2GB Sandisk formatting as 1GB in Canon SD110

[Phil Royle]

I purchased a Sandisk 2gb SD card to use in a Canon SD110 APS. I put the card in and it read as about 1.8gb, which was fine...but to make sure it was maximizing the card, I clicked "format" and formatted the card. Now it reads as a 968mb card.

I tried formatting the card on a PC, but it only recognizes it as a 968mb card. I even tried checking the card on a Mac and in Linux, but everything recognize the card as 968mb. I even formatted it in DOS just to see what would happen....and it's still a 968mb card.

I read online that the SD110 may not be able to format 2gb cards (although it can read them and write to them), and when you format the card it partitions the card. I just can't find a way to unpartition the card...or even read that there are partitions. Sandisk's site recommends using Fdisk, but I don't have it. I do have Partition Magic, but it doesn't seem to read memory cards, only hard drives...although it will read hard drives via USB. I find that odd.

I also read that if you format the card in a newer camera it will bring it back up to 2gb. A co-worker will probably bring in his Canon 1ds Mk II tomorrow so I can try that out (all my other cameras use CF only), but I find it hard to believe there's no way to save the card without a newer Canon camera. Also, I can't find ANY firmware updates for the SD110, let alone updates that would correct the issue.

Any thoughts?

[Todd Corzett]

I've not dealt with it... but it may be something to do with the "Large Drive Support". Back in the day you couldn't have drives over 2GB with FAT16, so FAT32 was created. I don't know why you'd be stuck at 1GB though (as 2GB should be OK with FAT16). Maybe there are two 1GB patricians, and the camera can only read one of them? I know on some of the 4GB cards there is a little switch to change formats, but again... it shouldn't be a problem with 2GB.

If you are formatting with the computer, you may want to check if it's using FAT16 or FAT32, but other than that... I'm stumped!

-Todd...

[John Thawley]

Seems to me I went through a similar situation with my Treo phone and an SD card...

I'm sure if you format it in a camera that is known to have no issues, it will be fine. The problem most certainly with formatting it in the camera.

Good luck...

JT

[Phil Royle]

I'm determined not to be defeated by this stupid little card, so I went back to Linux (Mandriva, for those who care) and stripped the card of its formatting and partition. I then thought I'd head back Windows, where it should prompt to format the card, and format it. When I inserted the card in Windows XP it did prompt for format, and it said the card's capacity was unknown (which is what I wanted it to say), so I clicked format...and it wouldn't format it. It said it couldn't.

I then scoured the office for a cheap-o video camera we have that cost $100 in the hopes that it took SD cards -- and it did. I inserted the card, it prompted to format, but said it couldn't. I then put the card in my Mac and it also prompted to format, and it did format the card, but only back to 968mb.

I then retried formatting it on the video camera. It successfully formatted the card, but said it was only a 938mb card. Frustrated, I slapped the card back into Windows, where it says it's a 1.89gb card.

Because I'm stupid, I then formatted the card in Windows to see what would happen. It formatted to 1.89gb, but shows that only 964mb are available and 968mb are being used, but there's nothing on there. The Mac confirms this. I'm now going to reboot into Linux and see if it can see the partition and eliminate it.

Sometimes I hate technology.

[Phil Royle]

Victory! Well, sort of.

I sometimes feel like Windows lies. When I formatted the card in XP I selected the FAT32 file format. I booted into Linux and it said it was FAT16. So I reformatted it in Linux with FAT32 and all of a sudden I have 1.89gb of space available (not 964mb available and 968mb used up). My Mac confirms it. I'm scared to put it in XP to see what it says, although I don't see why it would say it had any less available space.

Since I don't have the Canon SD110 with me I can't test that everything's kosher, but tonight I'm going to try to fill the card with pictures (that should take a while) and then pull all the info from the card onto the computer and have the camera erase the images (without formatting the card). If that works, then I think I'm in business. I'll let you know what happens...and how long it takes me to shoot over 1700 images.

Does anyone know if Canon cameras prefer FAT16 or FAT32? I'm guessing most prefer FAT32, but I can't find it in the camera's user manual. I'm also guessing that Todd may be right and this is a FAT16/FAT32 issue. It's the only thing I can think of.

[Todd Corzett]

Does anyone know if Canon cameras prefer FAT16 or FAT32?
The Canon EOS-1D (the 'old' MkI) is FAT16 I believe, but the newer SLRs will format in FAT16 or FAT32 depending on the card (hense the switch on the sides of some 4GB cards).

As for the SD110... the manual is on the Canon website (http://www.powershot.com/) (you have to search for it though).

-Todd...

[Phil Royle]

Now I'm horribly confused, but I think I'm going to just deal with what I have. I plugged the card into the SD110 and it said the camera could take about 1250 images on the card. That would sounds good, but before I originally formatted the card and began this wild goose chase, the camera said it would take over 1700 pictures on the card.

I shot about 100 pictures last night and then removed the images via a computer and erased the images from the card via the computer. I inserted the card and it was back at 1250 available images.

The coworker brought in his Canon DSLR today and I inserted the card. Without formatting the card, the camera displayed that it could shoot about 630 raw images on the card, which is just about twice the capacity of the 1gb card he normally shoots on. That tells me the card is being read as a 2gb card, so I didn't format it.

I don't really know if this episode has a moral or even a conclusion or solution to the problem. I guess the moral would be to only buy technology for a camera that was available when the camera was produced. In the case of the SD110, I should have probably limited my purchase to a 1gb card, regardless of what the camera manual says.