128GB Card?

[rbhamilton]

I've got a nice spare high speed 128GB card laying around that I'd like to use. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to work with the Mavic. I'm assuming the cluster size or format isn't compatible? I formatted it on a Windows 10 machine. Any tips? Many thanks in advance for any help.

 

[msinger]

You could try formatting it here in DJI GO:

 

[Thomas B]

What type of card and what are the ratings? What type of drone?

 

[rbhamilton]

Quick Update. I managed to solve it.

The card is a Samsung 128 EVO. Very nice fast card and actually a bit of overkill for drone video. You are probably best off with a bunch of 32GB's and just change them out after every few flights. But as I said, I have this spare card and I don't want to let it go to waste.

Formatting with the DJI app didn't work for me. It just gave me card read errors. But the problem is both cluster size and drive format.

Windows 10 uses NTFS for larger cards. The Mavic Pro seems to like FAT32 format.

Generally you don't use Fat32 for anything over 32GB. But there's nothing that actually prevents you from using Fat32 other than Windows refusing to do it.

If you have a Mac or use Linux you're on your own but if you have Windows, there's a nice free 3rd party tool that works well right here (author might appreciate a donation if you like it):

Ridgecrop Consultants Ltd

Ridgecrop Consultants Ltd - high quality IT consultancy services

www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk

Once I had the card in Fat32 the Mavic was happy. You can copy files on and off it all day long but if you format the card in your PC you are back to square 1 so keep that GuiFormat utility handy.

Bit of caution. Windows won't let you format your C drive without tons of warnings. This program looks like it might. I had my card out and it defaulted to drive C. I didn't test it but formatting your C drive might wreck your whole afternoon. So make sure you have your card inserted and make sure the program knows the drive letter you want to format (never pick C!!).

Use this at your own risk obviously but it worked fine for me.

 

[Thomas B]

I have always formatted/reformatted my SD cards in my drones. No problems. Wonder if that would be easier?

 

[THE CYBORG]

You want to format in exFAT not FAT 32, the file size for FAT 32 is limited to 4 gig but exFAT the maximum file size is more or less unlimited.

 

[mrreddog]

I always pull the card, then I put it into a sd-usb adaper and plug it into my 4k tv. As I'm reviewing the video or pics on the tv, I will then write down the file numbers of best parts to keep. when done, I insert sd card into pc and transfer those files to an 8tb drive for later editing (of which I don't do much of, lol) then format said sd card to be ready at anytime the drone is needed or used again.

 

[mrreddog]

You want to format in exFAT not FAT 32, the file size for FAT 32 is limited to 4 gig but exFAT the maximum file size is more or less unlimited.

So in exfat format, do the files still end the file at 3.95gb then start a new file??

 

[THE CYBORG]

File size is virtually unlimited in exFAT

 

[Thomas B]

So in exfat format, do the files still end the file at 3.95gb then start a new file??

I believe this is the case due to programming in DJI’s drones, but I have not tried this. See my post above.

 

[msinger]

So in exfat format, do the files still end the file at 3.95gb then start a new file??

Yes.

 

[rbhamilton]

Fat32 does have a 4GB file size limit but your drone video probably isn't going over that limit anyway. If it does, the DJI software will cut the file at 4GB and start a new file regardless of the file system you are using. So there's really no reason to use exFat over Fat32. I've tested Fat32 and the Mavic is fine with it. I've tested NTFS and the Mavic can't re ad it. I'll let you guys test exFat and report back. But it does seem like the Mavic is designed with Fat32 in mind. Anyway use what you like but the tool I linked to above gives you one sure option for using large memory cards in a Mavic.

 

[masic]

When I put a 128GB sd card in my computer (windows 10 pro) the only format options available are ntfs and exfat. If you are able to format a greater than 4GB sd card as fat32, you will only be able to use 4GB of the available space. Anything above 4GB will be wasted.

 

[rbhamilton]

When I put a 128GB sd card in my computer (windows 10 pro) the only format options available are ntfs and exfat. If you are able to format a greater than 4GB sd card as fat32, you will only be able to use 4GB of the available space. Anything above 4GB will be wasted.

A few errors there.

1) You can't format a large card (128GB) on Windows 10 in Fat32 - Partly TRUE
- Windows can't do it on it's own - you need to use a 3rd party utility like the one I linked to above

2) You can only write 4GB on a Fat32 drive - FALSE
- You can fill the entire drive. The biggest any single file can be is 4GB but you can have as many 4GB files
as the drive can hold. The Mavic breaks your video files up into 4GB segments anyway so that's not an issue.

The whole problem with Fat32 is that it divides up the drive into clusters. A file can never take up less than one cluster of your drive. You have a limited number of clusters with Fat32. That's why Microsoft extended Fat32 to exFat and then later introduced NTFS. You can now have a file allocation table that references a lot more clusters.

If you format a really big drive with Fat32 then, because you have a limited number of clusters, each cluster has to be big. If you fill your drive with zillions of tiny files and each tiny file is sitting all alone in a gigantic cluster there will be a lot of wasted space on your drive.

A bit like if you were a trailer park owner and you divided your trailer park up into 5 acre lots. Each trailer would sit on 5 acres. Huge waste of space - although I'm sure the trailer owners would be happy. If you were selling lots for gigantic Neverland style mansions then a 5 acre lot might make a lot more sense.

This could be an issue if you were using your Mavic to shoot photographs. It's not an issue if you are using it for video because the video files are really big - you won't waste much space even with huge clusters.

Or just believe whatever you like. Lol... I sorta wish I'd never brought this topic up. It's giving me a headache.

 

[masic]

No you can use the whole card. You just need to use the utility I linked to above. It works fine.

Why not just format as exfat or format in the drone? The only reason I can think of is you (not you personally) have a computer that has a really old operating system.

 

[rbhamilton]

Why not just format as exfat or format in the drone? The only reason I can think of is you (not you personally) have a computer that has a really old operating system.

exFat isn't displayed as an option on my computer for a 128GB drive. It' shows up for smaller drives. I'm running Windows 10 Pro. I haven't tried exFat on the Mavic so I can't confirm that it works - perhaps you have? From what I can see the Mavic is designed to work with Fat32.

 

[masic]

exFat isn't displayed as an option on my computer for a 128GB drive. It' shows up for smaller drives. I'm running Windows 10 Pro. I haven't tried exFat on the Mavic so I can't confirm that it works - perhaps you have? From what I can see the Mavic is designed to work with Fat32.

The mavic formats as exfat, both the original and the mavic 2.

 

[kilomikebravo]

..might wreck your whole afternoon.

RBH: Might?! Holy smoke, that would ruin my next two WEEKS!

But you can indeed format a memory card with FAT32 from within Win10, you simply have to use the command prompt since the GUI format only supports NTFS and EXFAT. Using the old DOS "format" command:

FORMAT volume [/FS:file-system]

Where file-system can be:

FAT (fat16), FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, UDF and ReFS.

 

[Harro]

Fat32 is used because Windows PC's and Mac PC's can do this format and be read by both operating systems. NTFS formatting can only be done and I think read on a Windows PC (Mac PC may be able to read this system but I cannot remember if that is the case)

 

[MaxHam]

The mavic formats as exfat, both the original and the mavic 2.

My M2P formats in Fat32.