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[6315_user]

Hopefully this discussion of my experience will be helpful to others - my conclusion is that you should stick with using SD cards in your iPAQ (and possibly other devices as well) that include the traditional write-protect switch.

I had been using a Kingmax (see www.kingmaxdigi.com/product/SD.htm) 1GB 60x SD card since I purchased my iPAQ in Sep. 2004. I only used the card in the iPAQ and had never used it in a PC or other device. At the time that I purchased the Kingmax card, it was attractive because of the low price for seemingly high performance (e.g., R/W speeds) - I did the research on performance and price and ended up purchasing the card from Overtsock.com for about $50 (which was a very competitive price at the time). The main distinction of the Kingmax to other SD cards is the omission of a write-protect switch (Kingmax of course reasons why this is of no significance in its FAQs - see www.kingmaxdigi.com/support/faq.htm).

Since I had so much success (or no problems) with the first card, I purchased two more around Jan. 2005 to use in my Kodak digital camera. I used one card in the camera without problem for months, but only carried the other card as a spare without ever testing it (which was a mistake - I am always very busy, but I now make it a point to test any purchase asap within 30 days).

Then it happened; I needed to use the spare card (i.e., card no. 3) to transfer some digital pictures to a photo printer at the local super-store (you know the one, so I won't mention the name). So, I popped the card into the card slot of my HP laptop, but the PC could not read or format the card. After trying to use the card in both my iPAQ and my digital camera, I realized that the card was faulty and just did not work at all. No problem, I figured, I'll just use the existing card from my iPAQ on my laptop to transfer the pictures - big mistake (however, I was smart enough to regularly back up my iPAQ using ActiveSync and that saved me later).

The simple and reasonable action of using the SD card from my iPAQ temporarily to print some pictures was devastating. Everything seemed to work fine at first - the laptop appeared to read the card and allow me to copy the pictures over (jpegs). But, when I put the card back in the iPAQ to copy some files over to it using ActiveSync, the transfer attempt failed every time, locking up ActiveSync. Furthermore, I could no longer access the data/files on the card using either my iPAQ or the laptop. This was troubling because I now had one bad card straight from the package and another card (from my iPAQ) that was now not working right - I didn't dare try anything with the remaining card that I was using in my digital camera - but I still needed to transfer the pictures. So I ended paying about $30 more than I would have from an online retailer to purchase an emergency card from the local super-store, a SanDisk 1GB SD card with a write-protect switch (the best option of cost and performance). I successfully used the SanDisk card to transfer the pictures and then later used it to copy all the data that was previously stored on the now malfunctioning Kingmax card for use in my iPAQ without any problems from the new card.

But, before I used the SanDisk replacement card for my iPAQ, I first spent a good bit of the remaining day trying to get the Kingmax SD card to recover - that is, to be able to read and write to the card. But, the card would not support reads, writes, or re-formatting (i.e., could not format the SD card). I tried of a couple of software support options, including “Flash Format” by CNetX (see www.cnetx.com/format/) and “Recover Manager” by VAIOSoft (see www.vaiosoft.com/products/recoverymanager.html) - Flash Format appears to be a good program for the iPAQ, although neither it or Recovery Manager could help with recovering the Kingmax card. It basically ended with the Kingmax card being locked to writes and formatting and only providing limited reads of apparently corrupted data (mostly image files) - Kingmax supposedly offers a 2 year warranty (although it’s through the retailer), which will be fine for the out of the package non-functioning card, but I am not comfortable returning the “locked” card that I was using in my iPAQ (i.e., since data may still be recoverable from it), so that may just be a loss. Furthermore, I have no intention to rely on the third card anymore either.

So, bottom line (and believe me, I searched everywhere for information and tools to resolve this problem first), it appears that you are better off using SD cards (for your iPAQ, PC, etc.) that have the traditional write-protect switch to avoid unexpected loss of data access (i.e., read, write, or corruption) and the ability to format (or re-format). From what I could gather, the problem may be related to a conflict between windows and the SD format aggravated by the lack of the write-protect “notch.” My response was to order 4 additional SD cards (of course, with the traditional write-protect switch) (one each) made by RiData, A-Data, Transcend, and Extreme Performance, all of which have been tested and have been working fine in all devices. I have replaced the remaining Kingmax card in my digital camera with one of these cards and now have several spares as well. FYI, my research for price and reliability led me to purchase from NewEgg.com with good results - in fact, I had to return one card back because, get this, it was a 500MB card mispackaged in a 1GB package - but the return went fine and I promptly received the replacement of the proper card.

Again, since I found little or no information of this sort in my search, I hope this will be helpful information to others.