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Sandisk 256MB SD Card
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   85 of 158 readers found this review helpful.

I purchased this Sandisk SD card to use with my new SL-C760. I've owned a lot of Sandisk products (CF cards and readers) in the past, so was hoping for the same excellent quality and performance with this card. The card came pre-formated with FAT16.

I first installed the card in my Zaurus, and performed a NAND backup using the DM trick. This backup was successful. I then inserted the card into my USB reader on my OS X machine, and copied the file off. I noticed when I first inserted the card that it took several tries before mounting. Since this was my first experience with SD, I assumed it was no big deal.

I then inserted the card into the reader on my Win2K machine. The machine slowed to a halt for several minutes. Finally I was able to open the SD card and copy some files. Then my mouse locked up. This has been a very stable machine for some time, so I was surprised by this problem. After rebooting, I was able to move the files over.

The next day I copied the NAND backup back onto the card using the OS X machine. When trying to restore the data in the Zaurus, using the DM menu, I received read errors, and the restore failed. I tried every combination I could think of -- including reformatting the card using fat16 in the Win2K box and loading a known good backup from the web -- but continued to get read errors on the Zaurus. The more I tried to make the NAND restore work, the more problems I had with crashing Win2K, difficulty mounting on OS X, and read errors on the Zaurus. Finally I borrowed a friend's 512MB CF card and restored the backup successfully on the first try.

At this point all things pointed to a bad memory card, so I swapped the Sandisk for a PNY 256MB SD Card. I then performed the same tests listed above. I had zero problems with the PNY card.

I've seen some postings on other forums regarding users having problems with UNIX file systems on the Sandisk SD cards as well. At this time, I cannot recommend users purchase the Sandisk 256 SD for their Zaurus. I may have just had a bad card, so please respond if you are having better luck with the Sandisk 256 SD.


Added:  Wednesday, September 10, 2003

Related Link:  Sandisk 256MB Secure Digital Card
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Posted by hdv on Dec 26, 2003 - 04:41 AM
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Hmm, I've been using this 256MB SD card from SanDisk myself for about two months now and it works just like I had hoped it would. First thing I did was putting an ext2 filesystem on it (don't have any Windows at home or at work, so I don't need FAT). Didn't have a single problem with it. My only complaint is the slowness of the Cruzer that came with it, but I haven't tried USB2 yet, so maybe it'll get better.

Posted by sveicken on Dec 26, 2003 - 05:23 PM
My score: Reviewer Rated 5 StarsReviewer Rated 5 StarsReviewer Rated 5 StarsReviewer Rated 5 StarsReviewer Rated 5 Stars


I had the same problems as you! My first sandisk 256 was defect after two weeks. Now i have the second. But i dont trust it. So i dont really work with it. Only for backup and restore. That works (now)!

Sven


Posted by uther on Feb 05, 2004 - 06:33 AM
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I've had the same problems and gotten two replacements from SanDisk. All three have been defective. I finally gave up and bought a 256 SD from PNY and haven't looked back.

Posted by tsm on Mar 04, 2004 - 05:16 AM
My score:


I'm using my SanDisk 256MB SD card for about 7 weeks now and I had no problems with it until now.

Posted by pakman on Mar 12, 2004 - 09:57 AM
My score:


My experiences with this card and a C 760 are not happy - all sorts of freezing up, filesystem corruption etc. etc. However, I sold mine to someone with a SPV 100 smartphone (with the offer that if it didn't work for him I would take it back and return it to the supplier). He has had no problem with it at all.

It seems that there is a problem with the combination of some (not all) SanDisk 256Mb and greater SD cards, and the Z. If you buy it, you are taking a gamble. I got a Lexar instead, and have had no problems with it at all.


Posted by TheCrook on Mar 13, 2004 - 12:58 PM
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I've had my SanDisk 256MB card 6 months, formatted ext2, and it's been fine in my SL-5500. No problems at all with various ROMs.Hardly ever remove it though.

Posted by lareya on May 27, 2004 - 11:33 AM
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I use the SanDisk 256mb card that I swapped out of my camera (it was the largest sd card I had at the time). It has been working flawlessly in the camera, and now in my c860. I wonder if there was a "bad" batch for the newer SD cards, cuz it seems like the older SD cards that were purchsed work just fine.

Lareya


Posted by omega on Jun 30, 2004 - 02:39 AM
My score: Reviewer Rated 5 StarsReviewer Rated 5 StarsReviewer Rated 5 StarsReviewer Rated 5 StarsReviewer Rated 5 Stars


I got a 256 Sandisk SD card with my c860 and it has worked flawlessly both in my usb reader and my Z... maybe it was a bad batch that other people are having trouble with?