An SD Card is a small electronic storage medium used by a plethora of storage devices including smartphones, games devices, camcorders, cameras and even single board computers such as the Raspberry Pi.

The main problem I had was getting the device name for the SD Card to pass to CreateFile. I've fudged it by reading all the valid ones from the registry. It also gets CF cards and god knows what else, which don't store serial nos and manufacturer ids. Find out how to copy contacts between your Samsung smartphone, SIM card, and SD card. The exact steps vary depending on your model and operating system. Find out how to copy contacts between your Samsung smartphone, SIM card, and SD card. Calls to 0330 numbers cost no more than calls to geographic numbers (01 or 02).

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Insert the SD Card Into Your Computer

Most modern computers have an SD card slot somewhere on the side of the computer. The slot is generally designed to be the same size as a normal SD card and so micro and mini SD cards need to be inserted into an SD card adapter in order to insert them into the computer.

It is possible to get an SD card adapter that accepts Mini SD cards and in turn, a Mini SD adapter that accepts micro SD cards.

If your computer doesn't have an SD card slot you will need to use an SD card reader. There are hundreds of these available on the market and they come in many different shapes and sizes.

With an SD card reader, you simply need to insert the SD card into the reader and then plug the reader into the USB port on your computer.

The way that you format an SD card has been the same for a number of years and these instructions are for all versions of Windows.

The Easiest Way to Format an SD Card Using Windows

The easiest way to format an SD card is as follows: Coreldraw x7 for windows 7.

1. Open Windows Explorer.
2. Find the drive letter for your SD card.
3. Right-click, and when the menu appears click Format.

The file system defaults to FAT32 which is fine for smaller SD cards but for larger cards (64 gigabytes and up) you should choose exFAT.

You can give the formatted drive a name by entering it into the Volume Label.

A warning will appear notifying you that all of the data on the drive will be erased.

At this point, your drive should be formatted correctly.

How to Format Write Protected SD Cards

Sometimes when attempting to format an SD card you will receive an error saying that it is write protected.

The first thing to check is whether the little tab is set on the SD card itself. Remove the SD card from the computer (or the SD Card reader).

Look at the edge and you will see a little tab which can be moved up and down. Move the tab into the opposite position (i.e. if it is up, move it down and if it is down, move it up).

Reinsert the SD card and try to format the SD card again.

If this step fails or there is no tab on the SD card follow these instructions:

1. If you are using Windows 8 and above you can right click the start button and click Command Prompt (Admin).
2. If you are using XP, Vista or Windows 7 press the start button and right click on the Command Prompt option and choose Run as administrator. You may need to navigate through the menus to find the Command Prompt icon.
3. Type diskpart.
4. Type list disk.
5. A list of all the available disks on your computer will appear. Make a note of the disk number that resembles the same size as the SD card you are formatting.
6. Type select disk n (Where n is the number of the disk for the SD card).
7. Type attributes disk clear readonly.
8. Type clean.
9. Type exit to exit diskpart.
10. Format the SD card again using Windows Explorer as shown in the previous step.

Note that if there is a physical tab on the SD card then this overrides the above instructions and you need to amend the position of the tab to turn read-only on and off.

In step 7 above, 'attributes disk clear readonly' removes the write protection. To set write protection back on, type attributes disk set readonly.

How to Remove Partitions From an SD Card

If you have installed a version of Linux to your SD card because for use on a single board computer such as a Raspberry Pi then there may come a point in time when you want to re-purpose that SD card for other uses.

When you attempt to format the drive you realize that there are only a few megabytes available. The chances are that the SD card has been partitioned so that the SD card could boot correctly into Linux.

If you suspect your SD card has been partitioned you can check by following these steps:

1. If you are using Windows 8 and above right click on the start button and choose Disk Management from the menu.
2. If you are using Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 click on the start button and type diskmgmt.msc into the run box.
3. Find the disk number for your SD card.

You should be able to see a number of partitions assigned to your SD card. Quite often the first partition will show as unallocated, the second will be a small partition (for example 2 megabytes) and the third will be for the rest of the space on the drive.

To format the SD card so that it is one continuous partition follow these steps:

1. If you are using Windows 8 and above you can right click the start button and click Command Prompt (Admin).
2. If you are using XP, Vista or Windows 7 press the start button and right click on the Command Prompt option and choose Run as administrator. You may need to navigate through the menus to find the Command Prompt icon.
3. Type diskpart.
4. Type list disk.
5. Find the disk number that matches your SD card (should be the same size)
6. Type select disk n (where n is the disk number representing your SD card)
7. Type list partition.
8. Type select partition 1.
9. Type delete partition.
10. Repeat steps 8 and 9 until there are no more partitions (note that it will always be partition 1 that you delete because as soon as you delete one the next one along will become partition 1).
11. Type create partition primary.
12. Open Windows Explorer and click on the drive matching your SD card.
13. A message will appear as follows: 'You need to format the disk before you can use it'. Click the Format Disk button.
14. The Format SD Card window will appear. The capacity should now show the size of the whole drive.
15. Choose either FAT32 or exFAT depending on the size of the SD card.
16. Enter a volume label.
17. Click Start.
18. A warning will appear stating that all data will be deleted. Click OK.

I have 400mb of internal storage on my HTC, 100 of which is consumed by my (extensive) contacts. I am constantly low on storage--is there any way to store my contacts on my SD card?

I looked in the application options and the option to move data to SD is grayed out.

Are there other smart ways to manage the size of my contacts list? I can't figure out how to create groups in Google contacts--i don't need to sync my entire addressbook to my phone but I do want to keep the full list. I also don't need to store photos for each contact, but Google seems to add those automatically.

3 Answers

As far as I know, all contacts in Android stored in a SQLite database inside the private folder of the 'Contact Storage' app. The location is at /data/data/com.android.providers.contacts/databases/contacts.db

So if you have root access to your device, it is theoretically fesible to either bind a folder on your SD card to the above location, or it is possible to make the above folder a symbol link (soft link) to a location on your SD card.

However, this is not recommended because the stability and performance of your device can be affected. For example, if you connect your phone to PC and mount it as drive, the SD card is temporarily unmounted on the phone. Another risky situations is when you boot your mobile phone and before the SD card is mounted. The Contact Storage app may try to access the contact list (maybe for caching some of the favorite contacts, or maybe someone call you) during this period, all these may not be expected by the Contact Storage app and could result in unpredictable result (e.g. a dirty state of the app which make your contact inaccessible).

Don't know about forcing contacts onto your SD card, but here are some good approaches to minimizing the volume of contacts that you sync to your phone:

You can Backup your contacts to sd-card : Open Contacts app and press menu button. Click on 'Back up Contacts'. Select 'Memory card'.

Creating Groups in Google Contacts : open https://www.google.com/contacts and sign in with your Google account. There is an option to create groups(The last but one option on Left column) click it and name the group. New group is now created under 'My Cantacts'. You can add contacts in it.

Filtering Contacts : You can filter contacts from particular group. To do this, Click on menu button and select 'Filter' option. Click on your Google account(Last option with email id). Uncheck the groups you want to filter out and click OK.

protected by Community♦Jul 6 '15 at 12:40

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