SD card

[Mirrasi]

When I put my SD card back in my machine today, it says invalid and wants to erase it. Anyone know why that is?

[archangle]

What kind of PC do you have? Did you do anything when the card was out of the S9?

Try unplugging the CPAP with the card out of the machine for 30 seconds or so. Then plug it back in, and put the card back in once it the machine powers back up.

Sometimes the card gets messed up. You shouldn't lose too much data if you let it reformat the card.

[Mirrasi]

I'm just putting it in a card reader in my computer. Does it lose the info from sleepyhead?


I tried unplugging it, but same thing.

[Sleepy Pilot]

Will my DME / Doc know that I am removing my card daily to ready it? I'm not erasing any data on in. Will the insurance, FAA or Sleep Doc think I'm tampering with the data?

[quietmorning]

Mirrasi, do you 'disconnect' your usb device (the smart card while it's in the reader connected to a usb hub in your machine) before unplug it from your usb port? (There is a little icon down in your notification tray (bottom right in your icon bar) that has a little box with a check in it... right click on that, then select the port your reader is in and click on it, it will tell you that's it's ok to disconnect your usb device. It turns your usb device off, so if the usb reader has a blinking light, or a light, the light will go out.)

If you don't do this, then the information that is on the card will be out on your machine when you disconnect your usb reader - and will damage or corrupt the data on your card. If it damages it, allow your cpap machine to reformat the card. But also, think about getting some back up cards from your dme or from your local store. I think cpap.com sells them, as well.

Sleepy Pilot, sleepyhead does not erase the information on our card, nor change it in any way. My doc's office knows I run a program to get information for my self care - and there's not an issue. The only issue that came up (and Mirrasi, this might be something you might want to consider, as well) when my card got full and stopped working, I pulled one of my drugstore 2gb cards from my back up pack and started using it. The problem when I got to the doc's appt was that my 2gb card was blank. Thankfully, I had my machine there, and she was able to get the information straight from my machine. (At that time, I hadn't been downloading any info to my encore program) She handed me two smart cards for back up in addition to the smart card that are specific to my machine and said, "if you EVER need a smart card, call me, I'll send you one at no cost. . .better that than risking your compliance." (Did I mention I LOVE my DME??!!)

As long as you are using a 'for patient' program that does not erase any info, your doc's office will be fine. I had a long discussion with the newbie on their team this past week. . . she said, "NO! You can't use a program!! It will erase all the info!!" I looked at her and said, well, the info is THERE, isn't it? This program is so that I can help myself as well as you help me. . . it is for PATIENTS and won't do anything to your info. So, yeah, as long as the info is there (and smart cards do fail. . .and using a program will let you know a LOT sooner than not using a program.) is information for them to turn into the insurance company and they get paid, it's no problem.

[Pugsy]

The S9 machine is super nit picky about the file structure on the SD card. Sometimes it thinks the SD card isn't just like it is supposed to be and it will reject the SD card and tell you invalid and erase thing.
Go ahead and let it erase the card or get a new SD card (generic works fine). Others have reported having this message despite not doing anything to the SD card. Mac users have had it happen but also Windows users and no explanation can be found for why the machine suddenly doesn't like the SD card.

The summary data is stored on the machine and will be written right back to the SD card after an erasure or even if you just use a new SD card.

Also check out my response a minute ago in your other thread about the missing graphs.
It sounds like the machine is set for Sleep Quality report of usage only...it needs to be set to Sleep Quality "On"...or we only get the summary stuff that you are seeing.

How to get to clinical setup area to change Sleep Quality from "usage" to "On".
http://www.apneaboard.com/resmed-s9-cpap-setup

[sol]

if you choose to erase the data, the S9 write summary and therapy data on the card
download first so you don,t loose any of the detailed data

the card store 365 days of compliance data and most recent 30 detailed data plus 7 days of high resolution data
you need to download every 7 days to capture the high resolution data

[billbolton]

The S9 machine is super nit picky about the file structure on the SD card.

Not super nit picky!

Since an S9 is not general purpose computer it does expect some files to be in predictable locations within the file system when it needs to read data from the SD card - something that is quite acceptable in terms of the way the file system works. Predictable location of files is an attribute which is shared by a many other process control based devices (such as cameras etc) that utilise SD cards for data transfer

The difference with cameras etc is that the information transfer from those devices is one way (towards general purpose computers) , so you never see the file location dependence on the device itself.

