@ 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

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!

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.

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!

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

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

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

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 #

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

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

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