Memory Card - types, brands, errors and solutions
Table of Contents
| 1. What is Memory Card? 2. The History of Memory Card 3. Other Types of Memory Card 4. Different Brands of Memory Card 5. Errors on memory flash and solutions |
What is Memory Card?
Memory card, also known as flash memory card is a type of storage media that is often used in mobile phone, laptop, MP3 players, digital camera and digital camcorders etc to store various files, such as photos, audio files, videos, document and more other files. A memory card is usually small, re-recordable, and able to retain data without power. Memory cards have various capacities, which make them convenient and ideal for storing both large and small files. Besides, as memory card can be used in many devices, which makes it easy to transfer data among different digital devices.
The History of Memory Card
In the 1990s, PC cards (PCMCIA) were developed as the first commercial memory card format, but now PC cards are mainly used in industrial applications. Later, many other memory cards that were smaller than PC cards were developed. Those memory cards include CompactFlash, SmartMedia, and Miniature Card. However, those cards also look too big to use in some small devices like mobile phone, digital cameras. By 2005, SD/MMC had nearly taken over SmartMedia's spot, and the memory card market was highly fragmented until 2010 when Micro SD card came to dominate new high-end phones and tablet computers.
Other Types of Memory Card
SD Card Series
SD card, short for Secure Digital is the most commonly used card for different devices. It was
developed by Matsushita Electronic, Toshiba and Sandisk Corporation. SD card series includes SD
card, Mini SD card, Micro SD card, SDHC(Secure Digital High Capacity) and SDXC(SD eXtended Capacity). The
capacities of SD card are from 128MB, 256MB, 512MB to 8GB, 16GB, 32GB and 64GB. CF card was developed by
SanDisk, Hitachi, Toshiba, Ingentix and Panasonic in 1994.
CF Card
CF card, short for Compact Flash is a mass storage media that can be used in many portable
electronic devices. Until now, it has already have a large number of OEM users and partners, including
Cannon, LD, Nikon, NEC, Polaroid, Psion, HP and so on.
TF Card
TF card (Trans-flash Card or T-Flash), also known as Micro SD card is a small removable flash memory card.
It was developed by SanDisk and it is the smallest memory card, whose capacities are from 128MB to 64GB. TF
card is more widely used in mobile phone to store different files.
XD Card
XD card (XD Picture card) is a flash memory card for photo storage, which was developed by Olympus
and Fuji. XD card is mainly used in some older digital camera and it is available in capacities
of 512MB, 1GB, 2GB and 8GB.
MMC
Different Brands of Memory Card
Memory card is important for us to store our precious files and share them with others. Although you are using memory card every day, how many memory card brands do you know? Which brand of memory card do you prefer to? Well, some popular brands of memory card include, SanDisk, Kingston, Lexar, Transcend, Sony, Samsung, Adata, Patriot, Toshiba, Panasonic and more.
Raw Error Not Formatted Error on Memory Card
RAW file system error? When your memory card has been damaged by virus or software or even your computer, your memory card would have such error alert "the drive is not formatted, do you want to format it now?", if you see such error, your card file system has been changed to RAW. What is RAW? As the word explains, raw means not explored or used. However your memory card has been used for a while and has data inside. How could it become RAW? It may due to a lot of reasons like you forgot to unplug your card before you shutting your system, you pull out your card directly without safely remove it.
Recover files from raw drive would be necessary if your memory flash has such error!
Memory Card Formatted by Mistake
When memory card has been formatted by mistake, the data inside of the card is still there before you keep new data into the flash. However there might slim chance that some of inside data are damaged. The chance might be 10% of flash users who formatted their card and most of them can restore all data inside, some of them may restore lost files with partial damaged. Data recovery is complicated and this small chance may due to Windows checking and writing files to the flash that brought the memory card data damaged.
If you formatted memory card by mistake, you may try data recovery after formatting to restore your data. You may start a free scanning and then check whether your files can be restored. If files can be previewed, then you may consider purchasing such recovery software.
Dot Detected or Recognized if Connected to PC
-
If you are using Android phone, please make sure you have turned on the PC connection option on your phone
- Make sure you have removed the write protection of your memory card
- Yes, you need a card reader to get your card connected to the PC
Fake Memory Card Capacity
Sometimes, you are cheated by the seller if you bought memory card from not known retailors, who importanted these products from small factories who claim their memory card is 32GB however there might be only 8GB large.
How to check whether your card is not fake? Format it by PC and see how much empty volume it has.
Tusted sellers if online: newegg.com; bestbuy.com; tigerdirect.com; amazon.com
Resources Related with memory card
The tips and software to guide you the right steps when you see raw error on a fat32 drive.
References on flash card and its problems and solutions
How to convert fat fat32 to ntfs