bcd536hp make a micro sd backup tutorial

[mitbr]

Once you get your new bcd536hp set up the way you want it i.e. Favorites list, new firmware and latest national data base time to make a backup of your micro sd card.

First thing to do is connect your usb to the scanner and open sentinel and click on read from scanner.
This will make sure that everything on your scanner is also in sentinel.

Unplug the usb from the scanner.

Now TURN OFF the scanner and remove the micro sd card from the scanner.

Take your new blank micro sd card I use an 8GB Scandisk, place it into the scanner.

Turn on the scanner it will tell you to clear user data to use the new card.

Now plugin your usb it should automatically go into mass storage mode.

Open Sentinel click on clear user data.A box will come up and probably be blank, put a check mark where it says search all drives, your scanner should now be highlighted.

Now click on ok to clear user data.

Now click on write to scanner put a checkmark in the box force write data base.

Your done enjoy.

Then reason this is important in the 536hp is if there is a power interruption your micro sd card could become corrupt,,, if this does occur simply remove the bad card and put in your new backup card and your back in action.

I'm sure this info is in the forum thought I would post it again for those who cant find it.
Tim

 

[ofd8001]

Good advice!

An additional thought. One could also copy the contents of the SD card to a backup file location on the computer. This is something that can be done using the computer's Windows Explorer. Connect the scanner to the computer and use the Mass Storage Mode, so the scanner shows up as a removable drive. Then copy and paste away.

 

[motorman105]

My BCD536HP is hard mounted in my car. I remove the SD card from the scanner and plug the SD card onto a reader then into my computer to update changes to my favorite lists.
Is there a way to make the back up card using a reader?

 

[fxdscon]

Is there a way to make the back up card using a reader?

Yes, 2 ways to do that.

1... If you have your original SD card out of the scanner and in a card reader, just copy all the files from that card to a folder on your computer, put the new SD card into the reader and copy those files back onto the new card.

2... This will work as long as the info in your copy of Sentinel is the same as the info you currently have (or now want - such as updated database) in your scanner. You don't need to have your original card, or the scanner with you. Just put the new card in the card reader, use the "clear user data" command in Sentinel (if the card doesn't show up in that box, check the "show all drives" box) and let the process complete. At this point just use the "write to scanner" command and write to that card from Sentinel, and it will put all the info on the card.

Note: The first method will include any recordings that were on the original card at the time you made the copy, the second method will (naturally) not have any of your previous recordings on the new card.
.

 

[JamesO]

fxdscon,

Thanks for your suggestions.

Seems there are some power users and some basic users here on the forum.

Although I can be a power user, with the x36HP scanners, I have not had to do anything yet with the SD card until recently a power failure corrupted the card in my 536HP.

My initial reaction was to use Sentinel to clear the card and reused it. Well, this was not going to happen as the card was so badly corrupted the basic file structure was damaged and even Windows could not read/format the card.

I am trying a very low level format tool at the moment to see if I can recover the corrupted card.

What I have learned over the past few days is the following:

1. There should be a thread just on the SD cards and using Sentinel for clear cards, program and copy cards. Also using Windows to copy, paste and store card images.

2. EVERYONE should have spare Micro SD clone cards ready to go. These scanners are DOA without a working SD card. I plan on taping a clone card on the side, bottom or rear of my 536HP with Blue tape after a put a small wrap of paper on the card to protect it and keep the tape from sticking to the SD card.

3. I also also learned that the 536HP will need a stable power source. Power disruptions can kill the SD card, happened to me this past week during some bad rain storms, we had 4 inches of rain in ab out 12 hours. The scanner does not seem to deal with gracefully handling power blips and drop outs.

4. Hopefully the 436HP will be easier on the SD card, but if your batteries avalanche before you can shut the scanner down, same SD card corruption could happen?? I do not know if the 436HP will power down automatically when the batteries get low and write to the SD card properly?? I have not experimented with this yet.

5. For the 436HP, I have not tried this, but it appears you could tape a spare Micro SD card on the inside of the battery door next to the foam for the batteries?? Should be something to consider so you are not left with a brick in the field.

6. For the 436HP, suggest getting a field bag together with either spare batteries and the mini USB cable with adapters and also possibly put a USB battery back up so you can keep the scanner going in the case of need. I had an event this weekend where I had to have 3 scanners going and the 436HP was recording when the batteries got low. Luckily I had the data/power cable handy and I just plugged the cable into my laptop to run the scanner until the action slowed down.

Did not expect to have Micro SD card issues, but it is not a matter of if, but when.

Hopefully Uniden can look into this issue and tweak the firmware a bit to limit or resolve this SD card corruption problem.

 

[motorman105]

Thanks fxdscon,
I followed your instructions and have made a back up SD card......it took a lot of courage to click on "clear user data" in order to get Sentinal to write to the new card! It's tough when you don't have a clue.
So, rather than leave well enough alone, I was wondering if there was a way to name the card so when I click to "write to scanner" the card will display "536 back up card" or whatever. Right now it says "Uniden unknown" then a bunch of zeros. I came this far, I figure "let's get crazy"!
Thanks, Motorman

 

[JamesO]

Thanks fxdscon,
I followed your instructions and have made a back up SD card......it took a lot of courage to click on "clear user data" in order to get Sentinal to write to the new card! It's tough when you don't have a clue.
So, rather than leave well enough alone, I was wondering if there was a way to name the card so when I click to "write to scanner" the card will display "536 back up card" or whatever. Right now it says "Uniden unknown" then a bunch of zeros. I came this far, I figure "let's get crazy"!
Thanks, Motorman

I think the Uniden Unknown with the zeros is because the scanner will write the serial number to the SD card on the first power up.

Not sure you can rename the card, but suggest to mark the card somehow, maybe a pencil or some nail polish in a bright color??

I would also tape the spare card either inside the battery compartment on a 436HP or on the outside of a 536HP. Suggest to wrap the card in paper before using tape, makes the car easier to get free and no adhesive let on the card.

 

[ofd8001]

What I've done is use different capacity cards for backups. 16G is the primary with the 4G being the back-up.

While you can't give the SD card a volume name, as the scanner ESN becomes the volume name, you could write a text file on to the SD card. Something like "Backup 1.txt"