Develop Bugs

Galaxy S III memory card problems

This is a cross post of a thread in the Q & A section because I think it is more appropriate here. Please forgive me if you disagree.
I have encountered a problem using SDXC cards in the Galaxy S III. It appears, to me, to be a bug in the exFAT drivers which are only used in the 64 GB SDXC card, 32GB cards and less are formatted as FAT32.
Please see thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1805743 for further information.

ChitownWingMan said:
This is a cross post of a thread in the Q & A section because I think it is more appropriate here. Please forgive me if you disagree.
I have encountered a problem using SDXC cards in the Galaxy S III. It appears, to me, to be a bug in the exFAT drivers which are only used in the 64 GB SDXC card, 32GB cards and less are formatted as FAT32.
Please see thread http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1805743 for further information.
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Click to collapse
I heard you might need to format the card as FAT32

Zephyron said:
I heard you might need to format the card as FAT32
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can't use FAT32 on a 64GB card. The phone formats 32GB or smaller as FAT32 and the 64GB at exFAT.
Some platforms support FAT32 on greater than 32GB cards/drives but it is not very compatible.
Thanks for your help

ChitownWingMan said:
You can't use FAT32 on a 64GB card. The phone formats 32GB or smaller as FAT32 and the 64GB at exFAT.
Some platforms support FAT32 on greater than 32GB cards/drives but it is not very compatible.
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Don't confuse FAT32 and FAT16. FAT32 supports up to 2 TB, though I believe Windows makes it difficult to format anything larger than 32 GB.

tamasrepus said:
Don't confuse FAT32 and FAT16. FAT32 supports up to 2 TB, though I believe Windows makes it difficult to format anything larger than 32 GB.
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You are correct the theoretical maximum size of FAT32 is 2TB. However, since Microsoft in their infinite wisdom decided only to support FAT32 up to 32GB (most likely to force people to use NTFS) support for FAT32 above 32GB is spotty and unreliable.
This being said if you format a 32GB card or smaller in the Galaxy S III, it will be formatted FAT32. If you format a 64GB (or greater I presume) in the Galaxy S III, it will be formatted exFAT.

ChitownWingMan said:
You are correct the theoretical maximum size of FAT32 is 2TB. However, since Microsoft in their infinite wisdom decided only to support FAT32 up to 32GB (most likely to force people to use NTFS) support for FAT32 above 32GB is spotty and unreliable.
This being said if you format a 32GB card or smaller in the Galaxy S III, it will be formatted FAT32. If you format a 64GB (or greater I presume) in the Galaxy S III, it will be formatted exFAT.
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exFat format will not read correctly on SGSIII. I just had this issue with my 64 GB SD card. I formatted it in FAT32 and all was fine. I did use a Mac with disk utility to do the formatting though. Windows 7 was trying to force exFAT to format.

ChitownWingMan said:
You are correct the theoretical maximum size of FAT32 is 2TB. However, since Microsoft in their infinite wisdom decided only to support FAT32 up to 32GB (most likely to force people to use NTFS) support for FAT32 above 32GB is spotty and unreliable.
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Click to collapse
Windows Vista and above don't let you format volumes larger than 32 GB as FAT32. It's an artificial limitation on their part.
Other than that, FAT32 has been around a long time, and works fine with 32+ GB volumes. It's not great but doesn't really become spotty and unreliable till you go beyond 100 GB or so.
I'd get a Linux LiveCD and format your SD card FAT32 with that.

