Sd card serial number readers choice awards

The serial number is stored in the Card Identification Register (CID) which is read by ‘Command 10’ as stated in the SD Simplified Specifications. Unfortunately, it is not possible to read the CID of the card with a USB adapter — you need a ‘direct’ SD interface. How do I find my SD card reader in Windows 10? I can see the SD cards in the settings menu in the management context, but I cannot find any place where I can open them. They do not show up under devices, are not found by adding a device, and are not found under the computer or this pc menu options. Read the number on the card. Use a magnifying glass if you can't see the number clearly. Note that if multiple numbers are on the bottom, the serial number is the one closest to the metal end, just above the name of the country where the card was made. (For example, the number above 'Made in Taiwan' on the card is the serial number.). The SD and micro SD card modules allow you to communicate with the memory card and write or read the information on them. The module interfaces in the SPI protocol. To use these modules with Arduino you need the SD library. This library is installed on the Arduino application by default. The serial number is stored in the Card Identification Register (CID) which is read by ‘Command 10’ as stated in the SD Simplified Specifications. Unfortunately, it is not possible to read the CID of the card with a USB adapter — you need a ‘direct’ SD interface.

How To Read CID on SD card

If you are looking to read the CID number of an SD card, or extract the CID off an SD card then you’ve find this article very helpful. Some also call this “reading the PSN off the SD card” or reading the product serial number off the SD card.

Most phones and much of the software on phones will lock in to the CID number of a SD card. The CID number is a unique card identifier number that is unique to the card itself. The CID number is valuable because software developers and hardware developers can lock software to the unique number of the device thus eliminating the ability to pass along licensed software.

Reading the CID number from an SD card is not an easy task. It requires specific access codes to the index table of the memory card, and unless you know how to use the SD chipset of your card reader, chances are you wont get the number…or least the correct and accurate number.

What is the CID number of an SD card?

The CID register is 16 bytes long and contains a unique card identification number. It is programmed during card manufacturing and cannot be changed by SD Card hosts. The CID number is a compilation of information about the card, such as manufacturer, date manufactured, checksum total, GB size and more. Below is a table outlining all the items which make up the SD CID number.

So with all this said, how do you read the CID number from an SD card? As we’ve mentioned it isn’t easy and it’s [more or less] hardware based. If you do enough searching on the internet you’ll find some home-brew code to read the CID numbers, but that’s only if you have the SD card or microSD card connected via an IDE bus to your host computer. This isn’t easy for everyone. There is clear evidence that using a USB to SD card reader will not get you the information you require, or at least accurate and correct information. Meaning most times the CID number generated is actually the serial number of the card reader itself, not the CID number of a specific SD card.

How To Find Sd Card Serial Number

In addition, what if you are required to read the CID number off SD media in bulk? A single, one-at-a-time solution is not practical.

In my search to read the CID number from SD media, I cam across Nexcopy – a manufacturer of USB duplicator equipment and other flash memory equipment. Several models they carry are SD duplicators and microSD duplicators. With the secure digital duplicators part of their feature set includes reading CID numbers from SD media. The equipment can ready 20 cards at a time, 40 cards at a time, or 60 cards at a time, depending on the model. The duplicators will read the CID number and exported to a .csv file for import into other business functions. This configuration makes it quick and easy to obtain the CID number. Granted, the equipment is not designed for single use operation, but rather reading the CID of SD media in bulk quantity. Here is a screenshot of Nexcopy’s software reading 20 CID numbers:

I didn’t contact Nexcopy Incorporated for pricing of the equipment, but doing a quick search for the equipment shows me a price of about $1k for the smallest 20 target system and $3k for the largest, 60 target system.

With all this said, there is still no clear-cut method to read CID numbers off SD cards for the home-user, but maybe this article will at least explain why you haven’t found a good solution as of yet.

Sd Card Serial Number Readers Choice

Tags: microsd, nexcopy, read cid, sd card

Rich Gates

Administator for GetUSB.info GetUSB.info started in 2004 with the concept of providing USB information for everything USB related. At the time, USB was gaining momentum and every day new products, articles and news became published. Today, the site is focused on bringing technical information, tricks and hacks to USB related products. The site does publish off topic information as well, to keep the variety up. Please visit the footer area of any page if you or your company is interested in article or product placement via purchased advertising.

Internal SD Card Information

Information about an SD card is encoded in its internal card registries. One of these is the Card Identification (CID) Register, a 16 byte code that contains information that uniquely identifies the SD card, including the card serial number (PSN), manufacturer ID number (MID) and manufacture date (MDT). The CID register is set when the card is manufactured and cannot be changed after it is set. (According to SD card specification the information is only to be written once, however if a card does not conform to the specification this information could be changed!)

How to read the CID from an SD card

Sd Card Serial Number Reader App

One way to read the CID is to use a laptop with an SD card slot. Card readers in laptops are usually connected directly through the PCI bus (or IDE bus). This will not work through a USB card reader because the command to retrieve the card information is intercepted and not understood by card readers. Not all computers with built-in card slots will work, some internal card readers are connected through a USB bus.

Assuming you have the proper hardware, there are several methods you can use to get the card information. With Linux, reading the internal SD card information is simple. Insert the card and look under /sys/block/mmcblk0/device/ (this location may change depending on your platform, it may be mmcblk1 or in a different location). Under this location you will see several attributes available that include the CID and CSD registers and the information inside it.

To view the CID, the command is cat /sys/block/mmcblk0/device/cid (the exact loca