How do i use a 64gb sdxc card on my windows 7 64bit laptop?

JamesUK

JamesUK

JamesUK

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Hi, i have just bought a sandisk 64gb extreme pro sdxc memory card for my camera, it works fine in the camera and saves pics to it, but every time i open it in windows it tells me i have to format the card, when i do format it, it goes through the whole process and then tells me the operation cannot complete.

I know the card is formatted as exfat, does windows 7 not support this?

my laptop uses windows 7 64bit.

Can anyone please advise as i am not sure how i am going to get any pictures in the future onto my laptop.

thanks

James
 
exFAT is a Microsoft format and has been supported since Windows XP SP2, so the format should be fine for the OS. Wikipedia does note that some readers might not like SDXC cards formatted as any other format, but I guess that's not the problem here.

If it's an older laptop it's possible that the reader might not be compatible with SDXC cards?
 
the laptop is only about a year and half old, the card reader is a usb 3.0 kingston and shows sdxc on it.
 
its the Kingston FCR-HS3, it is listed as supporting SDXC cards, may try a different card reader see if its that, its oldish now.
 
Update

Hi, Just to update on this issue that im still getting.

I have just tested my Kingston card reader and my new 64gb sdxc card on another pc that’s also running windows 7 and hey presto, the card opens fine.

So i can now rule out it being the card at fault and also the card reader, it has to be something to do with my windows 7 on my laptop, not sure if anyone here would be able to offer any advice with knowing the above.

Unfortunately the obvious thing i would consider would be to just reinstall / repair install windows, but unfortunately my laptop, which is a Lenovo e530 comes with windows pre-installed and no discs to just reinstall, the laptop does have a function to do a factory reset from the built in installation setup files, but of cause you would lose everything and i don’t really want to do that, i would rather look at ways to correct the issue first.

Can anyone please offer any advice?

Regards

James
 
Yeh Tribz, i do see the drive in disk management, it appears to actually show fine with the correct capacity etc..

Every single time i connect the card to the laptop, straight away it asks me to format the card (even though it already is formatted, as it just opened correctly straight away on this other pc i have tried it on)

If i do try to format it on my laptop, it just says unable to complete the format.
 
I actually have tried that software, and the odd thing is, it done the format and tells me its even complete, it gives me the reseults at the end showing it.

But then when i then take the card out and pop it back in the reader again windows goes through the same process of asking me to format it again..
 
The fact that it works with another PC does hint that something is wrong with your laptop. It's even more strange disk management can see it...

Could try updating the USB drivers?

On the other hand, as for the clean install suggestion, you could just grab a Windows 7 ISO and burn it to a disk/USB and install Windows from that. Will also remove the Lenovo junk too.
 
If i get an iso of win 7 64 pro, then will it automatically just use my laptpos current serial key if if i make a note of it will be be able to just use it suring the installation or will it know that it was for a different versaion of the product?
 
It has to match to Windows version currently installed, so if it's currently pro, then yes you will need the pro version. Get the ISO with SP1 and that will also save you some time installing updates.

As for the product key, on both my Acer and HP laptops, I've noticed the key doesn't work during the install phase, but once I boot into desktop and activate the key in Windows properties, it works there.
 
i downloaded windows 7 64bit pro iso (same as what i had) i have installed it but when i try to activate it i keep getting the following message:

'The product key you have entered appears to be a default product key and cannot be used for activation. type a different windows 7 pro key'.

although the product id does show as the correct one.

on the plus side though my sdxc card is now opening normal which is great.

do you happen to know how i will get my activation working again, it says i only have 3 days to do it.
 
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Are you sure you've put in the correct product key? They sometimes put the COA sticker in the battery bay under the battery itself so might be worth checking to see if the codes match.

If the Windows COA sticker is not on the laptop (and it has the Windows 8 sticker on it) then it was possibly downgraded from Windows 8 and you may have some trouble activating Windows going by what I've read on the Lenovo forums.
 
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