SD card file system gets corrupted after power loss

1

We have an embedded system running Windows Embedded Standard 7 (SP1 beta) on an SSD hard drive. We log data periodically on a SD card.

We had a power loss while the software was running (therefore the SD card was being written) and it corrupted the file system.

When I tried to format the SD card, I was able to sucessfully format it but the old file system kept coming back.

I had to finally format it using SD Formatter 3.0 (http://www.sdcard.org/consumers/formatter_3/) to get it back in shape.

Can anyone explain what happenned ? Why did the file system get corrupted ?

HW2015

Posted 2011-02-11T08:34:58.020

Reputation: 11

Answers

0

Its probably a dodgy SD card. There are a great many of these around. The SD card has a small controller on it, which is actually usually a microprocessor (often an ARM). Check out the net some more - the SD cards contain usually several die - one or two flash memory IC's as well as the controller.

The controllers and their embedded firmware can be dodgy, especially the cheaper lesser-known brands and the rip-off copies.

quickly_now

Posted 2011-02-11T08:34:58.020

Reputation: 1 797

I thought about that - we use a standard Kingston SD/2GB and we thought it was not so dodgy. Could it be ? :) – HW2015 – 2011-02-11T08:46:34.893

Hmm... less likely. Depends where you bought it. If not bought from a really reputable supplier it might be a knock-off copy. – quickly_now – 2011-02-11T09:55:20.827

I will try to reproduce the issue with an industrial-grade Transcend SD Card. – HW2015 – 2011-02-11T10:36:50.383

Asked: 2011-02-11T08:34:58.020

Viewed: 539 times

Active: 2011-12-03T12:08:35.400