Partition Wizard Home Edition (win) is free and will format all your fat32 needs http://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html

hauniii said:
exFat format will not read correctly on SGSIII. I just had this issue with my 64 GB SD card. I formatted it in FAT32 and all was fine. I did use a Mac with disk utility to do the formatting though. Windows 7 was trying to force exFAT to format.
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Thank you for confirming my research. I am currently in communication with Samsung, T-Mobile and SanDisk. With any luck with potential sales in the millions they will fix it. The man at Samsung commented "We sell that card on our website we had better get it working"

Further Update
ChitownWingMan said:
Thank you for confirming my research. I am currently in communication with Samsung, T-Mobile and SanDisk. With any luck with potential sales in the millions they will fix it. The man at Samsung commented "We sell that card on our website we had better get it working"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I spoke with someone at Sandisk and they have heard of the problem and are researching it. T-Mobile and Samsung are also "investigating" it.
I formatted my 64GB card FAT32 and I am using it like that for now.
One problem with using FAT32 is that there is a directory size limit of 65,535 bytes total for the directory itself (not the files in the directory). I have a Titanium Backup directory with almost 12,000 files in it, all with long names. That easily exceeds the 64K directory size limit and this directory is "full" and trying to write to it generates errors.
If you have a directory with 5,000 files with an average file name length of 12 characters (rather short in this day and age) that makes the directory 60,000 bytes. If the average file name length is 13 characters the directory size will be 65,000 bytes and if the average file name length is 14 bytes the directory size is now 70,000 bytes and this exceeds the maximum directory size.
If you keep your file names to the old DOS 8.3 (11 characters) format then a directory can handle approx. 5,957 files. The actual number is less because there are other bytes in each entry used by the system (permissions, file size, starting segment, etc.).
For programs like Titanium Backup this can become a problem. Titanium backup uses long file names (longer than 20 characters) that include the date in them. I always backup my entire phone downloaded apps & data, system apps & data and system data. This is about 470 different items being backed up. Titanium Backup uses 2 and sometimes 3 files for each item backed up. I also maintain a 7 day backup history. This creates a total of 8,225 (approx) files, if each has a file name length of 20 characters that would be a directory size of 164,500 bytes.
This far exceeds what FAT32 can handle. And this is a somewhat reasonable scenario.
So, let's put pressure on T-Mobile and Samsung to get the exFAT problem fixed.

[Q] 64GB SD card unformattable in AOSP & AOKP

I have had my GS3 for a little over a month, rooted and had no issues, I installed another rom with no issue. Unfortunately when I tried to install a CM10 or AOKP rom, each say my ext sd card is damaged and needs to be formatted. I try to format, but it hangs and then just quits without completing the task.
I have tried formatting to fat32 on my PC, downloaded EaseUS Disk utility to format, but none seem to work. When I restore back into the previous rom, it still says damaged and then I can format and start over only in that non AOSP/AOKP rom.
I boot into recovery when the AOSP/AOKP roms are loaded and it wont even mount or format in recovery either.
Any ideas?

stretch0r said:
I have had my GS3 for a little over a month, rooted and had no issues, I installed another rom with no issue. Unfortunately when I tried to install a CM10 or AOKP rom, each say my ext sd card is damaged and needs to be formatted. I try to format, but it hangs and then just quits without completing the task.
I have tried formatting to fat32 on my PC, downloaded EaseUS Disk utility to format, but none seem to work. When I restore back into the previous rom, it still says damaged and then I can format and start over only in that non AOSP/AOKP rom.
I boot into recovery when the AOSP/AOKP roms are loaded and it wont even mount or format in recovery either.
Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think I read somewhere that in CM10/AOKP that it won't read/understand exFat very well.
So, formatting to Fat32 is definitely the way to go.
When I used some other programs it would say the same thing... that my card was damaged and had to be fixed.
I had a heck of a time finding a program that would do it for me on my 64gb sdxc SanDisk card!
But I found a free one called GUI Fat 32 Format that actually worked.
Click this link and it will start to download:
http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/guiformat.exe
It didn't work immediately, for me at first, but after a few tries it actually worked very well.
I think that once you get it into Fat32 all of your problems will go away. Hope so anyway.:cyclops:
Let us know if it works!

