T5442T-ZE / HDW5231R-ZE - SD Card Format Incompatibility?

L

Lexicon44

n3wb
May 2, 2019
22
12
Toronto
I hope some of you guys can weigh in on a strange problem.

I had a 64 GB Micro SD Card that was previously used in a HDW5231R-ZE cam. I think I put the card in a new T5442T-ZE (to make sure the SD card slot worked) and formatted it in this new cam. I got a strange prompt suggesting that the T5442T-ZE was going to use a new type of file system while formatting, see below.

Screen Shot 2022-02-10 at 10.27.21 PM.png

I then put the SD card back into a HDW5231R-ZE cam and installed it in a hard to reach location. Now when I go to the web interface - storage section of the HDW5231R-ZE, I see what looks like two cards showing up. See below.

Screen Shot 2022-02-10 at 10.28.53 PM.png

What's worrisome is that when I try to format either of these two disks, I get a failure, and the disk shown changes to the following, seemingly much reduced in size. I can try to format this smaller disk, and I'm told it succeeded, but it remains this small size. Further, when I reboot the cam, both disks show again as per the image above. Weird.

Screen Shot 2022-02-10 at 10.26.33 PM.png

Have you guys seen this before? Does the T5442T-ZE use some new proprietary file system to format SD cards that the HDW5231R-ZE doesn't recognize and can't reformat? The cam is in a tricky location and I'm hoping not to have to climb up there to retrieve the SD card and format in a computer. Can I get out of this conundrum somehow?
 
I had that happen to me once taking out a card from a 5231 and putting into the 5442. It was showing me the exact same thing - two discs and a greatly reduced size.

I had to factory reset the camera and flash the firmware on it again in order to fix it.
 
wittaj said:
I had that happen to me once taking out a card from a 5231 and putting into the 5442. It was showing me the exact same thing - two discs and a greatly reduced size.

I had to factory reset the camera and flash the firmware on it again in order to fix it.
Click to expand...

What a relief. So at least it seems that it can be done without some acrobatics outside. I'll give this a shot tomorrow. Thank you!
 
  • Like
Reactions: sebastiantombs
Yep, I was sweating bullets when that happened to me! I was hoping just a reboot would do it, but nope. Thought a factory reset would do it, nope. But then flashing the firmware did the trick!
 
wittaj said:
Yep, I was sweating bullets when that happened to me! I was hoping just a reboot would do it, but nope. Thought a factory reset would do it, nope. But then flashing the firmware did the trick!
Click to expand...
Too late to attempt this tonight, but I had the same reaction. I almost cried after spending a good hour getting the cam back up on the wall. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. =)

I'm really hoping your method does the trick!
 
When I moved a card between cameras, I couldn't use/format the card on the new camera. I put the card in my computer, formatted it, and returned the card to the new camera. I was then able to format the card in the camera, and it's worked fine for the past year.
 
wittaj said:
Yeah, I tried that first and still showed the double SD cards.
Click to expand...
So you just reset the camera to factory defaults, flashed the same firmware onto it (I’m on version 15 so I’ll upload 15 again), then reset to defaults again, then formatted the card and all was well?
 
Lexicon44 said:
So you just reset the camera to factory defaults, flashed the same firmware onto it (I’m on version 15 so I’ll upload 15 again), then reset to defaults again, then formatted the card and all was well?
Click to expand...

Yes, that is what I did. Now I have learned here that after you flash the firmware, factory reset it 3 times. It seems sometimes leftover stuff stays in and people have found 3 times to be the magic number. YMMV.
 
what format type did you try from your computer for the >32GB uSD card? FAT32, exFAT or other (NTFS,etc)? I assume FAT32 was tried, as it is the most compatible. did you try a not quick format as well (10 min vs 4 seconds) to zero out the bytes?
 
Sad to report that various attempts to flash firmware with version 15 and 13, restoring to defaults several times before and after flashing and trying to format in the cam didn't do the trick. I had to resort to deploying the ladder and formatting the SD card in my Mac to MS-DOS FAT with Master Boot Record. I was then able to format the card within the camera and all appears to be well.

Wittaj, I'm wondering if you had a weird caching issue, where you actually fixed the card by formatting it in your computer. Perhaps then you popped it back into the cam where it still showed two cards, and when restoring the firmware you cleared the caching issue.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sebastiantombs
That's a bummer you had to pull the camera down.

Anything is possible. It is the first time I ever experienced that, and I hope the last!

Normally I put new cards in cams, but I had pulled down the 5231 and had forgot to order a new card, so I put that in the 5442 and then had that issue.

Maybe the firmware somehow sees that it was "attached" to another camera and thus then shows two SD cards in the new camera. Maybe a reformat of the card first would prevent that from happening, but I am not going to test it now LOL.
 
note, i believe that the Mac actually formats the disk as FAT32 (not FAT, which is obsolete but still works) when choosing MS-DOS FAT. for sure it does if the disk is over 32GB.

I am glad it worked out in the end.
 
bug99 said:
note, i believe that the Mac actually formats the disk as FAT32 (not FAT, which is obsolete but still works) when choosing MS-DOS FAT. for sure it does if the disk is over 32GB.

I am glad it worked out in the end.
Click to expand...
You’re correct. exFAT was also an option but I didn’t want to risk the ladder again. FAT32 seemed like the safer bet.

Although I think I saw a card I pulled from another HDW5231R-ZE today formatted as exFAT.
 
I would use FAT32 for all cameras that come to mind for 256MB up to 32 GB, using the default sector sizes. I am fond of formatting once slowly (not quick) when re-using an SSD to re-zero the bytes and confirm / remap bad sectors. I also do that when giving one to someone to avoid the possibility of something i don't want being on there and easily recoverable.

Above 32GB, FAT32 is not supported, so exFAT is needed (again using the default cluster sizes, which are 128KB above 32GB and 32KB below 32GB).
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: sebastiantombs
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom