Sd card unreadable when inserted into pc.

[Marbury]

I am having a long standing problem with the sd card being unreliable. It seems whenever I take the card out of the Eurorack sampler module (powered off of course) and put into my pc to look at the audio files created, it immediately becomes corrupted, resulting in a non readable drive that needs reformatting. I then put the card back into the sampler (without reformatting in the pc) and the module does not pick up any of the reels and reads the card as blank.

As you might understand this is highly frustrating for me as I keep losing valuable performances merley by just placing the card into my Windows 10 pc to save the files created on the Morphagene. I have reformatted the card quite a number of times over the last few months and started again with new sounds but at some point the pc refuses to see the data and asks to reformat. It's an endless cycle.

Is there any way I can get into this card without reformatting as I believe audio files could still be on it ?

[James Perrett]

Are you formatting the cards on the computer or on the sampler? What format are you using? Are you using decent branded cards or Chinese brands from places like Amazon? Have you tried a smaller card (some devices don't like cards above a certain size)?

Edit: - If you have only tried one card then it is likely that the card is faulty. I notice from the manual that the sampler appears to be continually writing to the card so it is possible that the card has come to the end of its useful life.

[Marbury]

It's a micro sd card (that makenoise supply with the unit) and the sampler was purchased last May 2022 so really that short a life ? I have micro sd cards in my camera's that have lasted years and still going. When I opt to re-format in Windows I choose fat 32.

[James Perrett]

If you've only tried one SD card then try another. My son has had similar problems with the SD card for his 3D printer which is only about a year old. The unknown brands don't seem to last long although I've also had a SanDisk card that stopped working after a year or so.

[Marbury]

I don't have any other spare cards unfortunately.This one is actually a Sandisk though.

[Hugh Robjohns]

It does sound like a failed card. Having a spare is always a good idea anyway.

If you format the card in Windows can you write and read files to it satisfactorily? It would be good to prove the computer card reader is working correctly.

Have you tried creating a 'reel' in Reaper, exporting it as 32bit FP, and importing into the sampler? Be good to know if the sampler can read the card.

[ajay_m]

Purchase some lower capacity (16g or so) reputable cards, they cost beans and try them. I have a huge pile of small micro SD cards for use with raspberry pi's etc and weird interoperability issues with them are far from uncommon. Note if you can use a standard sd usb adaptor then when you fit the microsd card into an SD card adaptor this has a wrote protect switch which will prevent the pc making any changes.

[James Perrett]

I don't have any other spare cards unfortunately.This one is actually a Sandisk though.

You need to buy one - it is madness to keep trying to use the same card if it behaves like this.

[Wonks]

Have you run a full disk check on it on the PC?

[Marbury]

It does sound like a failed card. Having a spare is always a good idea anyway.

If you format the card in Windows can you write and read files to it satisfactorily? It would be good to prove the computer card reader is working correctly.

Have you tried creating a 'reel' in Reaper, exporting it as 32bit FP, and importing into the sampler? Be good to know if the sampler can read the card.

Yes I have made a reel in Reaper as well as created mg.wav files in Audacity using the correct format of 32bit floating point. Something just happens to the card after using it in the unit when I plug it back into the pc that causes it to get corrupted. Makenoise have advised to update the firmware and go from there.

Again it's a Sandisk (provided with the unit) so not a cheap copy or anything.

[MarkOne]

SD Cards do fail. Even the expensive ones. This is why pro level cameras have twin memory card slots. If you speak to any jobbing pro photographer they will have stories of failed SD cards.

And as someone said up-thread they are so cheap now it's madness not to get a handful.

These SanDisk 256GB cards are £6.99 each

[Wonks]

There are lots of fake Sandisks out there, and who knows where Makenoise sourced theirs from.

So if you haven't done a full disk check on it, then do so, if only to verify that it is the size it purports to be and that it can be fully read.

[Marbury]

There are lots of fake Sandisks out there, and who knows where Makenoise sourced theirs from.

So if you haven't done a full disk check on it, then do so, if only to verify that it is the size it purports to be and that it can be fully read.