This seems to have corrected the issue, finally

stretch0r said:
This seems to have corrected the issue, finally
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Click to collapse
Glad it worked for you!
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app

I had a similar issue... I flashed an AOSP ROM on my phone n it corrupted my sd card and wouldn't format. before formatting I went back to a touchwiz ROM and it still said it was a bad sd card and needed to format I ended up formatting my card in my phone and lost all my data. I put music on my sd card and removed the sd card from my phone before flashing another AOSP ROM. After I installed another AOSP ROM I re-inserted the sd card and it again said it was bad and needed to be reformatted...
So my question is...How can you use a 64gb sd card on an AOSP ROM...I'm back on touchwiz for now. Sd card works fine.
Does formatting the sd card in your phone format it to exfat and not fat32?
Sent from my SPH-L710 using xda app-developers app

iomega311 said:
I think I read somewhere that in CM10/AOKP that it won't read/understand exFat very well.
So, formatting to Fat32 is definitely the way to go.
When I used some other programs it would say the same thing... that my card was damaged and had to be fixed.
I had a heck of a time finding a program that would do it for me on my 64gb sdxc SanDisk card!
But I found a free one called GUI Fat 32 Format that actually worked.
Click this link and it will start to download:
http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/guiformat.exe
It didn't work immediately, for me at first, but after a few tries it actually worked very well.
I think that once you get it into Fat32 all of your problems will go away. Hope so anyway.:cyclops:
Let us know if it works!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wait, so you're saying that AOKP/CM10 don't have the necessary drivers to handle exFAT formatted sd cards?
Do you remember where/how you came upon this information? Was this issue particular to 64gb SDXC cards vs smaller SDHC cards or maybe to certain classes of cards?
I find this shocking, but I can't say it isn't unfounded.
I have a 64gb uhs-1 sandisk card coming from newegg in a few days, so I'm obviously concerned.
Any insight you could provide is greatly appreciated!

Hey guys... after doing some fooling around I've found out some (useful) information for people with 64 gb sd cards...
1. When you format an sd card while its inside your phone it will format it to exFat.... which is fine if you plan on only staying on TW ROMs. This format is not compatible with TWRP Recovery and has given me issues (causing me to loose all my data on my card) just by flashing an AOSP ROM
2. If you use the program posted in the second post(thanks iomega311) you can format your sd card to Fat32 and it will now work on TW ROMs, TWRP, and AOSP ROMs.
Hope this helps for anyone with SD Card Questions/issues.

In my opinion... Never program sd cards on phone... Always use a computer. Especially if you want it done right!!!!

kdepro said:
Wait, so you're saying that AOKP/CM10 don't have the necessary drivers to handle exFAT formatted sd cards?
Do you remember where/how you came upon this information? Was this issue particular to 64gb SDXC cards vs smaller SDHC cards or maybe to certain classes of cards?
I find this shocking, but I can't say it isn't unfounded.
I have a 64gb uhs-1 sandisk card coming from newegg in a few days, so I'm obviously concerned.
Any insight you could provide is greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
CM 10 which all the AOSP roms are based off does not support exFAT since it is a proprietary format and they don't want any legal trouble. The best way to format a 64GB gard is with GUI formatter

What allocation size did you guys use? Just got my 64GB SDXC and need to format it so that I can use it on CM10.

how do i know which sd card do i have?

i want to use this app:http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1889550 but i see it dosent work on exfat and i dont know how to know if i have exfat or fat32 please help ..

I'm using directory bind (latest version) on exfat and it works fine for me. You can just put the card in your computer and go to its propertes, it will tell you which format it is on.
64GB micro sd cards usually come with exfat format out of the box. 32GB usually FAT32

i think most sdcards are fat32 by default--may be wrong--but you can research phone specs or Google sdcard specs for n2.
Not aware any card comes with exfat--if you are original owner it should be fat32
you can also use partition programs like gparted or sdformatter that should list the sdcard and say how it is formatted--
either way backup sdcard first and even phone

