Why won't my Sony PSP memory stick format?

I have psp and my 2gb card will not format, what's wrong? How do I get my Sony PSP to format the memory stick, or can I use my PC card reader to do that?

Dave's Answer:

Rather surprisingly, there are a lot of compatibility issues with the Sony PSP and its Memory Stick devices. As far as I can tell, there are two problems, actually. The first is simply that there are a variety of different specific types of memory sticks, so saying "memory stick" doesn't guarantee that your stick will work with your PSP.

As a result, I strongly encourage people to only buy memory sticks that explicitly say "Compatible with Sony PSP" to ensure that you aren't inadvertently buying the wrong kind.

The second issue is a trickier one and is kind of hard to imagine, except it's been widely reported in the media: There are millions of counterfeit memory sticks circulating in China and throughout Asia, and with the rise of cheap offshore electronics shops online and the pervasiveness of eBay auctions, it's not as hard as you might imagine to end up paying a cut rate for a counterfeit memory stick that actually won't work with ANY device, let alone a PSP.

Here's an interesting article from eBay UK on this very subject: How do avoid counterfeit memory cards. In fact, if you do a search on Google for counterfeit "memory stick" you'll find over 50,000 matching pages!

So, finally, how do you avoid this problem? Buy known-brand memory devices from stores with solid reputations, like Amazon.com, Buy.com or CompUSA. Then you should be in good shape and if you do continue to have a problem, at least you can take it back!

Hope that helps you out, and if you need more help with the Sony PSP, don't forget that I have lots more PSP Help on this site too!

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Categorized: iPod, Sony PSP and MP3 Player Help (Article 6924, Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: counterfeit memory, memory card, memory stick, sony psp
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Reader Comments To Date: 25

Analya said, on December 30, 2006 10:22 AM:

I own K750i mobile with extended memory 1GB...now the problem is when I upload music to my memory card it will be uploaded successfully but when I play the song I receive an error popup says "cannot play sound". Till now I've uploaded only 57 songs (approx. 250 MB) still 712 MB left free.

One more point Its like I was not able to store any files more than 250 MB... Only if I delete the previous files its possible for me to upload & save the new files.

I'm clueless what to do. Please send if u've the solution.

Thanx in advance...analya

Sam said, on April 8, 2007 11:31 PM:

Dave, I have a question. Is there a way to download a movie onto a memory stick and watch the movie w/out using a computer at all? and if so, how?

sudip shrestha said, on April 17, 2007 12:41 AM:

I own L7 mobile with extended memory ..now the problem is when I upload music to my memory card it will be uploaded successfully but when I play the song I receive an error popup says "cannot play sound". Till now I've uploaded only 25 and still some space is left.

also the phone shows the memory card and shows the songs uploaded but i can't make ani play list...beside that the picture taken cannot be stored in the memory card dirrectly. i have to save in phone and then move to memory card. so please help me out....

majorplayer said, on May 21, 2007 7:13 PM:

my memory card, (SONY MEMORYSTICK PRO DUO 1GB )I have had since the sony psp came out, and has been working fine never had a prob with it, but today i pluged it into my laptop which i have done before to try and download pspwxp. it didnt work anyway. anyway i put it back into my psp and now my psp wont register it. it sais there is no memory stick inserted, and the 2 lights next to it the wifi light are blinking real fast and are orange, i have not seen them like that before. please help me. cheers dude.

baali said, on August 17, 2007 3:31 PM:

I own K750i mobile with extended memory 1GB...now the problem is when I upload music to my memory card it will be uploaded successfully but when I play the song I receive an error popup says "cannot play sound". Till now I've uploaded only 57 songs (approx. 250 MB) still 712 MB left free.
One more point Its like I was not able to store any files more than 250 MB... Only if I delete the previous files its possible for me to upload & save the new files.
I'm clueless what to do. Please send if u've the solution.
plz help me
Thanx in advance...baali

R-G said, on September 10, 2007 12:59 PM:

i got a PsP i've had since japanese release date, been using it with my mem sticks (1+2Gb cards, compatible) and never had a prob til now, last night went to bed, stuck my card in my psp and it wouldnt stay in (no idea) aswell as when it's on, it jus crashes, it powers off and the screen fades out, tis ragging my brain out cause i cant find an answer and i know it hasnt been dropped or anything. give me a heads'up if poss and as soon as if you can, as hammer to PsP seems rather likely (long story) gonna pick a slimline up soon, jus need to know wwwhhhhyyyy!!??!?!?

kurt said, on November 15, 2007 10:11 AM:

hello i have a sony w810i i have bort a sony 4gb memory stick for the phone but wen i uploade music on to it it comes up sucsesfully but then the music dosen play and thay are gorne can u help ?

abdulma said, on November 27, 2007 11:22 AM:

i had just got a 1gig card 4 my psp then on the same day i dropped my psp and now ever time i go to memory card on psp i says no memory card inserted what shall i do

Dirk said, on January 2, 2008 11:11 AM:

Hi
I've bought a memory stick Pro duo for my PSP but I've formatted it in my pc, Can I still use the memory stick with my PSP?

