10 – SD Card Management

Overview of partitions

As described in “Partitions and songs” (page 47), SD cards formatted by this unit are divided into partitions. MTR partitions are for recording data while the FAT partition can be accessed with a personal computer. High-capacity cards can have multiple MTR partitions. In this case, you can use the MTR partitions for different songs, for example, or copy songs to a different MTR partitions to save their information. The FAT partition is FAT32 format and can be accessed by a computer connected to this unit by USB. This FAT partition is used to save songs and export stereo master tracks to computers, as well as to allow this unit to import audio files into songs, for example. For this reason, two steps are necessary to copy from a MTR partition and a computer. You can also format an entire card or individual partition as well as change the divisions between partitions (repartition) as necessary.

CAUTION

Formatting and repartition operations cannot be undone!

NOTE

•The FAT (File Allocation Table) format is a disk format that can be read by a computer.

•SD and SDHC card that are at least 512MB in size can be used.

Formatting cards and setting partition sizes

This operation formats the entire card and allows you set MTR partition sizes for high- capacity cards.

CAUTION

This operation erases all the data on the card and cannot be undone! Confirm that you will not lose important data before formatting a card.

1 When the recorder is stopped, press

MENU to open the MENUscreen.

2Turn the DATA wheel to select CARD, and press the F4 (¥) key to open the CARD menu screen.

3Turn the DATA wheel to select FORMAT and press the F4 (¥) key.

The FORMATscreen opens.

MTR partition size

FAT partition size

Total card size

The following table shows the FAT and MTR partition sizes for different SD card capacities. The FAT partition size is set automatically according to card capacity. The size of the MTR partition on cards 4 GB or smaller is also fixed, but cards that are 8 GB or larger have multiple MTR partitions and their sizes can be chosen. However, the last MTR partition is set to fill the remaining space on the card automatically, so its size cannot be chosen.

Card capacity and partition size

Card

FAT

 

capacity

partition

MTR partition size

 

size

 

32 GB

4 GB

2 GB, 4 GB, 8 GB or

 

 

16 GB

16 GB

4 GB

2 GB, 4 GB or 8 GB

8 GB

2 GB

2 GB or 4 GB

4 GB

2 GB

2 GB fixed

2 GB

1 GB

1 GB fixed

1 GB

512 MB

512MB fixed

68 TASCAM DP-008