[Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] TheInternal:
Greetings,

Short version:

My 16 GB SanDisk brand micro SDHC card works, but not in my boost mobile LG Marquee phone (USA). The phone can't even see the card (but can see the 2GB pre-formatted card that came with it) Is there a specific format or software I need to use to make the LG see the memory card?

Long version:

I'm rather annoyed. I'm a long time computer nerd, but am only now getting my first android based phone (yay for the economy sucking.) I have a 16 GB SanDisk MircoSDHC memory card that I'd previously used in my old Verizon Samsung Omnia based on Windows Mobile 6.1 (good riddance, crappy OS.) The card is seen just fine in my girlfriend's computer's card reader (Windows 7 basic for the OS). It will not be detected by the boost mobile LG Marquee (Android 2.3) though.

Using the computer, I've tried both "quick" and "full" reformatting of the memory card in both FAT32 and NTFS with default allocations as well as a few other allocation sizes. They formatted just fine / seemed to work just fine when I tested it in the PC.

When I put the card in my phone, the LG just won't accept / even see the card. It WILL say when I take it out, but "mounting" or "erasing" the card are both grayed out.

The LG is able to see and function normally with the dinky 2GB card that came with it.

So... what's the trick to getting my memory card working on my droid? The card seems to be fine. The droid's card reader seems to work with the pre-formatted low capacity card that came with it. What's the magic format I need on my 16 GB microSDHC card? Is there some sort of special software I need to make the memory card work properly?

I've found an extreme lack of information readily available on my phone, and after posting in some other tech forums I frequent, I was directed towards this one... unfortunately, the existing threads I looked at did not address my issue. I was also hoping there may be a forum for my phone since I've been surprised by some of the things it's lacking (such as a file browser) or any good documentation on boost mobile and LG's websites or the documentation that came with the phone. Hell,figuring out how to get my phone to even be able to transfer data via USB cable turned into an epic multi-hour long hassle... this basic information was not provided on any website, product manual, or forum listing that I could find. (boost mobile had a "guide" for doing this, but it was innaccurate, had massive information gaps (like the omission about downloading a USB driver for a "sprint" phone from LG's website), and written for someone at a 6th grade reading level).

Hopefully there's some simple fix I don't know about / simply overlooked when it comes to my memory card issue.

Is there a way to have the phone force a format on the card? I'm surprised it can't even detect it / mount it. Will I have to root my phone to do this?

Thanks in advance for thoughts / suggestions. On a totally unrelated note; Though a tutal nub to droid (though I have a tad of experience with linux), I'm tentatively considering putting my digital media design degree to use and poking at some simple app or game development in the future. I may have some spare time in the summer and may try to find some codemonkies to team up with for some small projects. Are there many folks on this site doing app development?