:) I used fdisk. Using ubuntu linux - it all worked like a charm. I am now up and running with OpenElec : XBMC, Raspbian, and Rasbmc choices. My usb wifi device was to my delight plug and play with XBMC and Raspbian. (not so with raspbmc - but I'll leave that mystery to another day). So mission acco...

I did some more research and found instructions to format it instead via Linux (my Ubuntu laptop has an SD slot). The link is: http://qdosmsq.dunbar-it.co.uk/blog/2013/06/noobs-for-raspberry-pi/ I have followed the instructions. So far so good. I am downloading the noobs zip right now. Will report b...

Thanks again Trevor. I may just give noobs on it in any case.

Oh and sorry Trevor - in answer to your first question - I am using my laptop SD reader/writer. I don't have an external USB device for the SD card that works.

Thanks so much for your response, Trevor. If you mean by "hardware issue" there is something wrong with the card itself, I just bought the card, and this problem happened with another SD card I have. Since the SD card is new and presumably already formatted, what do you think is the risk if I attemp...

I tried to format an 8gb Lexar class 10 SD card under windows 7 using SDFORMATTER 4 and received the message: "Drive Not Supported". Is it really necessary to use this utility? What are my other choices? If I have no other choice - what do I need to get the drive to be recognized by SDFORMATTER?