioned MacOS formatted volume.

i don't have another mac to try this on, nor do I have another sdXc card, is there any debugging steps I should take to determine if it's the reader or the 2 month old card?

also, if it's fritzed, what is the best rescue utility for me to try?

MacBook Air, OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.1)

Posted on Oct 23, 2012 6:30 PM

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Answer 1

kwlandry

Level 1

5 points

Jun 2, 2013 2:49 PM in response to Tim St.Clair

Tim,

Has this been resolved? I'm having the same issue, same card, same symptoms,

Thanks,
KWL

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Answer 2

Tim St.Clair Author

Level 1

73 points

Jun 2, 2013 7:01 PM in response to kwlandry

I had tried a few different utilities under different conditions to see what was going on. These, in particular:

On Mac, I tried disk utility (of course), disk drill, lexar image recover 4, and the command line partition editor
I looked at it with partition editors on XP and Windows 7 on a new PC
I looked at it with partition editors and recovery tools on Ubuntu on a laptop with SDXC card support

Basically the unit seemed to just be wrong. And then I found a forum (no longer know the link) that mentioned that when the partition map of a sdXc card is messed up, you're pretty much out of luck with it. I think this is what happened. Eventually I managed to convince the memory company I got it from to give me a replacement under warranty, and the replacement had been so-far-so-good.

I lost everything on it, after trying for weeks to recover it.

Warranty might be your best option, I'm afriad.

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Answer 3

sabatica

Level 2

231 points

Jun 3, 2013 4:14 AM in response to kwlandry

Shame. Ahh well I came across this problem a few times before but I needed to know more before I could offer a suggestions.

Usually unmount and remount in Disk Utility would be step 1.

But I would've needed to see What Format?

Number of partitions etc.

is Owners enabled etc.

OS you are using?

and use of the SD Card? What is its primary use and permission settings.

Been able to recover external HD and SSD before.

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Answer 4

Tim St.Clair Author

Level 1

73 points

Jun 3, 2013 4:22 AM in response to sabatica

I've found that external HD's and SSD's are different to sdxc cards though, and that dismount/remount doesn't work (everyone tries it first, so it goes without saying). Mine was a standard mac os extended (journalled) volume on 10.8.2, same format as the ssd in the mac. The replacement is exFAT just because for me it didn't matter. Be interested to see the formats of others who experience the issue with this specific card and manufacturer.

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Answer 5

sabatica

Level 2

231 points

Jun 3, 2013 4:53 AM in response to Tim St.Clair

We need to hear from someone who is currently going through the motions so I can troubleshoot rather than assume or speculate.

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