Can't install XP hotfix re: SD card / sdbus.sys

[Nomen]

I've got an XP-SP3 system with the POS2009 hack and an SD-card reader that I know is compatible with SD cards at least up to 64 gb.  Currently, XP doesn't recognize an SD card that it recently did recognize.  It puts up a message saying the card is not formatted and asks if I want to format (I say no).  I can bring the card to a laptop running win-7 with built-in card reader and it can read the files ok, and I run scandisk on the card on the laptop and it says it's fine.

There seems to have been one or more XP hotfixes for SD cards (311182 and 333278) and I've obtained both of those (311182_ENU_i386_zip.exe and 333278_ENU_i386_zip.exe) from MS but they won't install - I don't remember the exact wording but I believe they thought they were incompatible with the OS, and I'm thinking that maybe the POS2009 hack might be the cause.

I *believe* that the root issue is the file sdbus.sys, but I don't understand the hotfix installer well enough to create or build all the _p files in the hotfix into the actual files.

Anyone seen (and solved) this issue before?

 

[jaclaz]

What you report doesn't sound like "probable".

Do check the actual contents of first sector of the card before drawing conclusions, it may be a partitioning/formatting issue.

Can you see on the XP the \\.\PhysicalDrive?

Open it in a hex/disk editor and post a screenshot, or, better, make a copy of the sector, zip it into an archive and attach the archive.

Is the SD card reader an USB attached device?

I have seen issues like this connected to problems with the "automatic" mounting of removable media on the USB, the "Safe removal" thingie malfunctioning or with some settings in the Registry that confused it...

SDBUS.SYS is only for direct PCI connected devices (rare):
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/drivers/sd/sd-card-driver-stack

jaclaz

 

Edited August 1, 2016 by jaclaz

[Nomen]

The reader is one of those multi-card readers that slides into a 3.5" drive-bay.  It connects to the motherboard USB port via 10-pin header.  It uses 2 motherboard USB ports - 1 for the card reader and 1 is a usb pass-through to a front panel USB port.  In file explorer the reader shows up as 3 or 4 extra drives even if there are no cards plugged in.  When clicking on the correct drive-icon associated with the SD-card slot, I get the "drive not formatted" message.  There's nothing wrong with the card because (as I said) the files on it appear correctly on a win-7 laptop with integrated SD port.

And let me say that this is *still* a real pain in the butt that I can find no way to render pretty much anything.microsoft.com on any browswer that I can run under win-98.  Not even Opera 2.12 can render this page:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/kb/970685

Complete blank.  But that is a description of this problem with SD card.