How Can I Stop A Sd Card Being Mirrored On Laptop?

[peachybabe]

I mainly use my iPad, but have a small laptop with Windows 10, 4GB of installed memory, x64 bit processor, which I occasionally use for document and PowerPoint writing. I have a 256 GB SD card that I have installed to save any work I do, so as not to take up space on the laptop. Problem is that the SD card is being “mirrored” on the laptop and the laptop is consequently almost out of memory because of it. I have tried to delete the SD card file from the laptop, but it then clears the SD card at the same time.

How can I 1) delete the SD card from the laptop memory, and 2) stop it happening again?

TIA.

[davegosling]

What do you mean by "mirrored"? How exactly is your laptop running out of memory, as memory and storage are not related in any way.

[Buenchico]

I've not really got a clue as to why the problem is occurring - it's certainly something I've never encountered before.

However it occurs to me that your laptop might not fully support SDXC memory cards (which is what a 256 GB card would have to be).

Many devices only support SD and SDHC cards, limiting the user to a maximum of 32 GB without problems occurring. (I can't think why you'd need 256 GB anyway. You could fit the complete works of Shakespeare into 0.005 Gb. The largest edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica only takes up 4.5 GB).

Try using an SDHC card (of perhaps just 4 or 8 GB) instead. You might well find that the problem then disappears.

If you still want to remove all traces of the old card from your laptop's registry though, install and run USB Oblivion https://www.cherubicsoft.com/en/projects/usboblivion but make sure that
(a) you remove any/all SD cards and USB drives first ; and
(b) that you remember to tick the 'Do real clean' box.

[peachybabe]

Sorry, It’s storage. Message keeps coming up “Your computer is running low on storage space”, and when I look at properties on the c drive, I’ve only got just over 3gb of free space left. It means that when I’ve tried to do any updates, they won’t download. When I’ve removed the SD card and deleted the mirrored files, storage seems to go up.

ps. You aren’t the davegosling once of Newham fame are you?

[Buenchico]

The '4 GB' in your post must refer to how much RAM your laptop has got because Windows 10 itself requires 16 GB of hard drive space for the 32-bit version or 20 Gb for the 64-bit version. You've not actually told us the size of the hard drive (or solid state drive) in your laptop.

[peachybabe]

From my System

Processor. Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU N3060 @ 1.60GHz
Installed Memory (RAM). 4.00GB
System Type. 64-bit Operating System, x64-based processor.

[peachybabe]

When I look at the Windows (C:) properties, it tells me that I have
Used space. 24.5GB
Free space. 3.35GB
Capacity. 27.8GB.

The SD card shows as external memory, but everything on it is also under the files on This PC with the same file name, SDXC (D:)

[Buenchico]

That information tells you about what's on your motherboard, not about your hard drive.

To see the size of your hard drive, go to 'Computer' and look at your 'C' drive. The information might already be shown there, as in this example (from the computer I'm using right now):
http://upl.co/uploads/Capture1524516445.jpg

If it's not, right-click on your 'C' drive and select 'Properties', as I've done here:
http://upl.co/uploads/Capture2-291524516511.jpg

Those illustrations show that my computer has got a 64 GB hard drive. (It actually shows as 62.6 GB simply because of the different ways that 'kilo', 'mega' and 'giga' are calculated, as there are actually 1024 of each of the smaller units in the next largest one, rather than 1000).

[Buenchico]

Oops!

Crossed posts!

You appear to have got a 32 GB drive (but with some space reserved for some reason- possibly for 'recovery' purposes). There have been LOTS of posts recently from ABers who're trying to use Windows 10 on 32 GB machines, only to find that they're getting messages saying that there's not enough space to install updates. There seems to be no simple solution to the problem because you really need a bigger hard drive. (Despite Microsoft saying that Windows 10 only needs 20 GB on a 64-bit system, the reality is that it simply doesn't seem to work properly on 32 GB drives).

The best way around the problem though seems to be to tell Windows that you're using a metered connection (where you pay for every bit of data you use), even if you're not. That then stops Windows 10 trying to download all but the most important updates, hopefully leaving enough space on your hard drive for other things. See here for instructions:
https://www.howtogeek.com/226722/how-when-and-why-to-set-a-connection-as-metered-on-windows-10/

However I still think that switching to a smaller SD card (32 GB or less) is likely to fix the problem which you originally posted about.

[peachybabe]

Buenchico. Thank you. I’ll see if the smaller card solves the problem before I do anything else.

Out to the shops tomorrow.........!