Alborz said, on February 8, 2008 11:31 PM:

hi dave ,

I have bought a psp memory sitck pro due (8Gb) from china when i put it in psp it showing 8gb but when i copy the games only 1 or 2 games work ,can u help ?

Mr Eastaff said, on March 18, 2008 6:47 AM:

can you please help me i cant get my PSP memory card to save my game on my 4GB
Sony memory stick Duo?

Jack said, on September 28, 2008 8:02 PM:

Hi Dave i have a question i have just recently bought a 4GB SanDisk pro duo memory stick with magic gate for my psp and i can save music videos and pictures to it and i can save like game demos to it but i cant make save profiles i thought maybe its just because its not Sony so i returned it and bought a 4GB Sony pro duo mark 2 memory stick with magic gate and tried that it has the same problem so i went to my friends house and got his 1GB Sony pro duo memory stick with magic gate and his works fine in my psp so i have no idea what is going on could u help out please?

Marie said, on December 20, 2008 8:27 PM:

I buy a 16GD memory card for my PSP. when I try to download things on it my computer want to format it up to 4 Gd what's going to happen to the rest of the GD am I going to lost it

kiel said, on March 14, 2009 3:59 PM:

hi dave~

i have this problem in formatting my PSP memory stick~

whenever i am formatting it, it always says " windows has not completed the formatting" something like this.

what's the problem?

and it asks for the Volume Label, what should i put there?

please respond~

thx

Duane said, on April 30, 2009 4:57 PM:

hi dave,

i have 2 sony memory stick pro duo and i want
put some games on it and it says, "this disk
from this drive is not yet formatted, do
you want to format it now?". i clicked yes
and says, "this disk from this drive i cannot
formatted." whats wrong? can u help me?

please reply..
thnx!!

Beaugh said, on June 6, 2009 10:48 PM:

hi dave,

I recently bricked my psp and i finaly unbricked it all without being able to see the screen, but the screen works on my other psp. would u mind letting me know any steps i can take to see stuff on the now unbricked psp? please? thank u very much for any help.

Dennis said, on July 1, 2009 12:20 PM:

Hey Dave, I have a modded PSP with a 4g memory stick. I am trying to move my file from the desktop to the psp. You could see that there is activity going on through the transfer. When it's done transferring, the free space goes down but, there isn't anything save on the stick. Where could it possibly be going??? Thanks

Eddy said, on July 30, 2009 4:20 PM:

hi, i buyied a memory stick few years ago and when i insert the memory on the psp it says that there is not memory stick inserted and a flashing light near the wifi light began to blink, plz tell me what is wrong

arvin said, on August 9, 2009 9:45 PM:

I tried inserting it in my psp... can't read it, then on pc, it can read it but i can't reformat the card, i'm pissed that no one can really solve my problem

Tazy66 said, on August 15, 2009 11:12 AM:

Im also having this kind of problem when i try to format my memory stick it says the memory stick could not be accessed. Does any one know why this could be ?

shubham said, on August 20, 2009 4:19 AM:

hi
i have 8GB memory
i have problem in formatting my PSP memory stick(8GB memory)
whenever i am formatting it, it always says "window was unable to complete the formate"

tom said, on August 20, 2009 4:26 AM:

hi
i have problem in formatting my PSP memory stick(8GB memory)
whenever i am formatting it, it always says "window was unable to complete the formate"

hamza said, on September 18, 2009 11:23 AM:

hi
i have problem in formatting my psp memory stick(4gb memory)
whenever i am formatting it,it says "window was unable to complete the format"

bilal fawad said, on November 26, 2009 6:25 AM:

i have a problem in formatting my psp moemoty stick(8gb memory) whe ever i for mat i says no memory stick in psp and when i do it in computer it say unable to formatt memory card

Thomas Xiong said, on May 16, 2010 5:21 PM:

hi,

I have a 2gb Sandisk Memory Stick Pro Duo for my PSP. It worked fine until I loaded a ISO. I put it in sleep mode and took it out to upload pics to computer. I turned on my PSP, but forgot to put the memory stick in. When I did put it in it doesn't stop flashing.

*I have already tried to format it on computer and psp works fine with my 1 gb Lexar Memory Stick Pro Duo

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

Why won't my Sony PSP memory stick format?

Reader Comments To Date: 25

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

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