Need to access data on an sd card that has no partitions

Question

Level 1

12 points

Need to access data on an sd card that has no partitions

Hello everyone,

Can a Mac read the files on an sd card that isn't partitioned? I have a dash cam mounted in my car but it's mounted in such a way that removing it to look at the video is very inconvenient, it's easier to just pop the card out, theoretically. My iMac can't read the card, however. When the card is formatted in the camera it doesn't create a partition and since the card doesn't have a partition my iMac has nothing to mount. "Device not readable" error message. Formatting the card in Disc Utility produces a card that can be mounted, read, written to, by the Mac but not used by the camera - the camera throws a "card full" error back at me. Supposedly the video on the card is H.264 in QuickTime containers in 3 minute clips.

Remove the camera from the car, connect it to my Mac and the video is visible just like any other external drive.

I know there are apps out there that can "recover" video from a "damaged" card but i'd rather not buy some $90 app if I don't have to...

Thanks

iMac, OS X Mavericks (10.9.2)

Posted on Jun 11, 2015 10:09 AM

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Answer 1

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

Jun 11, 2015 10:28 AM in response to J Hayes

You need to work out what format the camera is saving data. It seems incorrect that it would not create a partition when formatted in the video camera. It may be that it is using a proprietary format that isn't possible to read on OS X.

Erase & format the card in the camera & then reconnect to your Mac. Use Disk Utility to inspect the SD card. See if it lists the partition type or the volume format for any partitions (ignore the 'disk is damaged' dialog). I would also view the manual or manufacturers site to see if they have any tools to allow reading on OS X.

Another thing to consider is trying another SD card - some cards are very temperamental & refuse to work correctly on all devices.

The Mac may be assuming the card is damaged because it has a filesystem that is not readable, however it could be that the video camera has not cleanly removed the card (similar to the eject feature used on disks). Power down the camera if it has the option to do so before removing the card.

You could also post info on the make & model of the camera, it may help if someone has seen that device & has experience with it & OS X.

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Answer 2

babowa

Level 9

78,574 points

Jun 11, 2015 10:29 AM in response to J Hayes

I don't believe it's a partition problem, but rather a card and/or video format problem. If the card is formatted to read/write for Windows, it may not be able to be read by Mac OS. Why don't you check your mfr's documentation/support site to find out what the formats are that it supports and what it is compatible with.

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Answer 3

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

Jun 11, 2015 10:31 AM in response to Drew Reece

P.S. there are free data recovery tools that may work, however it would make more sense to see if the device records to a standard format or if the SD card itself is the reason for the issue.

See if any other devices can read the card, and try any other SD card readers if you have them.

Command line data recovery tools…

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

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Answer 4

J Hayes Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 11, 2015 11:35 AM in response to J Hayes

Hello everyone,

The camera is an F170HD, aka Falcon Zero 170 by Falcon Zero/Incredisonic and built around an Ambarella chipset. The manufacturer's website is, er, not informative... We ain't dealing with Nikon here.

The card, or actually "cards," are fine from a hardware viewpoint. It can be formatted, read, written, scanned, first-aided, whatever. But if it's formatted with a partition the camera sees the partition as foreign data taking up space and ignores it. If the partition is full-size the camera sees the card as being full. If the partition is, say, half-size the camera writes to the space outside the partition. The Mac can mount the partition but not access the data since that's outside the partition. Format the card in the camera, remove it and attach it to the Mac and Disc Utility shows the device but no second line indicating a logical drive (partition) on it. The Mac itself upchucks a "device not readable" error message if there's no partition, probably because there's no logical drive it can mount.

Since I haven't been able to access the data I can't tell whether they're writing proprietary raw data or readable video files. Hopefully they're writing video files, not raw data that has to translated through the camera on output, but at this point I just don't know.

Tech support doesn't know either, so they write back with things like, "It should be FAT..." It isn't FAT. Or FAT32, or ExFAT or HFS+. That much I do know.

