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I have a 64GB SanDisk SDXC memory card which I would like to use with my MacBook Pro and its SD card slot. However, I am having some trouble formatting/partitioning my SD card and I can't figure out what's going on.

  • When I insert the SD card into the slot, I get the following from Lion: The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer. Initialize... Ingore or Eject

  • If I open up Disk Utility, I see the disk listed as Apple SDXC Reader Media and when I try to format from "Erase" tab (as exFAT or any other format), I get the following error: Disk Erase failed with the error: Unable to write to the last block of the device.

A little background: the SDXC card was working fine when I first purchased it. But then I started using sabnzbd http://sabnzbd.org/ to download and write files directly to the SD card. Something happened (I can't remember what the error was!) and since then I've been unable to write to my card. I've been trying to format it to solve the problem, but it looks like the issue runs pretty deep.

What is the best way to format the card to exFAT via terminal? That may be the next thing I try.

Do you have any suggestions for formatting/fixing this SD card?

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How old is the card? If it is old, it might just have a bad block that you can't use anymore. If you want to try through terminal, check out diskutil. – ughoavgfhw Feb 1 '12 at 16:59
I bought it in 2011, so it's relatively new. Also, I believe SDXC is relatively new. I've checked out diskutil, but I get the same error – Patrick DeVivo Feb 1 '12 at 19:20

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