JB - ALP & SDHC card issue for replacements

[jlg432]

Just reporting an issue I had with both my units and some new cards. This is the first time I ever came across this problem which I ended up resolving.

Some background info to start.

I own a JB at FW .35a custom and I also own an ALP at FW V0.17d.

I now use Synctoy to keep the cards updated but I also transfer data manually every now and then.

I have used regular 2 gig SD cards in the past with both units and never had a problem.

I have also used 4 gig SDHC as well as 4 gig Micro SDHC (with a SDHC adapter) and never had an issue.

This week some 8 gig SDHC/Micro SDHC cards went on sale. So I purchased one of each format.

Because both the JB and ALP have slower through put than my Card reader/writer I popped the old cards out - loaded the new ones with my current eBook repository that is located on my Laptop HDD.

I then placed one in each device and powered up. Note: each card was labeled the same as the original ones.

I then hooked up each reader to the laptop (one at a time) and used Synctoy to confirm each card.

I discovered that there is a special file that gets placed on the root of each card as well as within the PC's folder that houses the files to be synced.
I had to delete the original sync markers and create new sync relationships within Synctoy in order for Synctoy to manage the cards. I ran Synctoy on each card and everything appeared to be fine.

Later that day I added some new email based news-letters and some new books to the main PC repository. When I went to sync the readers both failed to update via Synctoy. I recieved the same error when just trying to update via "Drag & Drop". I removed one card and was able to transfer files via my reader/writer without an error.

I don't remember the errors exact wording but it was a "Warning message generated by Windows stating that the target location was not in a good status. Yet I could read from the cards in both e-readers.

The solution:

It turns out that because the card images were the same - the cards were being recognized as the original cards. The devices were not forced to do a card init as is done when you insert the card while the device is powered up or when the device is powered up after a hard reset is performed.
Each media has it own s/n and the devices were recognizing a discrepancy when a write to card was being requested by the e-reader due to the file updates.

Once the e-reader was able to mount the new cards the problem went away.

The same thing sort of occurs if you update the sd card by removing it from the ereader and then putting it back in the ereader without doing a reset or remove/insert while powered up. In most cases your updates don't show up until a reset is done or the remove/insert while powered up procedure is performed.

Coming out of sleep mode(which is what happens when you power off) the ereader expects to see the same file layout that was there when you turned it off.

This has been reported by others but I haven't seen the new card issue being reported.

This is just the way it works and once you understand it you can avoid future issues or if you forget at least you will know why it occurred.


John