MicroSD card randomly unmounts itself

Anonymous
2015-05-29T17:26:43+00:00

I inserted a Samsung EVo 128GB micros-SD card into my new Surface 3, intending to use it as photo storage for my photography workflow.

However, after a fee minutes - even without using it - the drive appears to unmounts itself. It's still visible in Explorer, but clicking it results in Explorer hanging and eventually giving the error "please insert a disk" after several minutes. In Disk Manager, the drive sometimes appears, with the correct amount of space, but indicates it's all unallocated.

This issue is fixed temporarily by removing and reinserting the disk, but a short time later it unmounts itself again. I tried the disk in my older Dell Venue 8 Pro, but the issue didn't occur there.

I've looked at previous threads about similar issues on older and Pro models, and tried setting the policy for the microSD drive to 'better performance' and even tried setting up a VHD, but none of these provided a solution.

Does anyone know what I can do?

Surface | Other

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-12-06T16:58:41+00:00

    Barb, when mine unmounts it is no longer in the device manager list so there are no error codes to read.

    Also, you know that when removing the card or USB device the OS plays a tone. Well despite the card not showing the tone sounds when you remove it. Don't know what, if anything, that tells you.

    Jim

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  2. Barb Bowman 80,815 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-12-06T16:37:17+00:00

    Interesting - ALL my 64GB cards work and stay mounted. Various brands. NONE of the 128GB cards I tried would stay mounted. (And I did ). When the cards went missing, it was because Windows decided something was wrong and gives a Code 43 on the controller. Uninstalling the SD controllers and rebooting doesn't fix. Nor is there any updated driver. But this ONLY happens with the 128GB cards.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-12-06T16:20:32+00:00

    I am considering giving that a try. However, from reading threads on this in a variety of forums it appears that many people have a different experience. For some Samsung seems to work, others SanDisk, etc. There seems to be no consistency.

    Given that these same cards appear to work in android devices and in my case my other Windows computer it would seem that the problem with the Surface. Hardware, software, who knows?

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-12-06T16:16:46+00:00

    Maybe someday I'll get the 128gb version of this brand and report but as far as 64gb every brand had an issue that I tried, multiple versions of Samsung, sandisk, Kingston, transcend, same dismount issue so I have a good feeling it's more the brand rather than the size, and that the silicon power one will work as it does now. Next sale I see ; )

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  5. Barb Bowman 80,815 Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-12-06T10:51:08+00:00

    On Sun, 6 Dec 2015 06:45:38 +0000, 4KFan24 wrote:

    >> Same old just random dismounts, even middle of a video. Problem solved with this brand, got. 64gb, not one issue.

    there is s problem with SOME 64GB cards, but there seems to be an issue with ALL

    128GB cards.

    __________________________________________________________________________________________________

    Barb

    Windows Experience MVP

    My Blog - http://digitalmediaphile.com/

    Please mark as answered if this answers your question

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