# Is there a way to read the CID of a micro-SD card



## blkmagikca (Apr 9, 2008)

I have an application for my Hermes (Cingular 8525) that came on a 1-Gb micro-SD card. I have backed up the application in a RAR file and unRARed it to a larger (2-Gb) micro-SD card. When I try to run it, I get a hardware ID error. It seems that there is a file that likely contains the CID identifier of the micro-SD card, which is unique to the card and is not affected by formatting. What I would like to know is if there is any application which will run on either my Hermes or my PC which will read out and display the CID identifier of an SD or micro-SD card.


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## mikealder (Apr 9, 2008)

The S in SD means Secure, the application you have is locked to the memory card so there is little you can do, would this be iGO 8  per chance on its rather small capacity card?? - Mike


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## blkmagikca (Apr 9, 2008)

The app is i-Go which I purchased in February. What I am hoping to do is to get a new 8Gb micro-SD and put that plus Tom-Tom (for North America) on it so that I don't find myself having to swap cards when I travel. Currently I have some music along with Tom-Tom on a 2Gb micro-SD. My goal is to only have to swap the SIM cards when I travel, not the micro-SD.


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## mikealder (Apr 9, 2008)

Complain to iGO, their insistance on supplying this package on too smaller memory card is the sort of practice that will generate illegal copies of their software. They should offer the package on far larger cards in this day and age, it is a real shame they elected to lock down the application to an undersize card - Users such as yourself who want to purchase software correctly should not have to put up with this sort of draconian measure - Mike


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## blkmagikca (Apr 10, 2008)

Actually when I bought iGo, I asked for a 2Gb micro-Sd and they told me that they only supplied it on a 1Gb card. On top of that, they charged an extra amount because it was on a micro-SD card instead of a regular SD card. The price was really quite exorbitant - $300 including shipping just for the map of Israel. TomTom maps are $100 for all of North America (and only $50 if you do an annual upgrade). However, for some insane reason, iGO is the only GPS map software for Israel - Garmin and TomTom don't have it.

In looking over the supplied software from iGO, I noticed that there is one file called license.db which seems to contain the CID number of the card. I thought I would experiment with putting their app on a larger card and hacking that file to change the number to the CID of the larger card - except that I can't find any utility that will read out the CID. Hence my post.


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## tar023 (Apr 29, 2008)

I also would like to know the ID of my SD Card.... any idea how to do that?


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## pvs (May 9, 2008)

I can't experiment with this right now, but you might try popping the card into a USB reader attached to a laptop or PC.  Then, on that machine, open a CMD (DOS) window, browse to the root of the card, and type *DIR* and press enter.  The resulting screen should show you a list of all the files in the root directory of the card.  The second line in that list should tell you the "Volume Serial Number".  

Is THAT what you're looking for?  If so, you should also be able to edit it, using a program like WinHex.  Simply make the large (2GB) card have the same VSN as the one the software was delivered on.

Hope this helps,
-pvs


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## la-karaviro (Nov 19, 2008)

pvs said:


> I can't experiment with this right now, but you might try popping the card into a USB reader attached to a laptop or PC.  Then, on that machine, open a CMD (DOS) window, browse to the root of the card, and type *DIR* and press enter.  The resulting screen should show you a list of all the files in the root directory of the card.  The second line in that list should tell you the "Volume Serial Number".
> 
> Is THAT what you're looking for?  If so, you should also be able to edit it, using a program like WinHex.  Simply make the large (2GB) card have the same VSN as the one the software was delivered on.
> 
> ...

Click to collapse



That will give you the Partition-ID in form XXXX-XXXX

what he and me would need is the "PSN" which is written in the CID Register of a microSD-Card; the Product serial number PSN (32bits binary integer).

Does anyone has an idea, how you can read this, i think some programs do read this Number during the registration of the card to the System, i am a noob and haven't an idea how to get to this information

i dont want to change it, i just need to know it.


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## jo0ls (Nov 30, 2008)

I've got the CID in C# in Windows XP/Vista. No luck with Windows Mobile 2003 SE (I haven't got anything newer to try it with). 

http://jdmcf.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!862DEE3EC267CB5C!279.entry
http://jdmcf.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!862DEE3EC267CB5C!292.entry

You send IOCTL_SFFDISK_DEVICE_COMMAND with deviceIOControl. 

Works only with SD cards plugged into a reader attached directly to the pci bus, it doesn't work with usb readers, you need admin rights for the call, it needs to be compiled for x86 instead of AnyCPU, it's flaky... 

My pocket pc experiments have ended in misery. I think the driver for the SD Bus Host must be programmed to deal with the calls or something. It's too low level for me, my understanding is minimal...


