Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

Hi all.

I have a problem.

I had a 16gb memory card from new which started to cause battery drain when inserted. i.e if the card was in the slot, the n900 cpu usage was at maximum, when removed it returned to normal.
It also wasn't accessible when connected to pc in usb mode.

I tried to reformat the card on the n900 but it wouldn't, so tried to reformat on pc via a usb microSD card reader but had a window telling me it failed as the card was write protected. I didn't (and don't know how to) write protect it.
So, i gave up and bought a new microSD card, it showed capacity of nearly 16gb so all was well.
I copied some music to it but it failed half way through the copy and now the card is shown at 8mb capacity (total) and write protected!

Does anyone know what's going on? or how to remove the write protection from it via the n900 or pc?

please

Thanks

Dan

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

There`s a small switch to the side, that write protects cards.http://www.getflashmemory.info/wp-co...08/081308d.jpg

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

Thanks anthonie but it's a microSD card so no switch.

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

Dan it sounds like something similar I had with an external drive. When you tried formatting it, did you try as NTFS or FAT32? The way I solved my problem, was formatting on a Mac as FAT 32 and then things worked. You could try on a PC as well, but I beleive you can only do so on XP. Let me know if it works. Good luck!

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

Sorry if this is getting us offtopic, but I coulnd't help myself blinking my eyes after reading your reply. No switch on microSD?

http://www.lowpricememory.co.uk/img/lpm/int166.jpg

Back on the topic: Have you tried a filesystem check?

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

Dan, what OS are you using as your main PC mate? I can remove Write Protect in Windows but Linux - not got a clue.....

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

Thanks for all the answers guys, I'm at work and rehearsing so haven't been able to try anything yet.
@ parlapitas, I tried FAT32 on XP but didn't work.
@ anthonie, yep no switch, the switch in the photo is on the adapter, i've ordered one off ebay though but it's not going to arrive for a few days, and may not work. I'll try your filesystem check when I get home - about 6pm
@ switch It's XP, can you let me know how please so I can try.

Thanks again

Dan

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

@Dan

I learnt today that some cards appear to be sold without the switch ;)

With regard to the filesystem check: Make sure the device names are clear before unmounting and so. Check mount without any paramaters before you unmount. Oh, and just to avoid misunderstanding: I am talking about fsck for linux (be it Maemo or any decent Linux Distro.). On that same note I should wholeheartedly advise you to have a look at a nice LiveCD being made around gParted, the Gnome partitioning tool. You download an ISO, burn it and boot from it. After it started up, it operates as a mini system recovery OS. If it's not for now, I'm quite sure it will come in handy one day.

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/download.php

PS Rehearsing what?

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

Hey Dan. Same had happened to me. I was unable to do it on an XP system so I gave it a go on my mac and it worked. If you have one, let me know and when I get home will post some screen shots for you as to how I got it to work.

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

Thanks anthonie

Unfortunately, being a linux novice this all sounds very complicated to me, I am far from replacing windows on my main PC with linux (but might give it a go on an old laptop first) which is my aim eventually, but I thank you for your help anyway.
Before I try your way I may just wait to see if 'switch' gives an easier way on windows for a novice like me.

Dan

PS L'amico Fritz (an opera by Mascagni)

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

Sorry Bud, Windows here for a little while yet....
But, I have a friend with a mac and might meet up with him in a couple of weeks so if I've not solved it by then can I PM you for the screen shots?

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

Copy/paste from the wiki page on liveCD's

Copied from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Live_CD

What this means is: You have a complete functioning operating system that runs from the CD itself. There's no need to install it, there's no need to abandon Windows or anything like that. It's just a temporary switch to an OS.

Once you're done in the OS from the liveCD, you simply reboot your machine and you will find it in unaltered state.

Complicated? Nah. It just sounds complicated. But than again: Try to explain something about music theory to someone, let's say, the three basic notes to form the most basic chord, ground note, terts and quint, or even more fun (and more dazzled looks) contra point harmony (not sure if that is the right term in English though). What I mean is: With a bit of reading, hanging out on forae like this and of course utilisation of your own brain you should be more than capable of doing this.

The page on gParted can be found here
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c26XVy6TObg

Thanks for that info. You just gave me a perfect excuse to finish last nights bottle of red wine and turning up the volume. Sweet!

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

Of course buddy.

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

anthonie, Thanks for the info on the live CD, had a good read this morning and it's definitely something I will try.

Not so happy about the youtube clip though! ;-) I had loads of work to do this morning, fantastic and as usual lead me on another journey through youtube! Thanks, I'd not seen that one :-)..

