Swapping SD cards

[rodhead]

I'm looking for some tips on swapping SD cards. I'm new to Palms and this group so bear with me.

I bought a SanDisk 256 MB card with my iQue and had no end of trouble with it. Could be user error. I don't know. The iQue would hang when searching for locations, etc.

Anyway, bought a Panasonic 256 MB card and the mapping stuff has been reliable so far.

Now, I'd like to reuse the SanDisk card for something. So I loaded it up with a bunch of music. I first tried writing mp3 files directly to the card using a flash card reader/writer and then inserting it into the Que. No dice. The Que didn't find any of the files. I then used Palm Desktop to load the card with mp3s. Now they get recognized (mostly). Half the files show up, half don't. Could be the flaky SanDisk card acting up again. That's not the crux of my problem.

I removed the SanDisk card (with music on it) and reinserted the Panasonic (with maps). Surprise! The Que doesn't find any of the map data anymore. The amount of data used on the card shows up correctly, but none of the information.

So, how are you supposed to swap cards? Does a reinsertion of a card have to go through Palm Desktop and a HotSync? Surely, there's a easier way?!!

Thanks,
Rajiv

[Bokkie]

rodhead - I've so far been reluctant to remove my SD card for the very reason that I don't know what will happen to its contents, exactly the concern you have.

fwiw - I've got a SanDisk 256Mb SD card and I've not had a single problem with it. When I navigate with it, I have the Track Up setting enabled and the rotation of the map is very smooth. It sometimes jerks a bit when I take a complex set of turnings, such as using a roundabout with no traffic on it so that I effectively exit it from quickly enough to cause the map refresh to work overtime. So far though, I've not had a single problem with card.

You might want to download a utility called FileZ which I got from www.freewarepalm.com I think the site was called. It's a good directory viewer and I found it useful for looking at the directories on the card. hth.

[Last Mrk]

You should have no problems swapping SD cards for what ever reason you want. I do it regularily.

Of course if you don't have maps on the new SC card, mapping and routing won't work.

[rodhead]

Last Mrk,

I'd really appreciate hearing from you the exact method you use to swap cards. This morning I removed the card with maps on it and inserted the card with music on it, but the Que still seems to think the old card is inserted. It shows the same name of the card and any attempt to access files on it fails, naturally.

Thanks,
Rajiv

[rodhead]

Well, I think I've answered my own question.

If the Que if OFF when a card is extracted, then when a new card is inserted it will switch ON by itself and recognize the new card.

I had been following the Manual a little too closely. It says:

"To Remove An SD Card from the iQue

Make sure the iQue is not reading data from or writing data to the card."

I took this to mean the Que could be ON but not using the card.

[Moose Man]

If you are viewing information from the card - it's kinda like Windows Explorer - it "hangs" if you remove a floppy disk".

All you need to do is perform a soft reset - use the top of the stylus and place it into the reset area on the back of the Que.

This will "refresh" the data and reload - all should be well after this soft reset. With ROM and other battery saving memory - often you have to "burp" the device. Even though you turn the Que off -- the clock and other items are still running in background and as such memory is not dumped until a soft reset is performed. Similar to rebooting a computer.

[stoodo]

IMHO San Disk SD cards are pretty crappy and VERY slow.... I loaded a 140mb map on a San Disk and on a PNY.

I did the same search on both. The PNY to 4-5 seconds and the San Disk took 34-42. seconds....

[Robertp366]

I have swaped SD cards with the Que on. Hard not to since the record button on the side is right where I hold the Que to get my fat fingers on the tiny SD card. Now I use "StayOFF" to keep that from happening.

Be sure that you gave the cards different names when you first installed them!! The Que will then recognize each one when its inserted. I have CardBackup on a 128MB I got at Fry's for $32 (sale) even tho I only need 32 MB for the backup. Great way to recover from a pesky hard reset..... The PalmBackup SD card also works.

BTW - I get occasional Hard Resets only when removing my Que from its cradle (home and car). May not be a static issue; maybe it's crummy contacts in the cradle's Palm Connector, or a power pin releases after the ground pin, or.....

Robert

[sred]

Does Fry's still have a sale on the SD memory? What Brand is the SD memory that you got on sale?

[Robertp366]

The sale was in last week's LA Times - in store discount plus rebate. Not sure if it's still on. Wierd off brand - PQI, but it works, OK for backup. Use it in my digital camera too. No performance tests.

Been using 256 MB SanDisks from Costco - were also on sale a few months ago. I saw a thread about how slow SanDisk was; I'll probably wait for the 32X 512's to drop a bit in price.

As it is, one 256MB holds the world basemap (32MB) plus Hawaii and everything west of Denver including British Colombia and part of Alberta (Lake Louise, one of the most beautiful places in the world....)

Robert