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## ressam (Dec 22, 2008)

Hi ,

im searching too for a way to copy igo license card

i think this tool is probably the first step to success
copy the file to your PPC insert the card you want to now the id and run (works only on PPC) 



The license.db works together with the card id i found a field by opening
the license.db with normal hexeditor where the id is stored ( field called "secid" ) but no way to change it because the file gets unreadable for igo

we need a way to change the id in the license.db 


sorry for my bad english


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## Jaromirtje (Jan 22, 2009)

But is there a way to change or fake a card ID for new cards?


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## Jaromirtje (Feb 12, 2009)

is there a solution yet?


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## Zagaulo (Aug 29, 2009)

Thank you for this tread,

 I'm looking to read SD CID (32 * bits) using Pc SD/MMC card reader, i have a C# code here.

But this code don't work over my PC card reader, DeviceIoControl return false for a physical device of the SD card. 

I have too add the driver or dll API to etablish protocol comunication to send command !!

Thank in advance for any idea and contribution


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## wensterretje (Feb 16, 2010)

*Yesssssssssss*

A quick way to find serial number sd card in the SD card drive letter opdrachpromt example: J: \> dir


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## Senax (Mar 6, 2010)

blkmagikca said:


> *Is there a way to read the CID of a micro-SD card*.

Click to collapse



Yes there is, see this topic;
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=530335

PageDown to the _2nd post_.

Though if it is for any use of you.. I doubt it,
Senax


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## switzblade (Jul 8, 2010)

*Sd card reader reading CID*

Yes there is ,see thread id 673064 on this forum, last reply from me.


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## Droidzone (Nov 20, 2010)

Does anyone have a working app for this, which can operate over the USB? If the adb.exe of Android can read the CID, other apps should also be able to. The GET CID command exists for cards. Why is it difficult coding it?


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## Droidzone (Nov 20, 2010)

One more qn.. Is the CID register same as the Container ID ?


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## projektk (Dec 14, 2010)

any news!?


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## fljaweiu (Dec 17, 2010)

What is the situation?


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## blkmagikca (Apr 9, 2008)

I have an application for my Hermes (Cingular 8525) that came on a 1-Gb micro-SD card. I have backed up the application in a RAR file and unRARed it to a larger (2-Gb) micro-SD card. When I try to run it, I get a hardware ID error. It seems that there is a file that likely contains the CID identifier of the micro-SD card, which is unique to the card and is not affected by formatting. What I would like to know is if there is any application which will run on either my Hermes or my PC which will read out and display the CID identifier of an SD or micro-SD card.


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## phoenixtraveller (Jan 14, 2011)

What is the go now? EXE-Win32 CID reader done yet? By anyone?

Thanks.


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## Droidzone (Jan 14, 2011)

phoenixtraveller said:


> What is the go now? EXE-Win32 CID reader done yet? By anyone?
> 
> Thanks.

Click to collapse



No and never


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## pol098 (Dec 23, 2011)

Senax said:


> Yes there is, see this topic;
> http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=530335
> 
> PageDown to the _2nd post_.
> ...

Click to collapse



This seems to be the way to issue an AT command to enable or disable Caller ID, nothing to do with SD card ID.

---------- Post added at 06:01 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:54 PM ----------

An article on fake SD cards mentions in passing that the ID information is available through /sys entries under Linux, with lots of information. I can't post links, it's on the bunniestudios website, blog post 918, "On MicroSD Problems"

HTH


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## 27ragbag (Dec 17, 2013)

I have done a bunch of research on finding out how to read and how to write the CID.  Can't get the ability to write the CID, but I did find gear to read the CID.  The problem for me is the solution is a bulk CID reader product so too expensive for reading my one card.  But maybe it will be helpful to you.  Article with details is here:  getusb.info/how-to-read-cid-on-sd-card/


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## speculatrix (Oct 5, 2014)

the CID mentioned in the linked post is the carrier ID when connected to a mobile network.

to read the MMC params, boot a linux live CD and then look in /sys/block/mmc...
you should find a bunch of parameter files called cid csd date fwrev hwrev manfid name oemid scr serial type uevent


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## pol098 (Apr 19, 2015)

speculatrix said:


> to read the MMC params, boot a linux live CD and then look in /sys/block/mmc...
> you should find a bunch of parameter files called cid csd date fwrev hwrev manfid name oemid scr serial type uevent

Click to collapse



If anyone is still interested: Yes, but location varies with the particular Linux. It's a massively long pathname in Puppy Linux, for example. Just search all files for a file called "cid". I simply search, go to the directory, and drag the file(s) to a drive on the host machine. Can be useful when trying to work out if an SD card is fake (suspicious parameters, low serial number, meaningless date, ...). There's an online decoder at http://goughlui.com/2014/01/02/project-read-collect-decode-sd-card-cid-register-data/ , with a link to a page which will do side-by-side comparison of two CIDs. HTH


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