Thanks

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Answer 5

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

Jun 11, 2015 11:56 AM in response to J Hayes

Thier site appears to link to a dashcamviewer app for OS X

http://www.falconzero.com/F170.php see bottom of page

The disk may be using FAT for storage in the partition, but if the partition table is non existent, damaged or unsupported on OS X it may not work.

You could try formatting a FAT or FAT32 volume in Disk Utility on a card to see if the camera will record onto it. You may need to use the MBR partition table which is in the options of the partitioning tab of Disk Utility. it would be easiest if yo could see what format OS X thinks the disk is…

In Terminal (inside /Applications/Utilities/) what does…

diskutil list

…show when the card is connected (snip out the lines relating to the SD card, something like shown below).

[~]$ diskutil list

{…snipped out other disks…}

/dev/disk6

#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER

0: GUID_partition_scheme *1.0 TB disk6

1: EFI EFI 209.7 MB disk6s1

2: Apple_HFS Diskname 999.9 GB disk6s2

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Answer 6

J Hayes Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 11, 2015 12:12 PM in response to Drew Reece

Hi Drew,

Their viewer app is for viewing videos in the camera, not straight from the card. They expect you to remove the camera from the vehicle and attach it to the computer, which works just fine, it works a lot like any other connected camera containing videos. Problem is: mine is installed in a 2015 Subaru Forester with the Eyesight Collision Mitigation System. Eyesight has two cameras, one on either side of the rear view mirror. There is space on the windshield between them and the mirror to mount a dash cam, gps receiver, EZPass transducer, whatever, but it's tight. Makes getting the camera out, back in, realigned, reconnected, etc., a royal pain.

The card pops out of the bottom of the camera real easy.

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Answer 7

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

Jun 11, 2015 12:24 PM in response to J Hayes

Step 2 of the manuals quick start guide…

2. Insert your dashcam’s microSD card into a card reader attached to your Mac or PC.

That looks like the SD card should mount as a standard storage device & be usable in Dashcamviewer.

Can you check what the 'diskutil list' command shows for this drive.

I would also reboot into recovery mode to see if the SD card appears as a readable disk in Disk Utility (or see what the partition table & partition type are shown as). That will isolate your OS & use the standard OS X tools to read the SD card. It's possible a third party tool is causing issues in the OS.

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Answer 8

J Hayes Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 11, 2015 12:43 PM in response to Drew Reece

Hi Drew,

You can't believe everything you read. Since the Mac can't mount the card how do you navigate to a file on the card to open it, using the standard "Open" dialog? I can get the card to mount by building a small partition on it but the files the camera writes are outside the partition - or rather, I assume they are because they don't show inside the partition but they are viewable on the camera, so I know something is being recorded.

Diskutil was interesting. One line, "0:" with no type, no name, "*65.5 KB" for the size and "disk6" as the identifier. Nothing else. Just to make sure I ejected the card and reran diskutil to see if that line would go away and it did.

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Answer 9

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

Jun 11, 2015 1:00 PM in response to J Hayes

'disk6' is just the disk that mounted on my system - yours will be different, it depends on how many disks are connected & what order etc. You are right to compare the output of diskutil list with & without the disk connected. It takes a little sleuthing 🙂

I understand that you can't navigate to the card if it is not mounting but that could be because your OS is doing something to prevent the disk from working (like a bad third party driver or damaged system component). Recovery mode will run a limited but 'clean OS', that may allow Disk Utility to see the card so you can tell how it is formatted at least.

Do you have annoy other systems to try viewing the card?

There is the possibility that the recorder is damaged or faulty too, so if you just purchased it consider asking for a return/ replacement.

You need to take care when formatting the card on OS X Disk Utility may create a partition table or file system format that is not compatible with the camera.

The SD Formatter I linked should get these settings correct, see the the camera is OK with that.

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Answer 10

J Hayes Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 11, 2015 1:34 PM in response to Drew Reece

"disk6" is the identifier that diskutil showed for it on my system also. Nothing else, just that one line.

