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Dashcam SD Card Issues

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SurreyX3
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Dashcam SD Card Issues

Post by SurreyX3 » Thu Sep 15, 2016 9:41 pm

Bought a 128GB MicoSD HC I  - Presumably the same standard as the 32GB that came with "advanced car eye" but when I stick it in the camera, all I get is "insert SD card" and I can't see a way of formatting it or getting to the camera menu w/o inserting the orig. SD card. 
I've formatted the new in FAT32 on the PC (it came up OK first time I inserted it too) but no luck - same issue when putting it back in the BMW dashcam - Any ideas anyone?
Wondering if there's a firmware flash for the camera itself to enable me to boot to a menu that I can then format the card in the unit.
Perhaps it doesn't support 128GB though I thought I'd read that it does?
After two weeks of ownership, some kind soul has driven 4ft down the nearside (rear arch, rear door and front door), taking some of the paint off - Camera didn't catch it as I have been recording clouds or shadows and the evidence ended up being round-robin deleted  - hence needing a bigger SD card.
Have now pointed the rear camera substantially downward to reduce duff footage.

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Re: Dashcam SD Card Issues

Post by grumpywurzel » Fri Sep 16, 2016 11:12 am

Just thinking on the hoof, double check that the camera does support larger SC card capacity, also check the Class or Speed rating of the card. Normally it shouldn't cause an issue but if the new card is of a lower class it "might" be the cause.
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touring
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Re: Dashcam SD Card Issues

Post by touring » Fri Sep 16, 2016 11:41 am

I use exactly the same as the original (32gb) and rotate them, they last about six weeks.
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X5Sport
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Re: Dashcam SD Card Issues

Post by X5Sport » Fri Sep 16, 2016 5:28 pm

FAT32 only supports 4GB files so you may hit a hard coded limit.  Hi capacity cards should be formatted in exFAT.
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SurreyX3
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Re: Dashcam SD Card Issues

Post by SurreyX3 » Thu Sep 22, 2016 6:49 pm

[quote="X5Sport"]
FAT32 only supports 4GB files so you may hit a hard coded limit.  Hi capacity cards should be formatted in exFAT.
[/quote]
Sorry, my bad - It was indeed formatted exFAT (default block size).
Transpires the original SANDisk 32Gb was borked. Didn't last very long and required reformatting at least once a week. Owing to parking location, the camera spends most of it's day recording trees waving in the breeze.
Bought a replacement 32GB that worked straight out the packet.
Would appear the BMW version doesn't support 128GB though the manual for the white-labeller suggests it should. Will try a few different block sizes to see if that changes anything.

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Re: Dashcam SD Card Issues

Post by X5Sport » Fri Sep 23, 2016 6:00 pm

One thing to bear in mind for continuously running devices is the SD cards have a limited number of 'write' cycles and an HD camera will write a good deal of data.  A typical 32GB card will be fully re-written every 2 hours or so.

Quite a few dash cams still only support 32GB for some reason - annoyingly - my one is the same.  It recommends formatting at least twice a month and a new card every 3-5 months.
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