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I am returning a faulty Integral CF card for replacement but would like to understand the nature of the issue. When inserting CF card into Kingston FCR-HS3-0 card reader the file system does not mount it although eventually after long delay it comes up as FAT32 file system.

On GParted I attempt to re-partition it ... again to FAT32 which shouldn't be a problem.

My actions were to unmount, delete partition followed by Partition NEW etc and then EDIT all operations.

This failed with the following report:-

GParted 0.25.0 --enable-libparted-dmraid --enable-online-resize

Libparted 3.2 Delete /dev/sdd1 (fat32, 59.68 GiB) from /dev/sdd 00:00:05 ( SUCCESS )

calibrate /dev/sdd1 00:00:00 ( SUCCESS )

path: /dev/sdd1 (partition) start: 16064 end: 125173439 size: 125157376 (59.68 GiB) delete partition 00:00:05 ( SUCCESS )

======================================== Create Primary Partition #1 (fat32, 29.84 GiB) on /dev/sdd 00:00:38 ( ERROR )

create empty partition 00:00:01 ( SUCCESS )

path: /dev/sdd1 (partition) start: 2048 end: 62584831 size: 62582784 (29.84 GiB) clear old file system signatures in /dev/sdd1 00:00:00 ( SUCCESS )

write 512.00 KiB of zeros at byte offset 0 00:00:00 ( SUCCESS ) write 4.00 KiB of zeros at byte offset 67108864 00:00:00 ( SUCCESS ) write 512.00 KiB of zeros at byte offset 32041861120 00:00:00 ( SUCCESS ) write 4.00 KiB of zeros at byte offset 32042319872 00:00:00 ( SUCCESS ) write 8.00 KiB of zeros at byte offset 32042377216 00:00:00 ( SUCCESS ) flush operating system cache of /dev/sdd 00:00:00 ( SUCCESS ) set partition type on /dev/sdd1 00:00:01 ( SUCCESS )

new partition type: fat32 create new fat32 file system 00:00:36 ( ERROR )

mkfs.fat -F32 -v -I -n "WAVEREP5 " /dev/sdd1 00:00:36 ( ERROR )

mkfs.fat 3.0.28 (2015-05-16) /dev/sdd1 has 64 heads and 32 sectors per track, hidden sectors 0x0800; logical sector size is 512, using 0xf8 media descriptor, with 62582784 sectors; drive number 0x80; filesystem has 2 32-bit FATs and 32 sectors per cluster. FAT size is 15272 sectors, and provides 1954756 clusters. There are 32 reserved sectors. Volume ID is bfdee38c, volume label WAVEREP5 . mkfs.fat: failed whilst writing FAT

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So what is likely to be wrong? Is there something else for me to try (before RMA ing the card to the manufacturer)?

I must add that my use of CF cards is for general data storage - I think it is a handy and robust way to archive files to removable media - in preference to memory sticks. I opt to format always to FAT32 because it is so universal.

There has never been any difficulty with other CF cards - I have used several other Integral CF cards with no problems.

Not understanding the full nature of a CF card, it would good to get an inkling of what might at fault.

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    What happens if you create a partition with something other than fat32? If something else works, then try fat32 again. What brand CF card? Purchased where? And using CF cards as "backup" storage is not the most reliable way to keep backups. To prove it, try and read a CF card that you created some time ago.
    – heynnema
    Feb 7, 2019 at 15:17
  • A further oddity is a ? time out from inserting CF card into reader. GParted shows "Searching /dev/sda partition which goes on for some 4 mins before any devices are shown. Feb 8, 2019 at 13:02
  • A further oddity is a ? time out from inserting CF card into reader. Card reader activity led flashes continually. GParted shows "Searching /dev/sda partition" which goes on for some 4 mins with activity bar sliding back & forth before any devices are shown. When it is ok to examine sda1. I try formatting to ext4 which is successful BUT card reader again goes into continual flashing. When eventually it settles - File manager Properties gives the size as "2 items, totalling 0 bytes(some contents unreadable) and permissions are all greyed out - so of course I cannot write to the ext4 partition Feb 8, 2019 at 13:30
  • /dev/sda sounds like your HDD, not your CF. Are you sure there isn't a problem with your HDD?
    – heynnema
    Feb 8, 2019 at 14:21
  • HDD is ok and consists of /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2 There is also /dev/sdc on the system. The CF card is treated like a hard drive because of the controller on board the CF card. The CF card is coming up with an identity /dev/sdd so that is what is to be expected. I think it is GParted beginning its search with sda before proceeding to other devices. sdd is definitely the identity of the problem CF. Feb 8, 2019 at 15:03

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