Capacity Testing of new SDHC cards

12harry

Probably an old topic but having bought some new 16Gb cards ( before they become obsolete  / expensive per Gb), I find I need to test them.
From my Master copies  one folder is 13Gb which looks about right.
I formatted the card FAT32 (as I suspect this is the format the Camcorder will use )- Copy / Paste and I'm told the transfer will be 55minutes . . . Using the font-of-PC card reader ( this seems to have some dedicated MBO wiring, but I suspect it's really USB2 connectivity ).

Does anyone have a better =faster means of checking the capacity, as I'm aware that "fake cards" are able to report the larger capacity, but won't be able to hold all the files - this would be a disaster at some later date.
I doubt this Transfer will do anything to determine the transfer speed ( ie of the card itself... Marked Class 4 - although I was intending to buy Class 10...Ooops. )..... but at least for less than 2-hours I can check both cards . . . . BUT it would be useful to know if a better test is possible..... I wondered about copying just a quarter of the Original file and then copy=pasting within the SDHC card, as this might be a shorter route....but it isn't as the bottleneck is the card-reader and that's involved both ways...so multiple copies might take longer. . . . At least with the present arrangement I am copying "real" Video files and I can do something else while it progresses . . .  such as reading Posts here and elsewhere...

Cheers.
It's 16minutes left now.....

stearman65

I bought a couple of fake memory sticks from Ebay, I found they wouldn't hold the capacity they were advertised at & complained to the seller. He sent me some convoluted way of formatting them which didn't work, I eventually checked with the manufacturer who had supposedly made the cards, he confirmed their name is embedded in the stick & should be displayed when used. These didn't so I got a refund from the seller. I only use major companies now such as Wex & Jessops for my storage methods. I assume this should apply to memory cards also.                                                                       

MarkE19

Google is you friend - try entering 'sd card capacity checker' as that found.......

4 Tools to Test and Detect Fake or Counterfeit USB Flash Drives • Raymond.CC
8 Freeware To Detect Fake USB Flash Drives, SD Cards And SSD Disk
Testing an SD Card's true capacity | Hacker News
etc.

Even this forum has a thread (you didn't do a search did you )
Fake SD cards - test yours now!

Mark.

12harry

Thanks guys, I thought I'd seen something about "Fakes" - but couldn't think how to search - The 2-cards I bought have each accepted 13 Gb which is probably enough since Formatting will take a little off the 16Gb.  What I hadn't spotted was they were Class 4 - not the Class 10,  I wished to buy . . . was my mistake!
Still I have bought cheaply, a Zoom H4 and in .WAV mode should take oodles of audio data onto these cards . . .

FWIW. When I copy, the transfer window shows the transfer-speed but it's quite poor, due I suspect to it being a front-mounted Card-Reader . . . which is wired to the MBO . . . not sure if it's really USB . . . but I suspect so.

Cheers.

EDIT 7 July 2018
( No I'm not watching the Football....results appear good, judging from the cheers over the fence.).
Bought 128Gb microSDX card and am in the process of giving it something to remember ( from another 128Gb card-copy which "used" is just 46Gb - leaving plenty of spare capacity ). It came with a branded adaptor.
It is transferring at a snail's pace [ ~4.5Mb/Sec.], which I presume is the fault of the PC front-reader, as the HDD (source) is via SATA and the card claims it's UHS-1.
Maybe I'll try to duplicate this transfer, so the card should show about 92Gb - this should indicate if it's FAKE, etc. - - - - -  by this, I mean I can play any of the video-files correctly ( is that OK?).

New 128Gb card came formatted exFAT, = same as the card that was working in the Camcorder, so I haven't attempted to perform FORMAT.... and it appears to be accepting files. From Mikipedia, I read that exFAT is a Microsoft file and they only license it to a limited number of manufacturers - some cameras and camcorders "may" be firmware programmed to accept only exFAT - which would mean a non- exFAT card could not read the recorded files - CARE! - this might lead folks to believe the card is empty!
It appears that for 8K camcorders ( when?), cards will have a additional data-bus to help speed-up the file transfer . . . . thus allowing older devices to be used, but with a reduced transfer speed.
Maybe my next PC will need this improved Card-reader . . . . or, maybe I'll buy one with USB3 connection, which should be a step-up from what I have at present.
  Naturally I'll Format ( this new 128Gb SDXC card),  in the Camcorder, when ready.