T|T3 2GB SD card read-only?

[ballastrika]

Hi all,

First post for me - I've been reading through pages of description of problems with 2 GB SD cards on the Tungsten T3, and have a question on it.

Some posters have stated that they can read from the card with no problem, but can't write.

Does this mean a 2 GB (and possibly 4GB?) card could be used only for music & video playback on a T3, after having loaded the files from a PC? Would the FAT32 patch be required for read-only access to a 2GB+ SD card?

Thanks for the help,
Christopher

[yorrick]

There has been a few threads on it, but it can be summarised as follows:
1) The T3 can only handle FAT16 - not FAT32.

2) PalmOne/Palm has crippled the T3 to only use FAT16 and the maximum SD size it can handle is a 1.5GB card. It's a stupid limitation that hampers a lot of users.
(Yes - Palm is part of the SD card forum and the T3 was released at a time when everyone was using FAT32....)

3) A 2GB SD card formatted as FAT32 cannot be read by the T3.
It will whinge and complain that it is an "unrecognised format" and ask to format the volume ... which it will fail.

4) A 2GB card formatted as a FAT16 can be read by the T3 (in a read only mode) - but cannot be written to (which means writing files, erasing files or formatting the card).

If you intend to use the 2GB (or larger) card as a read only media for MP3 or video, then it should be fine. Otherwise, the maximum SD card you can use is a 1.5GB card (whcih do apparently exist but are very rare to find!)

Hope this helps!

[potter]

2) PalmOne/Palm has crippled the T3 to only use FAT16 and the maximum SD size it can handle is a 1.5GB card. It's a stupid limitation that hampers a lot of users.
(Yes - Palm is part of the SD card forum and the T3 was released at a time when everyone was using FAT32....)
Not quite true. FAT32 has only recently been added to the SD standard, and I am not sure if that new standard has been ratified yet. However, that does not excuse the 1.5G limit.

[ReadOnly]

Hmm.
Finding 1.5GB cards are like finding hen's teeth! Good Luck!
BUT...
I wonder if a 2GB card be partitioned to provide a 1.5GB partition that will work with the T3's limitations on writing?
I would seriously doubt the second, 0.5GB, partition would be seen by the PalmOS...

[yorrick]

Hmm.
Finding 1.5GB cards are like finding hen's teeth! Good Luck!
BUT...
I wonder if a 2GB card be partitioned to provide a 1.5GB partition that will work with the T3's limitations on writing?
I would seriously doubt the second, 0.5GB, partition would be seen by the PalmOS...

Unfortunately, this won't work on an external card as it thinks it is one device, not two (such as a partitioned device). I have tried doing this with my 2GB card and formatting a 1.5GB device with FAT16 and quite happy to forgo the 0.5GB memory. It seems Mac and Windows devices don't like this concept.. :(

[cyg]

i've also got a 2-GB card with a T3 and don't know what can i do with it! :(

can anyone help?

[cyg]

just another thought: will the modified FAT32 driver from LiveDrive work on T3?