Use the HP Format Tool (run as administrator on Windows Vista/7).

Hi  aviator686,

Welcome to the community,

When formatting, only two options should be available NTFS and FAT32.

•         Are there any other options for formatting that are out of the ordinary?

I would suggest you to format the Card from the Disk Management

Steps to format SD card from Disk Management

a.    Click Start and go to Control Panel.

b.    Click Administrative Tools and then click Computer Management

c.    When that window opens you can click on Disk Management and find the device in the drive viewer.

d.    Then you can right click on the drive and select Format and see if using this utility from the Disk Management helps resolve your issue.

Also this can be an issue with the SD card as well, thus I’ll suggest to try another similar card and try to format it as well.

Let me know of the findings, glad to be of assistance.

Pankaj_Sharma

Social Outreach Professional

You can reach us at http://en.community.dell.com/

Tried you suggestion but the card was not recognized in Disk Management. I have an external card reader and when I inserted the microsd card into that it was immediately recognized and FAT32 was an option. I am beginning to suspect that the MicroSD slot on my Dell card reader may be at fault. I am going to try another brand of a micro sd card and see if I get the same result.

DELL-Pankaj

The following link you posted, does not seem to be correct, as it only opens the Dell Sales page,   :emotion-4:

http://dell.to/Kbuu6Y

Bev.

Hi  aviator686,

Thank you for response,

In this case I’ll also suggest to reseat the Media Card reader cable, this is how you can do that:

http://dell.to/Kbuu6Y

Please let me know the result if you use a different SD card, Also if it still does not work, then please add me as friend and PM the service tag of the computer.

Let me know of the findings, glad to help you.

Pankaj_Sharma

Social Outreach Professional

You can reach us at http://en.community.dell.com/

Pankaj, I already tried resetting the cable but that didn't help. Yesterday I tried a new Transcend 8gb micro sd card and got the same results. Card not recognized. I have no problems formatting a CF card in my reader. Used my external card reader and the Transcend card was recognized with no problem. My XPS600 is out of warranty now so sending you the service tag probably won't make any difference. I will just use my Garmin Nuvi when I have to format the card. Thanks for your assistance.

Hi aviator686,  

Thank you for your response,

I’ll suggest to replace the media card reader in this case, in case the system is not under warranty you can order the parts from Dell sales. You can contact Dell Spare part Sales department at 1-800-372-3355 to buy the parts. I can give you the part numbers.

Part Number for Memory Card Reader 13-in-1:  HD273

Cable Assembly for Memory Card Reader: M9462

Please revert if you need any further assistance. Glad to help you.

Pankaj_Sharma

Social Outreach Professional

You can reach us at http://en.community.dell.com/