SD Card - Does it need to be replaced?

[Starlette]

Good evening everyone.

I've recently lost my SD card (approximately 2 months) and found it in Hubb's junk drawer this morning. I went to my bedroom and reinserted the SD card in the machine. It stated in the window, "SD card error. Please remove and reinsert." I did about three times and nothing changed. QUESTION: Can this SD card be saved or do I need to have it replaced? I called cpap.com today and purchased another SD card.

Thank you.

Starlette

[idamtnboy]

Try reformatting it with your PC. If the PC can't read it, or successfully reformat it, it's trash.

[Naznarreb]

Yeah, SD cards are pretty tough but when they go sour there's really not a lot that can be done to repair them. The good news is they're a standard format so you shouldn't have to buy a replacement from the manufacturer; any card from your local computer shop should do. I would check with the MFR to be certain tho, I am still very new to CPAP myself. At the very least you'll want to see the maximum sized card the machine can handle. If it will only take, for instance, a 1gb card you try to give it an 8gb card, it will either ignore the extra 7gb or fail to read the card at all.

[JDS74]

On my Respironics System One machine, the original card is a 1 GB card. I have used a 4 GB card from SanDisk that I got from Wally World for $10 US and it works just fine.

What you describe is why I have a second and third card and make backups to them every day. SD cards are more fragile than some other formats so it is a good idea to have a spare on hand. I have some digital cameras that use SD cards so it was easy to just use one of those as a backup until I could get a dedicated one for the CPAP.

[McSleepy]

SD cards come in several flavors and you have to make sure you get the right one. For example, the original SD card had a capacity up to 2GB (although some are known to accept 4GB), but then came SDHC (high capacity), and one of the latter ones would not work in a reader that only supports the former. Now they have SDXC (extended capacity) to confuse matters further. If you get a regular SD card, you will be safe. The machines user a very small portion of the card's capacity, so a smaller (i.e, cheaper) card would work.
As for your current card, there is a utility that can verify your card's health. It's called Check Flash (http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/C ... 01054.html) and I recommend using it once in a while to make sure the card is not giving symptoms of imminent failure.
McSleepy

[old guest]

Been on cpap many years. Have had the M-series for a couple of years now but never inserted the card because I don't have the software for this cpap. Is there any reason I should ?

[Pugsy]

Been on cpap many years. Have had the M-series for a couple of years now but never inserted the card because I don't have the software for this cpap. Is there any reason I should ?

Not unless you want to see the reports for some reason. You would also need the DT3500 Infineer card reader. Around $75 or so depending on supplier. Software is easy.

If you do not care about seeing the therapy results on software (some people don't care) that is your choice. The M series machine doesn't store any data though, so the card must be in just to get the basic on screen data.

The software was priceless in my case when I first started. Are you happy with how you feel? Are you curious about the software data?

Oh yeah, I forgot, not all M series machines offered data, you would need to verify that your machine even offered data.

[old guest]

I used to have a DeVillbus auto with software which I downloaded frequently. It was interesting, but after being on apap for such a long time, if I feel good in the am and have had a decent night's sleep that's all I need to know at this point. I would never sleep without my machine.