Removable memory cards of various standards in popularity far surpassed flash drives. This is due to the fact that they have smaller dimensions, and in terms of memory capacity they are comparable to almost full-fledged external drives. However, not all users who want to purchase such devices for themselves fully understand the basic characteristics and prefer to use them exclusively on mobile devices - tablets or smartphones. Meanwhile, there are many nuances that it is advisable to know about before going to the store.
Next, it is proposed to consider microSD cards, which for some reason are referred to as “micro-CD”, although this is incorrect. Let's try to determine their main parameters and the possibility of using them as drives in different situations.
What are micro-SD memory cards?
Apparently, there is no need to say that memory cards of this standard are the smallest in size among all produced today. It goes without saying that due to such dimensions it is not always possible to use them.
There are no problems with mobile gadgets running on Android, since they originally had special slots. But with computers and laptops, the situation is somewhat more complicated, since special adapters are needed here (we will dwell on them separately).
Practical use of devices of this type
As already clear, everything is simple with mobile devices. To read memory cards (and of any type) on computers, laptops, some cameras and camcorders, special devices called card readers are usually used. However, it is far from a fact that a micro-SD card can simply be inserted into the slot and used as an external drive.
Most card readers are designed for the size of SDHC and SDXC cards, therefore, for reading smaller cards it is necessary to use special adapters. They have a kind of pocket in which the card inserts. After that, the adapter can be placed in the card reader connector and manipulated with writing or reading information on the SD card.
Micro SD cards: classes of modern devices
But with regard to technical aspects and related characteristics, among which the most important are the amount of memory, speed of reading and writing, ordinary users, for the most part, for some reason do not pay much attention to them when choosing the right device. Rather, they only pay attention to volume, and they overlook the speed and support of working with additional interfaces. But it is they who determine the pricing policy in relation to the selected drive, and the convenience of working with it.
The article presents a table of comparative characteristics of different classes of micro-SD cards. From these parameters it is immediately clear in which area and how convenient it is to use a card of the corresponding class. This also must not be forgotten.
Is it possible to create a full bootable USB flash drive from a card
But most often, users are asked very controversial questions related to how possible it is to use micro-CD as a bootable external device, similar to what is provided for in the case of ordinary flash drives. As it turns out, this is not impossible. You can create a bootable micro-SD card USB stick quite simply, for example, using the most common and popular programs like Rufus, UltraISO, etc.
Finally, it is also possible to install the operating system using WinNTSetup utility on a memory card. There are no problems with this.
How to download data from a memory card
But the most controversial issue concerns the ability to boot from such media. In fact, the card reader, which is available as an integrated device, for example, on the same laptops, is constantly connected, so it seems that the start should be made. Alas, in most cases, the micro-CD memory card is almost never detected even in the primary system (an exception is made by some laptop models like ASUS Eee PC-900, on which such an opportunity is provided). On tablets or smartphones with Windows, where cards of this type are installed as an additional memory expansion module, it is quite problematic to boot even if they have an installed OS. It is not known what this is connected with, because it is logical to assume that the memory card and flash drive are essentially the same thing (in addition to everything, the card reader on the computer or laptop is connected inside the device via the USB interface), but the fact remains.
Functional problems and simplest troubleshooting methods
Finally, when identifying a problem with the functionality of such drives, when for some reason they are not detected or it is impossible to perform any operations with them, they are eliminated almost exactly the same as with conventional flash drives - through the use of special software that allows you to restore the controllers with the installation of the original firmware.
In this case, you can even use universal utilities like D-Soft Flash Doctor or use programs for low-level formatting like HDD LLFT. If you can’t restore the media by any means, you can use information applications such as ChipGenius, determine the PID and VID identifiers corresponding to the device, search for firmware on the Internet using them, and after downloading perform a flashing yourself (as a rule, this is a fairly simple procedure, since the original the firmware is installed from a regular EXE file).