On Topic - my microCD adapter arrived this morning and the switch made no difference, still unable to format as it's still write protected!

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

You could try to overwrite the SD card with zeros...
Or try the panasonic formatter (should also work for non panasonic devices)
http://panasonic.jp/support/global/c...oad/index.html

If you know someone with a N8 maybee he can format the card... (The N8 can also format sd cards with drm enabled)

Btw: If I'm right informad the usal read only switch is read out by the card reader (there is some sensor inside)

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

@Dan sorry mate, didn't have time to log in again last night. Using XP mount your card so that PC can see it.

Then right click "My Computer" and go to "Manage". Once the console opens load the Disk Management service. You will see your card listed in there under whatever drive letter the system assigned to it. Should be easy to locate.

Right click onthe drive and go to "Properties". Click on the "Security" tab at the top, and check that you have a group or user name that is "Everyone". Highlight it and then go "Edit" - check that "Full Control" is highlighted and all other permissions are highlighted except "Special Permissions". Apply the changes and exit out through "OK".

Drive should no longer be write protected.

Let me know if this fixes it or not. Alternatively you could attempt to format whilst still in Disk Management by right clicking and selecting "Format". Use the FAT32 file format. Failing that we can try to run the same thing in DOS Command Prompt;

Go Start > Run and type cmd. This opens command prompt (can't recall to be honest but I believe that Administrator access is a given in XP, been working on 7 for a while now so everything is "Run as Administrator"). We want to get into the disk partition manager service within DOS so type;
This will show you the currently connected storage devices - locate your card and note what disk number it is- for arguments sake we'll call it "Disk 1". Now we will run a DOS format of the disk so type;
Done this myself to create bootable W7 from USB a number of times so used the NTFS filesystem rather than FAT32 but it worked a treat. Only try the DOS based format if Disk Management can't / won't do it.

Let me know how you get on fella..... Cheers

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

Thanks Switch,

No worries, I've been at work for a few hours today but got home eager to have a go.

Tried the first method but I don't have a 'security' tab at the top so got stuck there on that one!
also attempting to format whilst still in Disk Management by right clicking and selecting "Format" gives the same error - 'card is write protected'.

When trying through the cmd prompt the disk isn't listed after the 'list disk' command, only the pc's hard drive is listed.

so, still stuck, still bemused and still trying!

Thanks for your efforts though, it is appreciated.


@ Flexxxv - Tried the panasonic one first, no joy i'm afraid.

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

It's a tool I would not want to miss in my software collection as it has succeeded more than once where others failed.

I deeply regret my lack of anticipating thinking here. I hope you can forgive me. If not, I'm sure we'll be able to find a suitable youtube vid for this situation. ;)

Neither had I. And that goes for the opera as well. Like I said: Sweet! And I am normally not that fond of opera's.

I have to go and sleep, so no time for a google round, but I wonder what the "dd" in combination with "mkfs" could do for you. Thinking in the line of flexxxv here. Both programs are already installed on your n900.

I'll have a look tomorrow. I assume the card may be wiped, right?

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

what's ur pc OS ?

i fixed this problem by connecting my n900 with pc then auto run will pop something in pc screen .. chose the recommended option !!

I don't know if this is ur problem .. but no loss in trying

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

Hey man, that's simply strange..... Mounted it as a drive and it's not in DiskPart or Device Manager.... Very strange....

There is another workaround - although it's more of a "hardware" workaround, which involves sticky tape and the SD itself. On the opposite side of the card to where the switch would be take a look and tell me if there is a notch cut out of the side.... If there is, we can possibly fool any device into thinking it's not write protected.

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

@ Anthonie, yep, the card can be wiped - luckily i'd backed it up a couple of days before the trouble started.

@ Del, Hey, i'll try anything at the moment :-)...didn't work though!

@ Switch - It is very strange! although it does show in device manager, just not is list disk...
There is a notch cut out there, I'm thinking tape the gap over like old cassettes? surely not? :-)

One more thing I've just discovered though, all the folders on the card have 'read only' checked in the properties, trying to uncheck and apply causes the window/card to freeze until it's removed from the PC.

It's all very odd! Tried to find a software program to remove copy protection from the card (ok, a long shot) and found that this is a common problem with these cards...many forums searching for a solution.

Is there away to delete all files and folders on the card from the terminal? or to format it through same?
Might be worth a go :confused:

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

Now both cards I have just tell me that the card isn't formated when I insert it into the PC and ask if I want to format it! then says it can't be as it's write protected!
:confused:

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

Please give some basic info about the card(s) from your X-Terminal. You need rootsh from extras installed to do it.This will list all the info about cards and partitions.

