askchapo

I have an older laptop that I'm in the process of turning into a Linux machine (thanks, Microsoft). It's got a full-size SD card reader that I've never used but that I figure could come in handy in transferring files from the current Windows HDD to the future Linux SSD and later as extra storage.

I'm not just sure how compatible it is with modern microSD cards. I have some SDHC and SDXC cards that I use in my Android phones, and I tried putting them in a microSD adapter and opening them in Windows, but all I get is a "You need to format the drive in E: before you can use it" pop-up. Unfortunately, all of my cards are currently in use on my phones so I can't format them to see if that would make Windows recognize them.

Apparently SD cards that are setup as Internal Storage on Android are encrypted, which could be what's giving Windows trouble, but I'm not sure. I guess try booting into a Linux live USB and see if I have better luck there.

Does anyone have any experience with SD card readers on older laptops? Have you gotten higher-capacity modern SDHC or ideally, SDXC cards to read? I saw a mention somewhere that as long as the system in question supports exFAT, it should be fine with SDXC, but I don't know how reliable that is.