MohJee said:
I'm using directory bind (latest version) on exfat and it works fine for me. You can just put the card in your computer and go to its propertes, it will tell you which format it is on.
64GB micro sd cards usually come with exfat format out of the box. 32GB usually FAT32
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Click to collapse
rugmankc said:
i think most sdcards are fat32 by default--may be wrong--but you can research phone specs or Google sdcard specs for n2.
Not aware any card comes with exfat--if you are original owner it should be fat32
you can also use partition programs like gparted or sdformatter that should list the sdcard and say how it is formatted--
either way backup sdcard first and even phone
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i press propoties on the n7100 when i connect the phone to the computer but not any intresting information

MohJee,
makes sense that some 64gb cards would come exfat--need to pay attn to that when I get phone

sandisk 64 gb exfat

i formatted my 64 gb to exfat and i connected my phone to my pc...it reads the card and everything but i am still limited...it seems that the file size limitation of fat32 is still present..
when i go to properties (when the sd card is in my phone) it says file system: generic hierarchical instead of exfat..is that why?
thanks in advance

For what it's worth, I tossed my card in the phone from SanDisk and it was formatted exFat already. Sounds like you might need another format. I don't know why there have been so many problems with these cards. I've read a lot about people frying them while formatting also.

farfromovin said:
For what it's worth, I tossed my card in the phone from SanDisk and it was formatted exFat already. Sounds like you might need another format. I don't know why there have been so many problems with these cards. I've read a lot about people frying them while formatting also.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yeah i noticed it was already exfat..i just formatted it again anyway to be safe..i also read about being messing up their cards while formatting
when you plug your phone in a pc does it still show as exfat?

I formatted my 64gb card to exFat back when I had my S3, and it's worked perfectly. Now I just got the S4 and before I root my phones I run through a quick little checklist to make sure I'm good to go; when I checked, though, my computer, too, reads it as "generic hierarchical". I know I formatter it to exFat - that's the only way I was able to make it work in the first place. It doesn't appear to have any file size limitations, but I'll transfer something massive onto it just to check. Unless someone knows this doesn't matter, I'll back it up, reformat it, then refill it and root. I'm kinda lost as to how the computer won't read it as exFat, though.

[Q] 32gb sd card issues. Missing files after partitioning 2nd ext.

Ok so. At first I thought it was the 32gb card I bought on ebay so I just returned it and bought another class 10 32gb adata card from another seller. This time I did a surface scan and chkdsk ahead of time to make sure everything checked out before I started using it. So as one partition as fat32, everything works fine, md5's verify successfully for nandroids after backing them up to external sd. Until I go to partition the sd card for fat32, and ext4, ext3, fat32 (tried every format). Tried mini partition, easus and Gparted outside of windows. Minitool shows it as "other" format when I try to partition the second ext4 partition. (which is odd)
After I do that, the fat32 begins to not show files that are copied to it. I noticed this while doing a routine nandroid through recovery, then when checking the cwmr folder on the external 32gb card, the files aren't there. NOW after reformatting and testing again, I'm getting the nandroids to show up, but the md5 verification fails.
I'm not sure on what the issue is. I just want to have a damn ext4 partition for mounts2sd.
Is there *anything* I can do further to verify if the card is in fact faulty aside from a surface scan test? Or is that sufficient?
Could it be my phone's sd card reader?
Could the kernel's "usb fast charge" enabled cause an issue?
I'm on the stock latest tmobile-samsung firmware, rooted.
Using stable kernel:
[KERNEL][3.0.90][Tiberius 4.1.2 T989UVMC6][Hercules]

Just to be sure I understand this correctly you want 2 partitions on an SD card? I would not recommend this personally as SD cards are not really designed for that...
But I could be misunderstanding you...
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-T989 using xda app-developers app

Yeah, so I can have a script for mounts2sd use the ext4 partition to install apps to.
However, I'm looking for the sure fire way to test your SD to see if it's faulty or not. Is a surface scan test enough? Is there more?

I guess it's gotta be the card.. Just thought it was odd that it happened with two brand new 32gb sd cards from separate sellers.
Just put in my 8gb and everything works fine, md5's match and everything...
Oh well, return time!