Windows 7 SD Card Corruption Flaw Patched

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Live well now with your SD cards, NTFS and ADMA.

Are you running Windows 7 and are you a user of SD cards formatted using NTFS? Furthermore, do you use Advanced Direct Memory Access (ADMA) to transfer data between the SD card and your computer? You may find that when you transfer data from the computer to the SD card, the data on the SD card may be corrupted.

Thankfully, Microsoft has come up with a fix for this flaw, which it released today. You can download this update from the Microsoft Windows Update Web site or from the Windows Download Center, but if you prefer to do things manually, click here for the patch itself.

Here's more info if you wish to know what caused the problem:

During an ADMA transfer process, the Secure Digital Bus Driver (Sdbus.sys) converts the DMA data structure of the operating system to the ADMA data structure of the SD card. The DMA and the ADMA data structures are also known as the descriptor tables. The descriptor table contains a data length value and a buffer address. The data-length field is 16-bit, and has a maximum size of 64K (kilobytes). However, during the data conversion process, the Sdbus.sys driver does not check the buffer size in the descriptor table of the system. Therefore, the Sdbus.sys driver may set an incorrect data length in the SD descriptor table. For example, the Sdbus.sys driver may set the data length larger than 0xFFFF. Also, corrupted I/O occurs. This causes data corruption.

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Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
22 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Dark Lord of Tech
    good quick fix!
    Reply
  • Dark Lord of Tech
    thanks microsoft!
    Reply
  • leafblower29
    Is this also for flash drives? I had some odd problems with mine yesterday and I updated today and it worked.
    Reply
  • HansVonOhain
    It fixed my flashdrive issue. Thank you M$.

    I like you now a 2% more than yesterday. :/ But still at a mere 48%
    Reply
  • pocketdrummer
    I wonder if that will fix the FlashDrive Bricking Feature. (I'm assuming it's caused by ReadyBoost.... since that's the only thing I used it for before it was unrecognizable)
    Reply
  • liquidsnake718
    Tsk tsk thanking MS for something that should not have been a problem in the first placed. Something like USB or SD card support should not have been overlooked after all the beta and early testing/releases?

    I'll stick to Vista.... at least now all the little problems are fixed and its not so bad after all.... See, Win7 has its share of problems as well....
    Reply
  • hakesterman
    There aint been an operating system to date for any platform that didn't need patches or minor tweaking. Windows 7 is as solid as it gets, buy today and enjoy for years. Go Win7...................

    Reply
  • neiroatopelcc
    pocketdrummerI wonder if that will fix the FlashDrive Bricking Feature. (I'm assuming it's caused by ReadyBoost.... since that's the only thing I used it for before it was unrecognizable)explain that?

    I'm using readyboost - was using two usb drives. I accidently broken one when moving the computer, but the other's worked flawlessly. Not really sure it boosts anything though, but it's still accessible and seems okay.
    Reply
  • ossie
    liquidsnake718Tsk tsk thanking MS for something that should not have been a problem in the first placed. Something like USB or SD card support should not have been overlooked after all the beta and early testing/releases? ... See, Win7 has its share of problems as well....Wintarded micro$uxx fankiddies are trained to wag their tails every time they perceive getting attention.
    Imagine the outrage, if the rotten fruit would've botched it...
    Reply
  • Regulas
    area51reopenedthanks microsoft!Maybe you should get on your knees for MS too. This couldn't happen to great Windows 7 that is perfect in they eyes of the fanboys.
    Reply