I can't read my microSD

[Nyxm]

No idea why, but I cannot get my microSD card to show up when I plug it in through a USB memory card reader. I know that there isn't a problem with the reader, because it will read a regular SD just fine. I am trying to get the pictures I have taken with my phone into the hard drive. I am using Kubuntu 10.04.

[dibl]

Re: I can't read my microSD

Plug it in and give it a minute to settle, and then open Konsole and run

lsusb

and let's have a look at the output.

[Nyxm]

Re: I can't read my microSD

Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 011: ID 058f:6331 Alcor Micro Corp.
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

Not really sure what any of this means.

[dibl]

Re: I can't read my microSD

Is the Alcor Micro device the USB reader?

[Nyxm]

Re: I can't read my microSD

I guess. I'm more used to the Microsoft way of thinking and not really used to reading command lines to see what's going on.

[Nyxm]

Re: I can't read my microSD

I don't know if there is something wrong with the card itself, because the card works fine in my phone, but won't show up on the computer and I just tried to use it in my sister-in-law's phone and that didn't work. Put it back in my phone, works like new. Help!!!

[dibl]

Re: I can't read my microSD

It's a little hard to know where to suspect a problem -- I wonder if the connector on the card is a little "iffy", or something like that.

Assuming a valid FAT filesystem, and a working USB system and connections, which you appear to have, there's nothing special about a microSD card, versus a USB memory stick, versus a USB external disk drive, versus a standard SD or SDHC card -- they are all USB storage devices, from the viewpoint of the OS. It should "just work" -- i.e. you should be able to insert the card in the reader, and plug the reader into a USB connector, and the device notifier widget (which you hopefully have installed) should pop up and offer to open the device in Dolphin and/or another choice or two.

So, if it doesn't work, there are all kinds of possible reasons, including firmware in the reader that doesn't actually "read" the card correctly, or a corrupted filesystem on the card, or tobacco juice on the connector .....

(just kidding about the tobacco juice, but I think you get the idea here).

[Yuri sss]

Re: I can't read my microSD

The last mobile phone I got also has microSD, and it had a microSD-to-SD adapter card coming with it - you put the microSD card into the adapter card and the adapter card into a regular SD slot in your card reader. I have to use it because the card reader on my PC doesn't have a microSD slot, but only a regular SD slot. Didn't have any problems with that.

You could go to a mobile phone shop and ask for a microSD-to-SD adapter card, should be pretty cheap. Then put your microSD card inside and see if it works in a regular SD slot.

[oshunluvr]

Re: I can't read my microSD

Before you go buying things - whats your dmesg output?

Open a terminal (Konsole), then before you plug in the usb device type dmesg in the terminal. Note the last entry - the string of numbers is the date/time code. Then plug in your usb card reader with the micro card in it and what a tic - then type dmesg again. Post any new output.