Also tried recovery mode and saw what I expected to see in Disk Utility: no differences.

Data Rescue 3 shows it as FAT, MBR, and shows no partitioning scheme. I was gonna do a deep scan on it but cancelled it - I'll not do that every freakin' time I wanna view a video, even though that's likely to be rare.

I'm tempted to try a third party formatter but I don't wanna have to jump through too many hoops just to view the videos from this camera. I tried using a card formatted to industry standards in a GoPro Hero 3+ - no good, the usual "card full" error message, which I expected since it is formatted with a full-size partition. The formatter in the Falcon Zero camera does not adhere to industry standards, obviously. Same situation with "Big Mac," the bloated PowerMac G4 (dedicated to video) that sits right beside my iMac. Same "the device you inserted is not readable..." error message.

I've thought about returning the camera but it works great except for this one issue, which is perplexing but not a deal killer because we're talking about a dash cam. The only time I need to access the video is when something unusual happens. The key word being "unusual."

Thanks

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Answer 11

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

Jun 11, 2015 4:03 PM in response to J Hayes

J Hayes wrote:

I tried using a card formatted to industry standards in a GoPro Hero 3+ - no good, the usual "card full" error message, which I expected since it is formatted with a full-size partition.

I'm not sure I understand that.

A partition table outlines the space used for the filesystem, which can be multiple volumes. The camera should use the partition if it is formatted correctly for that device. If it thinks the card is full it is not using the partition that has been created (assuming an empty volume). It sounds like it is reading the remaining space & ignoring the partitioned data.

I still think you should try the SD formatter, it may simply be that the formatter in the camera is not setting the partition up correctly for OS X compatibility.

There are tools on OS X for creating MBR partition tables & partitions, but they are command line - frankly the SD formatter is simpler.

TestDisk (I linked earlier) will allow you to look a the card & see if the partition table is 'recoverable'. It is not ideal, however it may just be a step that can be performed once to make it work on the Mac.

For example this post shows how to make a FAT32 partition without a partition table…

https://forum.dashcamtalk.com/threads/compatible-sd-cards.607/page-6#post-54957

via the command (sudo newfs_msdos -v BLACKVUE -c 32 -F 32 /dev/disk1).

It is unclear to me if that is 'legal' in a technical sense, however 10.9 reads that after I create it despite having no MBR or partition table of any kind.

Command line disk tools on OS X are fdisk - a tool for editing MBR partition tables, gdisk - for editing GPT (GUID) tables. There are additional tools to generate the filesystem too. It may be a combination of those that gets it into a state that the Mac & camera can use, but there are a bewildering array of options & techniques to learn, start with the SD formatter 😝

This is a lot go hoops to jump through.If the vendor can't provide an easy answer it may be easier to try another camera.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

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Answer 12

J Hayes Author

Level 1

12 points

Jun 13, 2015 4:07 PM in response to Drew Reece

Hi Drew,

The industry standard I'm referring to is the "Design Rule for Camera File System" or DCF. Technically it pertains only to still cameras but all the industry leaders - still and video - Nikon to GoPro - adopted it years ago. Even Hassleblad - and they never agree to anything.

Tried sd formatter - no improvement but then I really didn't expect any. Let's face it, this camera simply doesn't format a card in a manner that's Mac compatible and isn't sufficiently sophisticated to use a card that is completely Mac compatible much less DCF compliant.

I'm thinking about trying your dashcamtalk suggestion just to see what it does, see if it will improve my situation. Of course, the "right" solution is a camera that formats a Mac-compatible card. Somehow I can't imagine millions of Mac users typing terminal commands it fix this one glitch in what otherwise seems to be an excellent dash cam...

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Answer 13

Drew Reece

Level 6

10,684 points

Jun 11, 2015 12:41 PM in response to Drew Reece

If you want to test reformatting a card on the Mac you may consider using the SD Association's formatter to see if the camera will use that.

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/index.html

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