Prepare SDXC (ExFat) for use with the iPod

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Prepare SDXC (ExFat) for use with the iPod

Support
2, February 2015
315 Comments

*** IMPORTANT – This article is up as an reference, first install and restore the iPod, if you have problems then attempt these instructions ***

Introduction

Some of the factory fresh ExFAT formatted SDXC cards cause problems in the iPod, I have not been able to determine the exact cause but I suspect the iTunes restore process does not write a fresh MBR (Master Boot Record) nor does it create a new partition table – just modifies the existing table.

This only applies to SDXC cards 64Gb and above in capacity, as these are the cards which are ExFAT formatted by default.

The symptoms tend to be slow music transfer, odd syncing errors, song skipping and iPod freezing up.

I have created a walk through on how to get the SDXC card in to a known good state before installing and restoring the iPod.

Preparation

First you need to get a partition manager software, I use the free AOMEI Partition Assistant, download here!! but only for Windows PC’s, for MAC users any of the popular partition software on MacOS will work. The steps will be slightly different, but the process and concepts should be similar.

You will need a CF card reader, you can also use a SDXC card reader. If you are going to use a SD card reader make sure it is SDXC compatible as you can damage the SDXC card – normal SD or SDHC card readers will not work with SDXC cards.

Steps

IMPORTANT: Make sure that the drive you are modifying is the SDXC card and not another Hard Drive installed in your Computer, you have been warned. So before starting double check that you are working on the SDXC card – better safe than sorry!!

Install SDXC card in to SD-CF Adapter, and place it in the CF card reader. In the example below I am using a 256Gb SDXC – It is shown as removeable in the drive list.

Start AOMEI.

In the main window, right click on the SDXC drive and select REBUILD MBR and confirm, leaving the default Windows 7/8. To commit the action you need to APPLY (Top Left Icon).

Rebuild MBR

Rebuild MBR

Apply Action to Commit

Apply Action to Commit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once that has finished, again right click on the SDXC card and select DELETE ALL PARTITIONS, and Apply to Commit – once that is finished the drive should be totally unallocated.

Delete All Partitions

Delete All Partitions

Unallocated Partition Table

Unallocated Partition Table

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now we can write a fresh FAT32 Partition. Once again right click on the SDXC card, select Create Partition. On the dialog window, click on Advanced and select SSD Parition Alignment – leave the default setting of Optimised. Apply to Commit.

Create Partition

Create Partition

Aligned FAT32 Partition

Aligned FAT32 Partition

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once all the steps have been completed, your partition table should look like this :-

Finished Partition Table

Finished Partition Table

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now you can safely eject / remove the SD-CF Adapter from the CF card reader and install in your iPod, ready for the iTunes restore process.

315 thoughts on “Prepare SDXC (ExFat) for use with the iPod”

  1. David

    Hi, sorry for the late reply. The iPod restored fine and sync worked fine. It will play OK for a while and then it will get to a song and display the details on the screen but not play anything. It will then skip to the next song and do the same thing. It may then play the next song OK or it might stop working and need to be reset.

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  2. Paul

    I’ve followed the above instructions to reformate a 128gb SDXC sandisk micro card. When I install in my ipod classic 5th gen 30gb model and reformate through itunes it only see’s 64gb, any ideas?

    Reply ↓
    1. Support

      @Paul – when you did the formatting in this article did AOMEI show 128Gb? did you reformat & rebuild the MBR? Finally check your card is actually 128Gb by running something like H2testw.

  3. David

    I have now installed the new PNY card an I am still seeing the skipping and freezing. Should I follow these instructions now or could it be a ribbon cable or other problem? If I have to open it again I would like to be fairly sure that it will work this time.

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    1. Support

      @ David – never heard of a PNY needing this – did restore go ok? and syncing ok? When you say freezing, what is exactly happening?

    2. Shane

      For me (have used a few PNY cards) the eXFat issue showed itself with a reduced capacity as well as erratic behavior. I did have to do it with four different PNY (128gb or 256gb cards in 90/95 mbs speeds), so I’d count on having to do it for those. Otherwise–could be a cable or something.

  4. Shane O Laake

    My earlier post seems to have been answered by trying this method. After posting this the drive errored out in iTunes and I followed everything step by step (like the partitioning tool btw).

    Everything seems to be fixed, including the capacity now showing correctly (you could see half the card was unallocated before, which helped me feel I was on the right path.

    Reply ↓
    1. Support

      @Shane – There must have been some sort of partition table present on the 256Gb for iTunes to only restore to 128Gb.

      The PNY 256Gb should be compatible on any iFlash board shipped after December 2014.

    2. Shane O Laake

      Thanks. After reformatting it shows as 256gb. I did get an error in iTunes, which seems to be from me using a USB drive to sync my files (my NAS is rebuilding), Thanks for the quick response. Board works great (recommended to a few friends) and will probably get my 3rd one soon!

  5. Shane O Laake

    Quick question…. 5th gen iPod (30gb video iPod bought right when they came out) with your older CF mod with your CF to sd adapter. Worked great with 128gb PNY card. Switched to 256gb card (also PNY), which only formats (by format I meat restore in iTunes–never used in any other device or manually formatted) to 128gb. Looking at the compatibility chart, I don’t see an issue with my iPod (maybe song limit, but I only had 10k songs and alas at format I wouldn’t foresee that being an issue.

