Can I Repurpose SD Card From NookColor to Samsung Phone?

November 24, 2018 11:04 AM

I want to remove an SD card from an old NookColor to then use the card in a Samsung Note 3 phone. What’s the best and easiest way to do this so that it’s ready for installation in the phone?

Do I need to erase the card or at least remove the book files before removing it from the NookColor? If so, how do I do that? (We don’t have a card reader or any way to reformat it via a computer, so I’m limited to things that can be done in the Nook and/or phone.)

Or if I remove the card without erasing, can it just be reformatted in the phone?

posted by elphaba to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

I assume you mean a micro SD card? SD cards and micro SD cards cost like $12 and the amount of data you can fit on them has gotten cheaper and cheaper over the years. Depending on how old your "old NookColor" is, the SD card may have a small amount of storage, so I would just get a new one. But yes, if you take it out of the NookColor, you should be able to reformat it in your phone and wipe it clean from there. It won't happen automatically, but you can easily do it if you google "samsung galaxy note 3 format card."
posted by AppleTurnover at 11:37 AM on November 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

I believe you can reformat it in the phone (at least you could in the Note 2, IIRC, although it's been a while). You might have some issues if the Nook uses a weird partitioning scheme, though.

USB card readers for MicroSD cards are dirt cheap though, and lots of people have them for digital cameras and such. I would ask around a bit and see if you can't turn one up. (I bought a bunch of SD cards that came with them free, and couldn't give the damn things away...)

Plugging it into a computer will let you use the official SD Card Formatting Tool which I have found is the best and most reliable way to repurpose SD cards. Exactly what its "secret sauce" is I'm not sure, but it has resurrected cards that regular Linux and Mac formatting tools kept screwing up on.
posted by Kadin2048 at 11:41 AM on November 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

I can't speak to Nook specific problems, but I know from working with Raspberry Pi stuff that the free SD Card Formatter program made by the manufacturers' association works the best and doesn't leave strange files or crapware behind. It works well.

On preview, it looks like Kadin2048 came in with the same answer, which makes me feel even more right. :)
posted by seasparrow at 11:45 AM on November 24, 2018 [2 favorites]

Ditto on the bits about SD/Micro-SD are dirt cheap, most Micro-SD come with a SD adapter, SD-USB adapters are also cheap. SD Formatter is probably best, ancient Linux wisdom is that it's better to just erase the card vs re-formatting the card. SD cards have a bit of special layout / internal bits that probably make them work better with their factory formatting or some special program's formatting than they would when you just treat them like a plain disk a and do a generic formatting. I'd assume the phone's formatting option would do the right thing (and maybe just erases everything instead of a real reformat).
posted by zengargoyle at 3:13 PM on November 24, 2018 [1 favorite]

If you have a laptop made in the last 5 years, you may have an SD card reader already. I've found them on the laptops of a couple of people who didn't know they were there. Look around the edge of the laptop. An SD port should be labeled.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 8:54 AM on November 25, 2018 [1 favorite]