Samsung Galaxy S Series

[picadillyjim]

Hi Guys,

Probably should have done this before I placed the order...

.But.. I have put in a order for a 64 GB microSDXC card for use in my SGS II - replace the puny 8GB card I was using hitherto. There are about 30 people in amazon.co.uk who think it will work fine. I hope it does, but I am mindful of the fact that the tech specs do say that it is expandable upto 32GB.

What do the high level mentors of this group think? Have I just poured some money down the drain? Of course, if ti doesn't work, I can always use the card like a tiny usb stick - so it is not going to be an absolute waste.

[Northern-dj]

I have just had this with my son your better of going with a branded one that is above class 4 

Samsung do cards and theres start at class 6 the higher the class the better and faster 

Class 4 do work in the phone, but not via Mass storage 

There are alot of cheap cards out there but there not worth it 

the makes that are fine are Kingston,Sandisk, samsung 

Amazon are good on sd card card if it comes from them direct or  there partners 

one tip do a format with in the device

The phone will see the card, for the first time Turn the phone off then put the card in and the phone will see it  

[GoNz0]

while the phone hardware wise can use it i do not think the software can read extended capacity so it may not work.

[picadillyjim]

Thanks NorthernDJ

Just one stupid question - How do I format a card in Device.? There doesn;t seem to be an option called "Format SD Card" on my SGS II - Did it just disappear after ICS update? I found a video on youtube demonstrating how to format SD card in device - and they show the "Format SD card" Option. I am looking in Settings>Application>Storage  - I can only see UNmount SD Card, and Erase SD card.

Can you help?

[picadillyjim]

Thanks Gonzo,

I found this Samsung 64 GB card for less than half of what i was expecting it to cost - so I put in an order - Let me try it and see - if it doesn't work, I  suppose I can always find a use for it as backup device for photos or work stuff, so it won't be a total waste of money.

[Northern-dj]

Well its rated to 32GB and they do work I have a 32GB in my S and my son has a 32GB in his Note, and the sd is a secondry storage and Apps don't use them, they use the internal storage only 

[Northern-dj]

You have to unmount the card first then it gives you the format option, But make sure you do the external one 

64GB is way to big 32GB is the max only 

[picadillyjim]

I did unmount the card - It then only shows "Mount SD Card" and "Erase SD card".

I am not sure what exact stupid thing I am doing here. I just cannot see the Format Option. There is no danger of my formatting anything else as well, because even for "Internal Storage" and "USB Storage" there is no option to Format.

Anyway - the current 8 GB card I am using seems to work fine without me doing anything special - but then it is a remnant of my old HTC Desire HD, so I assume it was formatted in that device by the manufacturer.

On another note altogether - I appear to have become a Mentor in this forum - I am not sure why, if all I am doing is asking very basic questions. But I am glad to see the upgraded status, because it looks good on my profile :-)

[Northern-dj]

Its the erase card why they have changed that i will never know, The card is never totaly clear as the phone put two folders on. If the phone did not see the card it would give a pop up box saying it needs formating 

so give it a go 

[picadillyjim]

Alright guys, the 64 GB card came, and I was beside myself with excitement, I popped it into the SGS II. Sure enough, it came up with the SD card is damaged message. I was prepared for it, and simply clicked on Format. This is where it deviated from the script - IT kept formatting the card, and kept announcing that the card was damaged.

So I took out the card and tried to format it in my Windows XP laptop. However, the only option available was NTFS, and according to literature on the web, the prerequisite for SGS II is that the card must be formatted in FAT32. 

As I am by no means technically savvy, that stopped me in my tracks a bit, and scratching around I found a free for 30 day trial software called Acronis, which was capable fo formatting large capacity disks to any file system including FAT 32. So I went ahead and did that. Popped the card back into the phone and voila - well see for yourself, screenshot attached.

[GoNz0]

well done m8 glad to see it, shame your limited to 4gb files, these phones really need to offer better file systems to handle large files such as movies!

[picadillyjim]

Loaded it chock full of music. I didn;t realise I had so much( well, it is only about 50 GB worth , so pretty sad compared to a lot of people, I guess) . Used to be a bit of a pain, constantly recycling my music especially as the android devices don't automatically work with itunes . I use isyncr which is pretty functional, but a bit of a pain none the less. Now I have all my music in one device , and I still have a bit of space left over. Seems to work quite ok, I mean music plays normally, things are located quite fast. Once the music is loaded, the music became available in the player, without any massive waiting time, while the SD card was being read.

So far so good.