    Is there an issue with the older adapter (don’t mind getting another–just rather know that’s the issue)?
    Does anyone have any success or issues with 256gb PNY cards?
    As I’m only seeing this in iTunes (still restoring) … is that maybe the issue?

    Thanks for any help!!!!

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  6. David

    I have installed and restored a Sandisk 128Gb SD card and have seen the problems with skipping and freezing. I followed the instructions here and still saw the same issues. I have now purchased a PNY 128Gb SD card. Should I just install and restore or should I follow these instructions first?

    Reply ↓
    1. Support

      @David – The advice is just install and restore, the ExFat is not necessary for new cards anymore, maybe if the card was used on another device.

  8. fat controller

    Scratch that last comment – I tried it again without disconnecting and it appears to have restored this time. I have 14547 tracks to sync (84.67gb), so will time how long it takes in case that will give an indication of the transfer speeds

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  9. fat controller

    Thank you for the swift reply 🙂

    I take it to check the speeds of the card that I have to remove it from the iPod? Also, how do you check the transfer speeds in disk mode?

    I have tried recovering by forcing it into DFU mode a couple of times before (with the old hard drive), so I know where I am with that one – oddly, I have just tried to do that and it is now stuck flashing ‘Do not disconnect’ and has not restarted. iTunes saw it, carried out the recovery process as far as telling me that it would then restart the iPod, and there it has stuck…

    I have a really horrid feeling that the motherboard is shot…

    Reply ↓
  10. fat controller

    Hi,
    I have followed this guide this afternoon following some problems, however I am still having problems and am now led to suspect that the motherboard is shot on my Classic 120gb; it had been very under-used, and indeed sat gathering dust for a couple of years and then pressed back into service – upon doing so, it would freeze, skip tracks, reset and generally not behave so I arrived at the conclusion that the hard drive was knackered. I purchased an iFlash bundle last week, and installed it over the weekend with a Qumox 128gb SD card and all initially seemed well. Whilst at it, I also put a new battery in (thought it best to refresh everything at the same time)

    However, problems continue with the iPod freezing mid-song and then skipping tracks and needing to be reset before it will continue. Following the procedure above, it appeared that there were three partitions on the SD card, which were made one as per the above. iPod restored, sync done and I plugged it in with high hopes – – it got to its third song before throwing a wobbler mid song, and then skipping tracks again,

    I’d appreciate any advice or opinions please ladies and gents – is it time for me to accept that I now have a somewhat expensive pile of electronic scrap?

    Reply ↓
    1. Support

      @fat controller – Check the card is working to spec, check that the read/write speeds are as specified, if they are not then the card is suspect.

      Also in diskmode with everything installed in the iPod, see what kind of transfer speeds you are getting.

      Finally something worth doing – is forcing the iPod in to DFU mode, and getting iTunes to recover the firmware, I have seen some Classics behaving very strangely and a firmware recovery resolves all the issues.

  11. Fox

    @Pete: I don’t know if I would make that assumption. Sure, one might discover it through trial and error, but it is a bit ludacris to think software would be released so fundamentally broken. I just feel there’s got to be a spot for this vital information on this blog! Somewhere, anywhere!

    Reply ↓
  12. Pete

    @Fox
    It is generally known by most ipod/rockbox users that its best to do transfers using the original firmware, as rockbox’s own USB handler isn’t all that great. The nice thing (for me) is that it seems that dual-booting on 6/7 gen appears to be almost working now (indeed, it is working, though only with a patched rockbox).
    Head-fi has some comprehensive threads on rockbox/ipod mods where all info can be found if you dig long enough!

    Reply ↓
  13. Fox

    @Support: Well, make a blog post on rockbox expressing your views — I’m sure it cant hurt. And at the very end, you can put: BUT if you are going to use it… make sure you boot into apple os before you transfer. Something to think about. 😉

    Reply ↓
  14. Fox

    I’ve had the oddest errors like songs injected in other songs. Do you know for sure rockbox supports your boards? I’ve used “rsync -rcP” (checksum enabled), and it fails frequently. I’ve hadn’t had the same problem with official apple firmware, although I’m still testing.

    Reply ↓
    1. Support

      @Fox – many people use the adapters with Rockbox with no problem. Rockbox especially on the Classics can be sensitive to the SD card used (brand/model). On the Video’s the Rockbox USB handler causes slow transfers and filesystem corruption – solution for that being booting in to the Apple OS and using the original Apple USB handler for the transfers before booting back in to Rockbox.

    2. Fox

      @Support: Thanks for the tip! No offense, but you’ve GOT to put this information somewhere people can read it — it’s far too important to miss! And you’re right, I do have an iPod video (5.5 gen).

    3. Support

      @Fox – We don’t official support Rockbox and being an open source project – any changes made have the possiblity of effecting compatiblity which we cannot keep track of.

    1. Support

      @JB – I am not a MAC user, so that will be hard. I think with Disk Utlity you just ask it to format for DOS – which should result in a FAT32 partition.

  18. Aji

    Hello Tarkan, I have a question, I used my sandisk ultra 128GB and had a RockBox inside, then my iPod recently has a corrupt software, since I restore to factory, it only restored to MAC only, I can’t restore to Windows (FAT32), which mean can’t install RB as before, is this issue about MBR?

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    2. Miroslav

      Thanks for saving me money ans hassle. So far only Sandisk and Patriot supply SFXC cards of this size – correct?

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