32Gb SD card formatting issue/GUID

[drglock]

I currently am on an early 08 Macbook Pro 17". 2.4ghz with 4gb of RAM.

I've recently purchased a 32gb SDHC card. Trying to create a bootable emergency drive with os installed on it.

I plugged it into my Mac via usb adapter and it mounted fine. Was formatted as Fat-32. So went to disk utility and reformatted as 1 partition, GUID, Mac Os Extended (journaled), to make it a bootable disk for the os. When doing this it appeared to complete fine, but disappeared from my desktop. No longer showing up in finder. Still mounts in disk utility though. Tried different ports, rebooting, and reformatting,, with no resolve. Reformatted it back to Master Boot Record/ Ms Dos, and it mounts again fine in Finder. Can drag data to it with no issue.

Reformatted again as GUID and again it disappeared from Finder and desktop. This is where I'm confused...
In Disk Util it completes the formatting and shows Map Scheme as GUID and journaled. The odd thing is that on the left where disks are mounted it shows the indented partition as disk3s2. Even though I've renamed it when formatting. It will maintain the name formatting back to Fat32, but not with GUID. Also if I try to repair disk it fails. " Disk Utility stopped repairing “disk3s2” because the following error was encountered:
Filesystem verify or repair failed."
Does not fail doing repair as Fat32.

Figured I would just try to install Os anyways and booted to install disk. When booted to Os it did list the SD card as an optional drive, but had the exclamation point listed as not being in correct format. Instructs to reformat as GUID. Went to disk util and reformatted and it disapears from select a destination.

My questions are.. am I missing something technical about these cards and formating as GUID?
Why will this mount in Finder and also in the destination screen for install if its formatted as FAT32, but wont show up in either as GUID?
Why does it show disk3s2 similar to windows partitions, even though it was formatted as GUID and renamed?


Not sure if I'm having an actual hardware issue with card, or have to do something to modify this to be useable. Tried this on a newer iMac with same result. Thanks for any input and sorry for the novel.

 

[geoffreak]

Sounds like the card can't handle GUID partitioning. I've got a 8GB SDHC card at home, but I don't know if my printer with multicard reader can handle SDHC. I'll give it a shot on my early '08 15" and see if I can format it when I get home.

 

[drglock]

Sounds like the card can't handle GUID partitioning. I've got a 8GB SDHC card at home, but I don't know if my printer with multicard reader can handle SDHC. I'll give it a shot on my early '08 15" and see if I can format it when I get home.

thanks alot bud. This is a newer SDHC card that has the C with a 6 in it. I believe referring to faster data transfer. So its not an old one. Is there a way you know of that it could be more thoroughly reformatted via Terminal commands or do I have to track down an SD card that specifies it can be formated as GUID.

 

[geoffreak]

Which brand of card are you using? Sometimes the minor and knockoff brands aren't as capable.

If there are cards which are advertised as being "GUID compatible", then odds are that if your card isn't advertised as such, it can't do it.

 

[Tumbleweed666]

thanks alot bud. This is a newer SDHC card that has the C with a 6 in it. I believe referring to faster data transfer. So its not an old one. Is there a way you know of that it could be more thoroughly reformatted via Terminal commands or do I have to track down an SD card that specifies it can be formated as GUID.

It may not be the card, it may be the reader. I had a reader that only worked reliably up to 2GB cards, after that, they worked 'sometimes'.

 

[drglock]

It may not be the card, it may be the reader. I had a reader that only worked reliably up to 2GB cards, after that, they worked 'sometimes'.

I will check that. Was wondering this myself. When I get home Ill test. Thanks for the input

 

[geoffreak]

Bad news, my card reader doesn't support SDHC so I don't know if I can format it to GUID

 

[drglock]

Which brand of card are you using? Sometimes the minor and knockoff brands aren't as capable.

If there are cards which are advertised as being "GUID compatible", then odds are that if your card isn't advertised as such, it can't do it.

Its the Gold Sticker brand. Ebay scam, oh I mean bargain.
I hate to say it but I did bid on a few and would have to check the brand. Not a name brand but the sellers feedback was all great so figured Id be ok.

Can anyone confirm this is the case? Only specific SD cards can be formated as GUID? That suprises me due to even the cheapest of flash drives can. I've never had something I couldn't format GUID.

 

[geoffreak]

If it's an eBay brand, don't expect it to do much. Most eBay sellers of flash memory just make cards that have a certain amount of memory, then skimp out on all the other features. This may be why it cannot be formatted with GUID.

 

[drglock]

If it's an eBay brand, don't expect it to do much. Most eBay sellers of flash memory just make cards that have a certain amount of memory, then skimp out on all the other features. This may be why it cannot be formatted with GUID.

Im hearing you. Well at least I got a good deal on it.

Im willing to buy an expensive name brand one if thats what is actually the issue. I just cant find anything via google or any sales adds that specifies it can be formatted to GUID. Many say compatible with Mac,,, but that just means the Fat32 can be read/written to. Obviously nothing in detail saying you can bootup your Mac to it. I still want to find out a solid answer though to make sure, so I dont go buy another expensive one and have the same issue. Anyone have success booting to a SD card?