Correct Treatment of your MMC:
Physically, memory cards are
quite fragile pieces of high
technology, susceptible to
damage from various silly things
like excessive heat, condensation,
strong magnetic fields, physical
damage from rough handling
and/or bending! (similar to most
electronic devices then..)
Given the natue of mobile
memory card products, they are
constantly being taken in and out
of some form of interface with a
mobile phone, a camera, a laptop,
or desktop PC, or a separate
memory card reader. The number
of different devices they have to
be able to interact with is in the
thousands.
It is not too surprisingly, then
that sometimes the state of the
file system on the memory card
can get damaged.
This may happen for a number of
different reasons, including:
* removing the card from a
device whilst an application is
trying to read/write to it.. (Just be
patient...)
* battery drain on a device whilst
in use meaning an insufficent
voltage failure whilst writing to
the card.
* a poor implementation of the
MMC standard on the device
using the card
* poor connectivity software
drivers on the device or the
Windows PC/Mac
* physical damage like card or
device being dropped, bent,
getting wet etc...
* lots of others i am sure..
As often as not, the problem is
not terminal for your memory
card, but just a software issue
( or in physical terms, it could be
called "a temporary disalignment
of the all the bits and bytes on
the card").
The fix for this problem is the
same as for any other file storage
device (like a floppy or hard
drive) with corrupt or invalid file
system, namely; re-format the file
system.
Re-Formatting your MobyMemory
MMC Card:
It is possible that your mobile will
offer you the option of
formatting the memory card if it
is found to be invalid. (However,
the likes of Nokia nGage, Nokia
6600, and Siemens Sx1 often just
prefer to reject the media as
corrupted).
In that case, to format the card,
you will need access to one or
more of the following:
* A Windows PC or Mac.
* A separate multi-format
memory card reader (verify that
it is compatible with the
MultiMediaCard -MMC- standard).
* (This can come in USB or PCMCIA
flavours. If USB, try and ensutre it
is a USB2 device.
* Alternatively, many of the
newest laptop and desktop PCs
now come with integrated Multi-
format memory card readers.
* If you are using a separate
memory card reader, then
connect it up to your PC, and let
windows recgnize the device
through plug-and-play.
Now you can insert your
MobyMemory card into the
appropriate slot in the memory
card reader. (Please note that
because the MMC card is pretty
much symmetrical it is very easy
to insert it upside-down in the
slot).
Open up [Windows Explorer] (or
the equivalent for MAC
users..sorry not well-versed in OS
X).
There should be at least one icon
visible for a [Removable Drive] in
the list of available drives. (in
fact, there is often a list of about
5 or 6 Removable drives, one for
each of the different Memory
card formats that your reader is
compatible with).
Find the drive that is mapped to
the MMC card by clicking on each
in turn until it confirms there is a
drive present. (Sometimes it is
easiest to do this by trying a
fully-functional MMC card in the
MMC slot first so you can confirm
which drive letter it is.)
(NB. It will always be labelled as a
[Removable Drive], don't mistake
it for one of your PC hard drives
like [C:] drive, as that could be
catastrophic later on!)
At this stage it may give an error
message saying that the drive is
unreadable.
By right-clicking on the drive
letter, it will provide the option of
formatting the drive.
Select format the drive, and the
[Format Drive] dialog will appear
(Double-check again to make sure
it not your [C:] drive!).
There is only one setting to focus
on in this page, and that is to
ensure that the FileSystem
selected for formatting is the
[FAT] option (not FAT32, or NTFS
or any other option)
(Note: All mobile phones, to my
knowledge, and most cameras
(etc..) use the FAT file system (or
at least are compatible with it) on
their memory card media.)
Now click on Format Now
( ensure [Quick Format] is not
selected as this will not actually
restore the file system space byte
by byte, but only resets the
header information so the drive
thinks its empty again. This may
not be enought to solve your
corruption problem.)
The PC will now - hopefully!- chug
away happily until it has restored
the memory card space back to
its original configuration (of
course, any information on there
is long gone by now!).
If you recieve an error message
back from the [Format Now]
request, then your problem may
be more permanent, and not just
a software issue. In this case, it
may still respond to a format
request in a different memory
card reader or device.
If you believe it to be a failure of
manufacture, then the warranty
on the card offers the prospect
of a replacement card, subject to
a confirmation of the fault upon
return of the goods.
Increase Your MMC Space
Your files in MMC are stored in
multiple (disk) blocks.
So if you format using 16K block,
the space used will be 16K
eventhough your file is just 1K.
If you buy MMC, it is usually
preformatted with 16K block.
Therefore alot of space is wasted
as most installed program files
are usually less than 2K.
You will need a card reader to do
this:-
1. Connect card reader and copy
all your files in the MMC to
computer disk. (Make sure you
set the show all/hidden/os files
to "on")
2. Do a format of the MMC using
command line "format" and use
the /A=size option.
Alternative, you can use the Disk
Management in Adminstrative
Tools to format. Make sure you
select FAT. For 256MB MMC,
smallest block you can use is 4K,
128MB is 2K, 64Mb is 1K and
32MB is 512B.
(Note: You cannot use the phone
"format MMC" to do this as the
format just clear the allocation
table and does not change the
block size)
3. Copy back all files to MMC.
Now you will find that you will
have more space. 256mb MMC
got back 30+ mbs