From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Feb 3 12:33:59 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0FE07106564A for ; Tue, 3 Feb 2009 12:33:59 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from web@umich.edu) Received: from hackers.mr.itd.umich.edu (smtp.mail.umich.edu [141.211.14.81]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B4CBA8FC14 for ; Tue, 3 Feb 2009 12:33:58 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from web@umich.edu) Received: FROM dell1 (Unknown [141.211.15.39]) BY hackers.mr.itd.umich.edu ID 498839B5.1C9F5.16634 ; 3 Feb 2009 07:33:57 -0500 Date: Tue, 3 Feb 2009 07:32:26 -0500 From: William Bulley To: Warren Block Message-ID: <20090203123226.GB6430@dell1> Mail-Followup-To: Warren Block , Jerry McAllister , Mel , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.3i Cc: Jerry McAllister , Mel , freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: short-changed on SD card? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 03 Feb 2009 12:33:59 -0000 According to Warren Block on Mon, 02/02/09 at 15:29: > > newfs_msdos(8) Learned something new there. Thanks! > It's generally not useful to slice/partition a small SD card. Without a > slice table, the whole device is just one slice. Agreed. I just want a big chuck of storage (in this case the 2.0 GB that I paid for, sigh...) and I don't care what format it is in. As I said, I am happy with FAT16 as long as I can use all (approximately) 2.0 GB of it. > Offhand I don't know if you can overwrite an existing slice table (boot > block) with just a 'newfs_msdos /dev/da1'. Probably. This is something I will try. > If not, you can just 'dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/da1 bs=512 cnt=1' and then > do the newfs_msdos. Okay. This is worth a try. > If you plan to use that card in a camera, you are a little safer doing a > "full" or "low-level" format with the card in the camera. Some cameras > create and like not-quite-right filesystems. Older Canon cameras, for > instance. This is not for use in a camera. It is just a quick and dirty way for me to grab (about) 2.0 GB from one FreeBSD system and plop it onto another. > Finally, there are more than a few reports of SD cards with false > capacities bought on ebay. This SD card was purchased from a reputable firm in New York whose name you would recognize were I to mention it. I have had nothing but good experiences buying from them in the past (many years > four). Regards, web... -- William Bulley Email: web@umich.edu