I thought I broke my sd card, but fixed it.

[lozoot]

I was going to post an omg help I broke my SD card while formatting, cause the pi lost power. But after 2 days of constant effort I found a way. First off no tricks guides or advice helped. I was formatting the pi lost power. I tried booting pi, nothing. Isolated it to SD card put it in USB adapter, popped it in a win7 PC, formatted with sdformatter v4. Wouldn't work at all. Then hoping to God it would work again, I put it in my android phone. Success. I can use it still. Then after trying windows, linux, Android, cameras, anything a SD card would go in I found out I could access the card in win7 via My Computer (edit:but only with the card mounted in my android phone, formatted and phone plugged into PC USB port) Erased the files created during the last android format, copied the noobs lite to the sdcard from my computer, unplugged phone from PC, unmount from phone, removed card from phone, popped it back in the rpi3, SUCCESS. I'm so happy right now. I had to tell anyone how to do it. I didn't find this out from a site. Everyone always says it can't be done. Please help verify this works in other windows. It will help noobs like me not spend 2 days and save a bit of money.

[lozoot]

i have done this to a second SD card now. I have a mini guide to follow regarding the second go around.

1 Insert SD drive that can't be recognized in win 7 or win 10 into android phone.
2 Plug phone into win 7 computer. Your android phone should show as a device with two drives.
3 Format the card with android.
4 Erase the directory in My computer. (At this point, you should not use anything on the phone unless it's step 6)
5 Drag your NOOBS full or lite directory to the "External SD Card" directory using Win 7.
6 Unlock your phone and unmount the sdcard.
7 Power off the phone.
8 Remove sdcard and put it in a RPI 3.
9 Boot the pi. It should load NOOBS

I had 1 failure on the second one. I think it was cause I messed around on the phones browser a bit, after I deleted the files but before I put NOOBS on. The USB connection on my phone is really bad. I don't recommend using a phone like this. It was extremely frustrating. You also cannot do this from within android. I tried using an app to move the files but the pi failed loading something when it boots every single time. I might try unzipping the files with the unzip app directly to the drive, but you still have to erase the files android puts in when the card formats. Android won't let you erase these files without root permissions.

[i486]

Next time you can try GParted under Linux.

[lozoot]

Well some people don't always have Linux or a camera. In my case the card wouldn't do anything in any PC until I accessed it through my phone hooked to win 7. Please keep it on topic. I might be new here but saying do it this way or that way isn't the point of the thread. If you can confirm this guide works on another windows is it would be appreciated.

[i486]

GParted can be written on bootable CD without Linux installation. And some people don't have Android...

[lozoot]

The people that search for ways to do this with a Windows PC are flooded with experienced Linux users saying use Linux. I just want wanted the posts to stay on Windows PC and android being used together... I don't want a pat on the back or anything really except for someone to confirm more windows OSes, and for noobs to not see a Linux user to say use Linux. I don't have Linux. I don't have an additional SD card. I did try the camera and it would not work. And when someone asks about it, they are told to buy a new card, or use Linux, or you can't do this with android. Sorry but if you say use Linux, or spend money, it's off topic because I did neither and I expect others wouldn't want to/be able to do either. Besides there are already a thousand post on this site that say what you guys said. There are only two outlining my experience, and now it's ruined because you have to scroll through, what I deem off topic, to find out if it will work on Windows 10, which I cannot confirm.

OT: I see why there are so many one time posters here now.

[BMS Doug]

The people that search for ways to do this with a Windows PC are flooded with experienced Linux users saying use Linux. I just want wanted the posts to stay on Windows PC and android being used together... I don't want a pat on the back or anything really except for someone to confirm more windows OSes, and for noobs to not see a Linux user to say use Linux. I don't have Linux. I don't have an additional SD card. I did try the camera and it would not work. And when someone asks about it, they are told to buy a new card, or use Linux, or you can't do this with android. Sorry but if you say use Linux, or spend money, it's off topic because I did neither and I expect others wouldn't want to/be able to do either. Besides there are already a thousand post on this site that say what you guys said. There are only two outlining my experience, and now it's ruined because you have to scroll through, what I deem off topic, to find out if it will work on Windows 10, which I cannot confirm.

