anyone ever have a memory card that wont format

USDashCamera

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I have been trying to finish my review for the VWTECH camera, and the memory card seems to be write protected. i have no clue how or why. i have tried formatting it with windows plus smartdiskfat32, guiformat, and sdformatter. windows says it can not format it, smartdisk and guiformat both claim to successfully format it but they dont, and sdformatter says it cant because its write protected. i deleted a file off it, said it was deleted, ejected the card, put the card back in, and the file is there again.
 
sandisk ultra 32gb sdhc. couldnt format it in my street guardian either. the street guardian just tells me the memory card is full, and when i format it, doesnt say anything.... but it doesnt do anything either. just realized windows says it is write protected also. at first i thought my sd card adaptor was just locked, but that didnt help at all.
 
I did see mentioned a few days ago from someone that had to send a Sandisk card for warranty that it had some sort of function that flags it as write protect status when there's a failure and it renders the card useless, I haven't looked into that at all but I do know they use a different controller to everyone else and there are some cameras that just don't play nicely with their cards so there may be something to that
 
Your card is damaged.
 
I have been trying to finish my review for the VWTECH camera, and the memory card seems to be write protected. i have no clue how or why. i have tried formatting it with windows plus smartdiskfat32, guiformat, and sdformatter. windows says it can not format it, smartdisk and guiformat both claim to successfully format it but they dont, and sdformatter says it cant because its write protected. i deleted a file off it, said it was deleted, ejected the card, put the card back in, and the file is there again.

did you read my post that is at about number 7 thread on this forum??
https://dashcamtalk.com/forum/threads/my-sd-card-is-stuffed-cant-format-it.7749/
 
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have you try to format the TF card with the camera? or could you ask for a firmware to reflash the camera ? perhaps it will help.
 
send it to me. i betcha i can format that sucka.

all i use is sandisk. i am a certified fanboy and sandisk groupie.

if i cant format it, ill eat my tie! :eek:
 
I'm actually looking forward to one of mine breaking too so that I can then test some theories out.

I guess it's like SMART on a HDD - when the controller detects memory errors on write and doesn't have any spare flash to balance across it just goes into read only mode as a self preservation mechanism - i.e. you can still access the data on it - but you can't delete it.

It could make for some interesting RMAs though if you've got home pictures / movies on there!
 
It could make for some interesting RMAs though if you've got home pictures / movies on there!
Maybe they have calculated that 50% of people will not send them back due to the content and have to buy another = big profits!

But why are people still buying Sandisk when there are so many problem reports?
 
There are more people buying Sandisk than the others which is why there is more noise as they're more readily available in physical shops - I've got to admit I've had a Sandisk 64GB card running six months in various cameras and it's still going strong.

Likewise are there are more Sandisk out there they also get more fakes, but saying that even the real cards aren't aimed at dashcam usage and some of the cameras out there like say the G1W don't play well with the controllers. They can run at different speeds and frequencies and if the cameras aren't optimised then there will be random problems.

None are perfect though.

I had a 32GB Sandisk Ultra that had more problems than the 64GB card but that was refunded by CostCo no questions asked.
 
Amazon products are higher, but the quality is not super:(
 
If you buy it from Amazon direct and not a third party seller you've got peace of mind if anything does go wrong though - that's worth the extra price just for that.
 
I used to get almost all Sandisk cards, but then the prices got to be even with others and now I collect different brands. I have Sandisk, Samsung Evo, and Sony cards all handy, with a few Kingston cards for good measure. I will keep trying various brands out but only good ones. This way I have a variety when testing in case I have issues I can eliminate the cards as a problem.

Now if only more cameras used 64gb and higher cards!
 
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