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

Bang on the money mate..... Use insulation tape if possible and make sure you don't compromise any of the copper / gold contacts. Then try to format the little bleeder!

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

No joy i'm afraid, tried both cards with different types of tape...almost ready to admit defeat and chuck the buggers! loathed to though :)

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

It is sfdisk -[small]L please, not 1 as in one

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

lol ahh, didn't think that would help...sorry, I'm a fool :o

This is what I get with the right command



BusyBox v1.10.2 (Debian 3:1.10.2.legal-1osso30+0m5) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

~ $ sudo gainroot
Root shell enabled


BusyBox v1.10.2 (Debian 3:1.10.2.legal-1osso30+0m5) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

/home/user # sfdisk -l

Disk /dev/mmcblk0: 977024 cylinders, 4 heads, 16 sectors/track
Units = cylinders of 32768 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0

Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System
/dev/mmcblk0p1 1 884864 884864 28315648 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/mmcblk0p2 884865 950400 65536 2097152 83 Linux
/dev/mmcblk0p3 950401 974976 24576 786432 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/mmcblk0p4 0 - 0 0 0 Empty

Disk /dev/mmcblk1: 486192 cylinders, 4 heads, 16 sectors/track
Warning: The partition table looks like it was made
for C/H/S=*/255/63 (instead of 486192/4/16).
For this listing I'll assume that geometry.
Units = cylinders of 8225280 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0

Device Boot Start End #cyls #blocks Id System
/dev/mmcblk1p1 * 0+ 1936- 1937- 15558030+ b W95 FAT32
end: (c,h,s) expected (1023,254,63) found (911,254,63)
/dev/mmcblk1p2 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
/dev/mmcblk1p3 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
/dev/mmcblk1p4 0 - 0 0 0 Empty
/home/user #

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

That is how it should be. Let's try to check the file system.

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

Now with the correct 1's and l's I get:-

~ $ sudo gainroot
Root shell enabled


BusyBox v1.10.2 (Debian 3:1.10.2.legal-1osso30+0m5) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

/home/user # unmount /dev/mmcblk1p1
/bin/sh: unmount: not found
/home/user # fsck -af /dev/mmcblk1p1
fsck 1.41.3.maemo0 (12-Oct-2008)
mount /dev/mmcblk1p1 /media/mmc1

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

So please test the card now, as the output just looks fine. Try to access your card through Hildon-File-Manager (HFM].

Sidenote: Altough it is actually unmounting the device the command is called for obscurity reasons, i guess:D

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

Whoops - I think I need new glasses! :cool:

I can read the card and the files on the n900 but can't delete them.
When connected to PC in usb mode the card doesn't show, but does in a usb adapter. Clicking the properties of the folders in the adapter shows them all as 'read only' and whilst I can remove the 'read only' check mark it's still there when I click properties again. :confused:

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

I found this on another thread with similiar problems:-


From xterm I signed in as root and remounted the filesystem in
/home/user/MyDocs as read and write.

Code:
mount -o remount,rw /home/user/MyDocs

Is it possible to remount the SD card in the same way?
clutching at straws but you never know, then I might be able to manually delete all and reformat!

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

Try to change the partition type withThen reboot. This time it is 1[one];)

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

Ok done that but no change, still all write protected!

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

Sorry then mate, I'll have a Google to see if it throws anything up but other than that I'll leave you in the capable Linux hands of michaaa.....

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

Guys, I want to thank you all for your help this morning (and before), I have to go to work shortly but will keep trying and let you know how I get on tomorrow.
Thanks again for all your help and attention.

Dan

p.s if you come up with any more ideas and instructions, i'll be on it...

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

Did not see this post you made until now!
Try it then!

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

Could you help with the right code to try? ie. mount -o remount,rw /home/user/mmc1?

I know that's not right and i'll have to do the gainroot thingy but as you can tell, I really have no idea!! :o

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

This will unmount the partition and then try to mount it rwor if already mounted you can try

Re: Memory card write protect problems, help please..
 

Michaaa62

Thanks for all the help, I've been playing with the liveCD on an old laptop and you were right, very easy. In fact I liked it so much that I've installed it along side windows but i think I'm going to just replace windows with it.

Still can't format the card though and tried a few commands in the terminal on the laptop - no joy...

ready to give up now, I think i've wasted mine and everybody else's time enough with this.
Just have to use the n900 without the card..

Thanks again to you and everyone for the help.

Dan