I just ran a disk check now (properties/tools) and no errors were found.

[merlyn]

I had a look at the manual, and you don't actually have to power the Morphagene off to take out the SD card. You do have to make sure that the card is not busy i.e. the Shift light is not flashing. Is it possible you're powering off when the card is busy?

FAT32 does have crude error checking. When the card is being written to the dirty bit is set. When the write has finished the dirty bit is cleared -- the card is clean. It sounds like when you put the card into the PC the dirty bit has been set, due to an incomplete write.

[Marbury]

I had a look at the manual, and you don't actually have to power the Morphagene off to take out the SD card. You do have to make sure that the card is not busy i.e. the Shift light is not flashing. Is it possible you're powering off when the card is busy?

FAT32 does have crude error checking. When the card is being written to the dirty bit is set. When the write has finished the dirty bit is cleared -- the card is clean. It sounds like when you put the card into the PC the dirty bit has been set, due to an incomplete write.

I'm pretty sure I haven't taken the card out mid write but not ruling it out. I am not familiar with "dirty bit" but I get the gist of what you mean.

I have just recorded some bits in the Morphagene and put the card into the pc with no problem. The second time I did this the pc threw up a "there is a problem with the disk" but still read it fine when I viewed it in explorer. It;'s just a bit flaky the whole system. You even have to write special mg.wav files for the Morphagene to read, as well as being 32 bit at 48khz. Why only 48 for such a high bit rate I don't know.

[merlyn]

Perhaps relevant that it worked the first time, and not the second. Are you ejecting the SD card correctly on Windows?

[Marbury]

Perhaps relevant that it worked the first time, and not the second. Are you ejecting the SD card correctly on Windows?

I take the usb stick out that holds the micro sd card. No need to eject.

[merlyn]

You may get away with not ejecting most of the time, but when there's an issue it would make sense to rule that out. As far as I remember right click on the USB icon in the Taskbar, and choose eject.

[James Perrett]

You may get away with not ejecting most of the time, but when there's an issue it would make sense to rule that out. As far as I remember right click on the USB icon in the Taskbar, and choose eject.

Or right click on the drive in File Explorer and you'll see an option to eject if the drive supports it. USB sticks tend to offer that option while external hard drives don't.

[Marbury]

You may get away with not ejecting most of the time, but when there's an issue it would make sense to rule that out. As far as I remember right click on the USB icon in the Taskbar, and choose eject.

I shall now do that in future thanks.

[MortSahlFan]

Once I started to safely eject disk by right-clicking, I have never had a problem.

I only do it by accident when I'm not sure which drive is which.

[merlyn]

The computer concept here is that there is a difference between the physical drive and the file system on that drive. The OS only knows about the file system. When it's saying there's a problem, that's a problem with the file system. Of course a failing drive can lead to errors in the file system, but not every problem is solved by spamming the Amazon buy button.

[James Perrett]

...but not every problem is solved by spamming the Amazon buy button.

Though I prefer to have one or two spares handy - they are useful when my lad wants to try yet another different OS for his Raspberry Pi.

[Hugh Robjohns]

...not every problem is solved by spamming the Amazon buy button.

I'm not sure that buying one spare micro-SD card really counts as 'spamming', and at under £14 for a 128GB card it's not going to break the bank. With something that small and vulnerable, and with an inherently limited lifespan, having a spare available is undoubtedly a good idea, and in this case would also allow some serious possibilities to be ruled out quickly and easily.

[adrian_k]

You even have to write special mg.wav files for the Morphagene to read, as well as being 32 bit at 48khz. Why only 48 for such a high bit rate I don't know.

Slightly OT but bit depth and sampling frequency relate to separate things - bit depth (not rate) affects the dynamic range and resolution of the recording, sample rate affects the frequency range that can be accurately digitised and reconstructed. 32 bit float has become pretty much standard for DAWs now so maybe your Morphagene is just aligning with that, and it avoids decisions about truncating down to 24 or 16 bit. In theory 48kHz will deal with frequencies up to 24kHz, beyond human hearing and most speakers. So 48kHz/32bit seems like a reasonable all round choice for transferring audio data.