Since learning to come to terms with CompactFlash cards a few years ago,
I've found that they are not created at all equal. If I stick with Sandisk
I'm ok, and if my frugal tendencies lead me into buying a bargain item by
some other brand, it isn't. I just go with Sandisk and have a near 100%
success rate. Maybe our equipment is more sensitive to inequities than
digital cameras and the like, or maybe other people do have these issues and
I just haven't taken the trouble to notice.
David Bennett
I think I have had to reformat 1 card a couple of times. But, I am wondering if another thing that may be involved is that I have noticed that certain brands of memory cards seem to have more issues with having to be reformatted occasionally.
For example, I have gotten to the point that I hesitate to purchase Lexar memory cards or thumb drives because I have seen their memory have more chances of having problems with files becoming corrupted.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert Carter" <r-carter@xxxxxxx>
To: <bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2005 2:46 PM
Subject: [bookport] Re: FILESYSTEM MUSINGS
: Hi All,
:
: I have had one flash card go bad. It would not work in a pc or camera
: or anything after it failed. I doubt that the Book Port is causing
: these problems as I, like Joni, am a very heavy user and almost never
: have to format a card.
:
: Robert Carter
:
: At 02:39 PM 10/25/2005, you wrote:
: >For what it may be worth, which may not be much, I am an extremely heavy
: >user of the Book Port and have used it since May 2004 and have never had to
: >reformat a flash card. Now I know I have jinxed myself and will be doing it
: >tomorrow.
: >
: >Joni
: >----- Original Message -----
: >From: "Richard Ring" <ring.richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
: >To: <bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
: >Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2005 10:56 AM
: >Subject: [bookport] Re: FILESYSTEM MUSINGS
: >
: >
: >The only issue I would take with your assumption is this. I have had to
: >reformat a card twice in the past two years. Why then, do I not
: >experience these same problems that some (not all) Bookport users seem
: >to report?
: >If I did in fact have to reformat a CF card every six weeks, I would be
: >quite unhappy, so if this is the behavior that the majority of Bookport
: >users are experiencing, then the problem is a severe one.
: >
: >
: >-----Original Message-----
: >From: bookport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
: >[mailto:bookport-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Brian Buhrow
: >Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2005 10:50 AM
: >To: bookport@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
: >Subject: [bookport] FILESYSTEM MUSINGS
: >
: >
: >Hello. I've been reading this list for a couple of months, and
: >have
: >noticed what seems to be a somewhat common thread which appears to match
: >my
: >experience, and which, if it's true, raises issues which I think should
: >be
: >addressed in order to make the user experience for the bookport an even
: >happier one.
: > From what I can tell, there are a number of users who purchase
: >their
: >bookports from APH, get them home, load them up with data, read from
: >them,
: >and are completely happy with them. Then, after a month or two of use,
: >when books have been cycled through the unit, and the user is feeling
: >more
: >comfortable putting more and more on the Bookport, he begins
: >experiencing
: >difficulties when transfering data to the Bookport. Flash cards fill
: >unexpectedly during transfers, users encounter file coruption during the
: >reading process, or weird errors just happen, seemingly from no where.
: >the advice on this list, generally, seems to be that flash cards
: >get
: >corrupted, and they either have gone bad, or need to be reformatted
: >before
: >they work again for another month or two.
: >My experience coincides with this description. I have had my
: >Bookport
: >for about four months, and have had to reformat the flash card I use
: >most
: >often at least once. It's now been about six weeks since I last
: >reformatted my flash card, and I'm now beginning to see anomolous
: >behavior,
: >which I suspect will go away if I reformat my card yet again.
: >All of this is to say that I think there is a subttle filesystem
: >bug
: >in the Bookport which no one yet quite understands. On clean, i.e.
: >newly
: >formatted flash cards, things work well. Then, as material comes and
: >goes
: >from the filesystem on the flash card, some of it written by the host
: >computer, some by the Bookport itself, the filesystem becomes "dirty" in
: >the way that most filesystems become "dirty" over time. Directories
: >become
: >fragmented as items are deleted and inserted, disk block allocations
: >become
: >fragmented as well, and the efficiency of the filesystem on the flash
: >card
: >becomes less over time. All of this is normal, and should be expected.
: >The rub is that the Bookport appears to not deal well with this loss of
: >efficiency, and as a consequence, becomes very fickle in its operation
: >as
: >the filesystems on its flash cards age.
: >While, as someone suggested, running defragmentation programs
: >against
: >the filesystems on one's flash cards for Bookport might aleviate the
: >problem, I'm not convinced this will totally help because I don't think
: >defragmentation programs zero out blocks they free up on the filesystems
: >they fix. The behavior I observe with my bookport leads me to believe
: >that
: >the firmware makes certain assumptions about what is in its various file
: >buffers, and reuses them without necessarily properly cleaning them.
: >For
: >example, I have an MP3 file on my bookport right now which reads fine,
: >except if I query the percentage status while the file is playing, and
: >I've
: >read more than 50% of it. If I hit the 8 key when the latter half of
: >the
: >file is playing, I get an FS buffer panic, followed by a bunch of audio
: >file read error messages, accompanied by choppy sound until I either
: >stop
: >the bookport, or it comes to the end of the file in question.
: >Let me stress, though, that I'm not trying to suggest that I
: >know what
: >the problem is, or how to fix it. However, I believe there is a
: >problem,
: >and that it should be looked into. The bookport should be able to deal
: >with filesystems which pass chkdsk or scandisk, but which aren't
: >necessarily pristine in terms of not having been used, and users
: >shouldn't
: >have to regularly reformat their flash cards in order to preserve
: >usability.
: >I love my bookport, but this issue, what ever it is, certainly
: >adds to
: >my level of frustration using it, and makes it downright inconvenient at
: >times, while I cajole it into working.
: >-Brian
:
:
