Image sizes too big for SD card?

[montero65]

I imagine I'm not the only person who has encountered this, but I recently picked up a few microSD cards that I wanted to use with the Pine.  The problem I'm having is when I try to use the DD images for a 32GB card, it says that the image is too big, not enough sectors available (using Win32DiskImager).

I purchased three of the same card, SanDisk Ultra 32GB class 10, UHS-1.  All three show the exact same size of 29.8GB.  I know companies do the 1000 instead of 1024 thing for how they calculate GB, and if you do that for KB, MB, and GB, you're looking at 29.8GB actual, so that makes sense.

But I would think the image for a 32Gb card should fit on a "32GB" card.  Is anyone else having this same issue?  Am I missing something?  Do I need to format the cards first in a different way?  I tried to format, I think it was exFAT32.  I could also select sector size (it was at 512).  What are the correct settings to format the card to?  Or, should I use the 16GB image on the 32Gb card in order to have some storage space available?  Thanks for the help.

[DonFL]

I've used sandisk 32 gb sd cards out of the package, same type as yours, no formatting before I copy the image, and had no issues. If I reuse one, then i format using sdformatter, and it works fine.

The rooted android image shows 30.9 gb per windows explorer. That image fit on a 32 gb sd for me with no problems.

If you have formatted the card prior to copying the image and you're now seeing issues, I'd agree its likely something wrong with how you're formatting, but sounds like you're seeing this happen the first time, right out of the package.

The other (remote...?) possibility is bootleg sd cards? But if you're getting true sandisk sd cards from a reputable source, that shouldn't be an issue.

[Luke]

Hey

This has been already discussed on the forum - I tried finding the link for you but couldn't find it. I'm not an expert BUT it appears that some manufacturers use a GB as exactly 1,000,000,000 bytes while an actual GB has 1,073,741,824 bytes. So a 16GB case would be = 14.9 GB
[someone correct me if I am wrong]

Without getting any further into this I can say that I've had no issues with Samsung SD cards, but did encounter issues with other manufacturers.

[DonFL]

What caught my eye here, and prompted a reply, is I've used the exact same make and model of sd cards that montero65 mentions he is using, with a 32 gb image, and it worked fine. The remix and android 32 gb images are essentially the same size, neither one caused a problem.

It would surprise me to see such a drastic difference from card to card, same manufacturer and model.

Somewhere (maybe the same thread as Luke references) I found a good utility for verifying SD cards, will do some searching and post it once I find it.

[montero65]

Don, I don't think they are bootleg cards, especially since all 3 showing exactly the same. I was seeing the same thing in Windows Explorer, the 32GB rooted showing at 30,981,120 KB (or 29.5GB), and the card showing 29.8GB out of the packaging. But I was seeing that error when I tried to burn. Maybe it is related to the sector size, I don't know. I tried to reformat, but didn't make a difference.

Luke, I thought I had seen this discussion previously as well, but I couldn't find it either, which is why I started the new thread. I did also pick up a 64GB Samsung EVO+ card (based on discussions of cards), and that is showing 59.6GB, which again makes sense if using the 1024 vs 1000 math.

Can anyone comment on what formatting the card should be in? I think the 32GB cards were exFAT32 or something, but that was not an option for the 64GB card. So what should the file system type be, and what should the sector size be?

And the follow up question, does it make sense to use a a 32GB image on a 32GB card, or is it better to use a smaller image and still have some memory available for storage (i.e. 32GB image on 64GB card)?

[DonFL]

This is the app I was thinking of: https://fightflashfraud.wordpress.com/do...sh-memory/ I would agree, likely not counteerfeit, but this app will definitely run them thru their paces and ensure you have the amount of storage advertised.

I use the default formatting settings on sd formatter, which, based on what I read in the manual, preserves the original settings for the card. Honestly, I've never had to dig into format settings past that as I've never had any issues, so others may have better recommendations for the settings if thats the tool you use. Its definitely geared towards sd cards, and recommended over other utilities, but you also need to consider the source: https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/index.html

Some would say more is always better, but if you load, for instance, the 32 gb image for android, and then look at your storage stats, you are left with a fair amount of usable storage. More can never hurt, I guess, but its not like you're left with only a couple mb to work with.

[montero65]

Thanks Don. I'll check it out tonight (cards are at home).

[MrWizerd]

I have 3 64 Gb Samsung Evo+ cards, all three are exactly the same size, when I try to use win32diskimager all three have gone through the test for speed and sectors and all three check out perfectly, no loss of data no corruption and speeds better than advertised. When I use diskimager it tells me that all three are around 900,000 bytes off... or bits.... Anyway the point is there all exactly the same size short. I have tried to remove there partitions, format them with different formatting tools, nothing seems to work. It also does it with my faster Samsung Extreame U3 32gb is also too small, though I don't remember by how much, for the 32gb image of course. When I use a unix machine to DD the cards, while it takes a VERY long time, they do write without issues, but I have never been able to confirm the cards work, as I was burning the touchscreen version and was having nothing but problems with it. I finally got it to go once but then restored a backup of something that bricked it, and gave up on the cards I had and bought another and was able to get it to come up on the first try after phoenix. Though phoenix took about 15 times to burn it correctly. But I have burned Ubuntu and Android HDMI over and over without problems booting. The only image I have had issue with is the Touch Screen one.

[g_t_j]

I'm trying to create an image of the new 20160711 build and I'm getting an error that my sd card is not enough in terms of space.

I use the same sd cards that had no problem burning on them the previous 20160505 image. One is a 16GB one while the other is 32GB. I tried numerous times to burn the according size images on them with no luck.

As I had no problems with previous Android build this is definitely not an issue of the sd card.

[montero65]

That's actually the same problem I was having when I started this thread. I was getting an error about not enough sectors available. Couldn't figure it out, so I just installed the next size down image on the card, so currently have the 32GB image on my 64GB card. Not happy about having to do that, but at least it seems to work for now. I figured maybe this weekend sometime (if I remember), I'll try to check it out again.