Formatting 2GB SD card - Mac specific issues

To debug some app "hanging" issues, I decided to reformat my SanDisk for Wii 2 GB SD Card, using Mac OS 10.6 Disk Utility. I reformatted my SD card to MS-DOS Fat 32.

My intention was to reinstall everything fresh and see what sort of performance I get--I was looking for less black screens and more stability. The problem is, I now get a "SD Card not recognized" message from my Wii. I get this message even when I am trying to access Indiana Pwns from Lego Indiana Jones.

I was attempting to reinstall via Indian Pwns the HomeBrew Channel, HackMii, and the HomeBrew Browser.

Fortunately I did back-up all my files to my Mac HD before the reformat.

Any suggestions to get me out of this jam?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/23/2010 04:06AM by DonsSword.

If you have anything on that SD card worth saving, back it up now and try formatting to FAT16 (sometimes also referred simply as FAT) and see if that works.

Yes, try formatting it to FAT, and use a block size of 32768K .

That should be enough for your Wii to recognize it again.

Fortunately I back up everything to another drive before I wiped the SD Card, with the intention of redownloading all my apps via the HBB and them dropping the ROMs on via my computer.

I'll attempt a reformat to the specs mentioned, but I am not sure DiskUtility in 10.6 will allow me to do precisley as you specificed--I'll have to look around a bit to confirm. I'll update here after I get the reformaating to stick.

Thanks!

RRRRRR... I am finding out all sorts of stuff about Mac SD card formatting for FAT 16. Its a mess.

I am trying 2 diff solutions at the command line (I'll document here later), and neither will give me a card recognized by my Wii.

EDIT: More stuff found, all a mess. There is a software tool available form Panasonic that can reformat it correctly, but of course it is a Windows app.

EDIT: Digital camera = YAY!
Even after a FAT16 command line reformt, the Wii did not recognize the card until I used my Olympus point-n-shot camera to reformat the card. The Wii finally sees it. However, I can't get the HBB to recognize the card now to do a reinstall. I'm going to try and put some apps on the card from my back-up and see if they show up.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 10/18/2010 02:21PM by DonsSword.

Why not download something like Hiren's Boot CD? Other than having a bunch of recovery programs, it contains a portable version of Windows. You can try launching that tool you mentioned through there if you don't wanna go through the trouble of finding a Windows ISO online and installing it on your HDD. Don't worry. That portable version is loaded only on your RAM, and doesn't modify anything on your HDD whatsoever.

Though once you're using Hiren's, if that tool you mention doesn't seem to help, you can always use one of the various partitioning included in said CD like Partition Magic (I dunno if that's how it's called in the CD, but it sure looks alot like it) and use that for your formatting needs.

I sincerely don't know anything regarding Mac OS apps, so I'm giving you the next best thing. Good luck.

Quote
Magil
Why not download something like Hiren's Boot CD? Other than having a bunch of recovery programs, it contains a portable version of Windows. You can try launching that tool you mentioned through there if you don't wanna go through the trouble of finding a Windows ISO online and installing it on your HDD. Don't worry. That portable version is loaded only on your RAM, and doesn't modify anything on your HDD whatsoever.

Though once you're using Hiren's, if that tool you mention doesn't seem to help, you can always use one of the various partitioning included in said CD like Partition Magic (I dunno if that's how it's called in the CD, but it sure looks alot like it) and use that for your formatting needs.

I sincerely don't know anything regarding Mac OS apps, so I'm giving you the next best thing. Good luck.

I believe you're referring to the PartedMagic Live CD. It is very good, but I don't know if it supports SD or USB devices.

You can download it here: [partedmagic.com]

No, I was referring to an entirely different and more complete disc. But if that one you've linked is also a bootable CD that only runs that specific program, then much better. I guess it'll spare him waiting for 200 MB to download and burn (assuming this one is smaller).

Quote
Magil
No, I was referring to an entirely different and more complete disc. But if that one you've linked is also a bootable CD that only runs that specific program, then much better. I guess it'll spare him waiting for 200 MB to download and burn (assuming this one is smaller).

It was about 50MB when I downloaded it, but it may have grown a bit since then. It boots linux and you can run GParted from there, though I'm not sure if it works well with SD memory cards.

@DonsSword I just had a thought. If you have a digital camera, try formatting the card with that. Many people seem to be having success with the default format options of digital cameras.

The camera was the good hook-up for reformatting. I am convinced there is no successful way to reformat for FAT16 via Mac. Neither of the 2 command line solutions out there worked completely.

Next, I need to mess around with moving files from my laptop "SD card back-up Dir" onto my SD card to see if everything works again.

My challenge is the only SD card reader I have is on my wife's business MacBook, which I don't have continuous access to. I'll be buying a cheap SD card reader after this Friday's payday for sure.

Next, I'm a little afraid that the card won't be recognized as the same device once I load my files back onto it. I really want to write my NAND to a back-up card, but I need to get a new card as I already filled up my 2GB card with apps and emulators. I need to make sure I know how well cards swap before I go too deep down the rabbit hole and get content with my current set-up.

Still, I love HBB and all its parts, and the only problem here is really between the chair and the keyboard. When I get it all figured out, I am going to whip-up a solid post about Macintosh card formatting issues, so people stop retreading this dark path.

I reloaded my laptop backup files to the SD card I formatted in my camera and everything has turned out great! Everything works. WiiEarth is still hosed, and I have not had time to mess with Super Mario Wars yet, but the browser and other homebrew games I downloaded seem to be working fine. I am going to stick with the latest version of HBC and HBC with my Wii 4.3U and just bide my time waiting for a SMB update.

I still need to do a NAND back-up as well.

Do me a favor and don't lock this thread yet. I want to write up a detailed instruction set of what works and what doesn't and add it to the 1st post--especially what doesn't work, since there are so many suggestions for things that don't work.

When I get some cash I want to get a larger SD card and explore its formatting options as well. I think I have another older card around here somewhere that I tried last year (pre-Homebrew)--I'll see if I can get that formatted and then clearly deteremine and document what works and what does not in terms of formatting. I have a feeling a lot of folks gave up and just bought new cards as a workaround--but I bet those other cards will work in the end with proper formatting.

Thanks to everyone for their help.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/19/2010 04:33AM by DonsSword.