An issue with the SD card

[Chris Clayton]

I gather some users have had problems with the SD card, one of them along the lines that if it is formatted for Android it wont work with Windows and vice versa. Which seems logical. Could you have two separate partitions? I have not ever done anything with partitions so I do not know the answer to that. I suppose ideally a Dual Boot machine should have two SD card sockets. I have used on my previous tablet two USB SD card readers (in addition to the integral SD), normally on a hub. They both have large micro SD cards and work entirely satisfactorily.

So I am wondering, when my machine arrives can I not use the integral SD card for Windows, and have a card in one of my readers dedicated to and formatted for Android? (or vice versa). Will there be an issue with Android recognising it as the default SD storage? I expect it will read / write OK. I have had my card readers connected to my Android tablet which reads them, even though everything was saved from Windows. Of course the apps / system files dont work, but images and text files display fine.

A further, related point, is that I have read that with Fat formatting you cannot have a file larger than 4 GB, hence the need for NTFS on system drives. Is this accurate?

[Hans Sprungfeld]

Thanks for suggestions. None of what you said is relevant or related to this issue. It’s just a hardware failure.

1. yes fat32 just allows a max of 4gb files
2. exfat not supported in this android kernel, so only working is fat32 for both win and android
3. you can have two partitions, but windows just allows one partition on sd cards so it wont see the 2nd, also mounting with more than one under android also doesn’t always work automatically
4. of course you can do that, but I wouldn’t plug in lots of times into the micro usb, it seems to be really bad quality and will fail really fast

[Chris Clayton]

OK, so unless I am just unlucky I should not have a problem then. I am rather averse to hardware problems on tablets, my last computer had an unrepairable SSD after only twenty months.

I understand what you are saying about repeatedly plugging in USB drives. That is why I am so satisfed with the design of my new (very cheap) USB hub —– it has 7 ports each with its own switch and light. I leave my usb drives and two SD cards plugged in more or less permanently and just switch them on / off as required, so no wear at all. I was going to buy a similar one for USB 3 but will wait for the machine to be delivered as it may not be required.

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