OT: I see why there are so many one time posters here now.

I've never had a corrupted SD card so I can't speak from personal experience about any method of recovering lost SD cards, just pass on knowledge that has been proven to work by others.

Your original posts are still there, at the top of the topic, passing on your successful experiences of reformatting an SD card using a combination of windows and Android.

If your intended topic is "Reformatting corrupted SD card with Windows and Android" then I suggest that you rename the topic that (edit the topic name in the first post) or ask a moderator to do so for you.

As you are upset with the concept of scrolling past other posts in this thread I will delete my previous contributions although I feel that we disagree on how message board forums operate.

Once you have read this message please report it as off topic and a moderator can delete it for you when they get time.

[Martin Frezman]

Once you have read this message please report it as off topic and a moderator can delete it for you when they get time.

Or you could have sent it as a PM instead.

[fruitoftheloom]

Well some people don't always have Linux or a camera. In my case the card wouldn't do anything in any PC until I accessed it through my phone hooked to win 7. Please keep it on topic. I might be new here but saying do it this way or that way isn't the point of the thread. If you can confirm this guide works on another windows is it would be appreciated.

Android is a Linux Operating System

[i486]

http://gparted.org/livecd.php

Linux here is no more than in Android.

[ktb]

Hi lozoot,

I hope you will not be offended by my post.

People have been using the method you feel you discovered for as long as I've been a member on this site. I'm sure it was happening before I joined as well.

Your thread title is comical and contradicts itself. It is not surprising that others have joined the conversation to add their own input and experience.

I hope you stick around and take the opportunity to learn more. The collective knowledge and experience of the forum members here is a very valuable resource.

Have fun with your Pi.

- KTB

[bensimmo]

I'm guessing here the Android phone was used as the SD Card reader and for some reason it could mount the card when windows (or Linux etc that he tried) could not.
He could then format and copy files back for NOOBS into the FAT32 partition?.
?

If it works then good and that's easier than buying a USB pen or a DVD drive or looking up gparted etc.
It's an easy solution (and an alternative) if you have a pc, android and a cable.

OP if it happens again, could you format from within Android and then write the files from within Android?
Maybe use 'RasPi Card Imager' app to write Noobs/Noobs Lite, removing the need for Windows at all.

[lozoot]

Hi lozoot,

I hope you will not be offended by my post.

People have been using the method you feel you discovered for as long as I've been a member on this site. I'm sure it was happening before I joined as well.

Your thread title is comical and contradicts itself. It is not surprising that others have joined the conversation to add their own input and experience.

I hope you stick around and take the opportunity to learn more. The collective knowledge and experience of the forum members here is a very valuable resource.

Have fun with your Pi.

- KTB

After rechecking the forum i posted in, and after reading my title over because of what doug said about it, i have to agree. I apologize for my attitude. I have been awake alot during the past few days trying to fix this and taking care of kids.

I have not had internet since the sd card went during the power failure in the OP. I have done some browsing, but if you know of a thread with solutions we could post in thats great, i plan on posting in some soon. During my browsing experience i found nothing like this except ppl asking for a way and ppl saying use a new card.

I'm guessing here the Android phone was used as the SD Card reader and for some reason it could mount the card when windows (or Linux etc that he tried) could not.
He could then format and copy files back for NOOBS into the FAT32 partition?.
?

If it works then good and that's easier than buying a USB pen or a DVD drive or looking up gparted etc.
It's an easy solution (and an alternative) if you have a pc, android and a cable.

OP if it happens again, could you format from within Android and then write the files from within Android?
Maybe use 'RasPi Card Imager' app to write Noobs/Noobs Lite, removing the need for Windows at all.

wish i new about this sooner, i had to look it up. Ive been really searching a browser for this kind of help, but apparently it was in the app store the whole time. but yes a canakit usb to micro sd adapter that came with my kit malfunctioned while writing and has nothing to do with the card being corrupt but yeah im using phone as an adapter.

Android is a Linux Operating System

Yeah, its the equivalent of taking ms dos and turning it into windows. It kinda makes me wish i didnt spend 45$ a month on it. I wish i spent 45 on rpis every month instead.


I really am sorry i was upset but i really thought i was helping people, not asking for help.