Cheers,

Bill

[archangle]

I'm just putting it in a card reader in my computer.

What kind of PC do you have?

SleepyHead will never write data to the SD card.

[archangle]

Mirrasi, do you 'disconnect' your usb device (the smart card while it's in the reader connected to a usb hub in your machine) before unplug it from your usb port? (There is a little icon down in your notification tray (bottom right in your icon bar) that has a little box with a check in it... right click on that, then select the port your reader is in and click on it, it will tell you that's it's ok to disconnect your usb device. It turns your usb device off, so if the usb reader has a blinking light, or a light, the light will go out.)

If you don't do this, then the information that is on the card will be out on your machine when you disconnect your usb reader - and will damage or corrupt the data on your card. If it damages it, allow your cpap machine to reformat the card. But also, think about getting some back up cards from your dme or from your local store. I think cpap.com sells them, as well.

It's not necessary to "eject" or "disconnect" or "safely remove" the card unless you have written data to it. Or unless some program on your PC has decided to write something on the card without your knowledge.

[archangle]

The S9 machine is super nit picky about the file structure on the SD card.

Not super nit picky!

Since an S9 is not general purpose computer it does expect some files to be in predictable locations within the file system when it needs to read data from the SD card - something that is quite acceptable in terms of the way the file system works. Predictable location of files is an attribute which is shared by a many other process control based devices (such as cameras etc) that utilise SD cards for data transfer

The difference with cameras etc is that the information transfer from those devices is one way (towards general purpose computers) , so you never see the file location dependence on the device itself.

No, I've seen a description of how the S9 puts data on the card. It's just a bad design. It's also why S9s only record 7 day of full data when PRS1 machines keep at least a year of full data on the same size card.

[Magicdave]

Surely if you wanted to be extra cautious, slide the lock on the SD card down, which effectively protects the data on the card - I.e it will be read only, but remember to unlock it when you replace the card in the machine.

[RogerSC]

Yes, I always lock the SD card before putting it my laptop's card reader, and have not had any problems. The computer shouldn't be able to write anything at all to the card if it's locked, although I suppose that there could be a mechanical malfunction that would allow the computer to not observe the lock position, but that's pretty unlikely. So, while nothing's foolproof (being a fool, I would know that all too well *smile*), locking the SD card when out of your CPAP should take care of your worries.

I also agree with the plan of unplugging the CPAP if there are problems when the card is re-inserted in the CPAP after downloading the data, and removing the card and the re-inserting it ("reseating" it), and plugging the machine back in. I would leave the machine off for about 5 minutes to make sure that it is fully powered down, also, and gets a chance to be fully reset when powered back on. 5 minutes is probably overkill, but less frustrating than not waiting long enough and having to do it yet again as a result *smile*.

I put my CPAP machine on a power strip (with surge protection, also) so that it would be easy to "unplug" it, by simply turning off the power strip, and always do that when removing the SD card. And I take the power strip with me when I travel, which is helpful, too. I usually have 2 or 3 chargers and the CPAP with me when I travel, so it's nice to have a central place to plug stuff in.

[JDS74]

When I put my SD card back in my machine today, it says invalid and wants to erase it. Anyone know why that is?

The machine is having difficulty in reading / writing to the boot sector of the card. This is the area that contains the pointers to all the individual files created with your sleep data.

So ... If none of the other suggestions have worked for you, use your computer to copy all of the files onto your hard drive and then format the card.

Then, insert the card back into your cpap machine and let the machine initialize the card.

Finally, copy all of the data files back on to the card from your hard drive.

That should do it.

Remember, SD cards and other devices like that, have only a limited number of times that they can be written in any single place on the card. Exceed that number (its a big number so its not normally a problem), and the data written will be corrupted.

The Respironics machines are pretty forgiving in formatting the card and still being able to work. I have seen posts that ResMed machines are a lot more picky. I think that the ResMed machines access certain addresses on the card as fixed values and if the card's files don't exactly conform to that location for those files, the machine will complain. That is why the recommendation is to copy back the old data files onto the newly formatted (by your CPAP machine) so that all the critical address data is in the right place.

As a good practice, you should at least have a backup card in case of problems. I got a bunch of 2GB cards from Walmart for pretty low prices and they all work perfectly.

[billbolton]

It's just a bad design.

It's a very standard design approach for a process controlled device writing data to an SD card