Any of you jerks know how to format a write protected SD card?

Is it even possible? We have a bunch of 14G SD cards from older versions of Ford's Navigation software and I'd love to format one and use it for something else. Is it possible to do this or are they just trash?

Do they have the little slide-tab removed ?

I don't know if the write-protection feature is something internal in the card (i.e., does the slide switch short some contacts inside), or rather if the reading device (camera or whatever) have a microswitch that senses when the tab is one way or another....or missing

someone suggested on the internets, that placing an appropriately sized piece of tape over the spot where the possibly missing slider would be, might do the trick. Like old floppy disks that had the notch cut out, or cassette tapes with the tab broken off.

Tab is there, but still won't erase. Tried it in both positions just to see if they were backwards. It shows to erase everything, but once you refresh the device, it's all back again. Tried to do a format, no go. Will not format at all.

The write-protection feature is internal to the card. As long as that's in the correct position you should be able to format it.

Edit: I see you tried that. Now I'm leaning towards the card being toast, I've seen some do that before. Try with different software (Gparted on an Ubuntu boot CD maybe) and if it doesn't work, toss it.

Hmmmmmm, interesting. Unless they some kind of weird card that was burned once and isn't actually re-writeable. Like, for example, it can be read as an SD card, but isn't actually a standard read/write SD card on the inside. That's a possibility perhaps.

lastsnare wrote: Hmmmmmm, interesting. Unless they some kind of weird card that was burned once and isn't actually re-writeable. Like, for example, it can be read as an SD card, but isn't actually a standard read/write SD card on the inside. That's a possibility perhaps.

These do exist and they're used in law enforcement, but you'd figure there would be some kind of labelling to indicate it.

The card is toast. The EEPROM isn't doing the "E" properly.

Well E36 M3, figured we'd get some free 14G SD cards. LOL

If you have a bunch of them and they behave the same, I bet it's not a failed card but a feature meant to protect the nav data.

I believe the write protect tab is an electrical switch. The eeprom has a write protect lead on it and the tab is activating (or deactivating) that. The write protect is thus on the sd card itself and it doesn't have to trust the machine it's going in to do its job correctly. Perhaps the Ford SD cards have just had that trace cut or soldered over by the factory in order to bypass the write protect tab. Someone like Ford would be ordering enough that the SD card factory would have no hesitation to do that modification for them.

dculberson wrote: If you have a bunch of them and they behave the same, I bet it's not a failed card but a feature meant to protect the nav data. I believe the write protect tab is an electrical switch. The eeprom has a write protect lead on it and the tab is activating (or deactivating) that. The write protect is thus on the sd card itself and it doesn't have to trust the machine it's going in to do its job correctly. Perhaps the Ford SD cards have just had that trace cut or soldered over by the factory in order to bypass the write protect tab. Someone like Ford would be ordering enough that the SD card factory would have no hesitation to do that modification for them.

Or they are ROM and not actually rewritable.

Which is entirely possible but would probably cost more than eeprom with a solder blob. (Due to the high quantity of eeprom manufactured.)