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  • Hey all, just changed over the backend after 15 years I figured time to give it a bit of an update, its probably gonna be a bit weird for most of you and i am sure there is a few bugs to work out but it should kinda work the same as before... hopefully :)

Windows 10 Pro no longer supports UDF formatted media

chris ware

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Hey Reduser,

Just a heads up. My windows machine OS updated and it will no longer launch red mini mags. After lots of tests I have discovered that Windows Pro 10, version 20H2 or later, doesn't launch UDF formatted cards. Media cards show up in disk manager as unallocated.

I formatted the card in Fat32, captured some video, and the card now launches.

Does anyone have a UDF driver, or player, that is compatible with the latest versions of Windows 10?

thanks

chris.....
 
Hey Chris, you shouldn't need any special driver for UDF in Windows 10. I just checked that 20H2 can format and read a card as UDF in all available UDF flavors. Sounds more like a different problem with the media rather than the UDF format but I can't figure what that could be.
Can you try formatting a card on the PC and check if this works, and if so, whether the data can be read?

From an Administrator Command Prompt:
Code:
format <drive> /fs:udf /r:2.50 /q
For example
Code:
format E: /fs:udf /r:2.50 /q
if the drive is assigned to E:
 
Last edited:
Hey Alex

Thanks for responding. The data can be read on my camera, I can play the clips as well. The data can also be read on a mac, with UDF formatted cards.

I have two windows machines, each with a similar windows 10 pro version. Neither can read my cards.

I have 7 cards and three separate card readers. Also, lots of wires.

None of them working, with UDF formats.

All my media worked just two weeks ago, this suddenly happened.

thanks
 
Hi Chris,

I have the exact same issue with Windows 11. I keep on having to remove the latest updates to keep UDF formatted cards working on my machine. I had no idea it was doing the same thing on Windows 10.

I contacted Red Support, but they said they weren't seeing it on their end and to look elsewhere. To be honest, was a bit of a disappointing response because I did a clean install of Windows with no software or drivers and was able to see UDF stop working after adding specific updates after a certain time.

What I've done now is paused the updates. I tried writing to Microsoft groups and reddit, but no response. I tried the Sony UDF driver for windows and that didn't work either.
 
I also got the same response from Red, "working on our end and we will do some more tests". I also tried sony udf drivers and some other drivers. No such luck for me. I also did a clean install, and still the red mag would not mount. I also tried mounting the cards to a second windows machine, same result. Cards read unallocated in disk manager. The only thing that works is formatting them as fat32.
 
The other way around it is to uninstall a few of the last updates to Windows to get UDF working. That's what I'm doing at the moment, hoping it's a temporary thing. I mainly use UDF because I dual record R3D and prores, and I prefer having single complete prores files.
 
Yes, that is the same thing here. If I record r3d as fat32 on my regmags, then export as prores in redcinex later. Will the prores be a long single file?

thanks
 
I am on Windows 11 and my cards are UDF formatted and both the RED Mini Mag reader and G-Tech do now see any of my cards on Windows.

You have to go to the Programs and Features in the old control panel with Windows 11 to remove recent updates to get UDF working. It'll be the last few at this point. I also recommend contacting Red Support to have them realize these are not isolated cases.
 
This is what RED sent me this morning.

"Gary Clayton
Today at 05:28
Hello Alexander,

Thank you for your email.

Our software team is looking into reports of this with the Windows team, but it looks like some recent Windows updates may have broken UDF mounting on Windows 10 and Windows 11. There's a thread over on the Microsoft side linked here.

One of the posters in the thread mentioned that they were able to get UDF mounting again by rolling back the November 22, 2021 KB5007262 (OS Build 22000.348) Preview update. Any build before that will work with UDF according to their post.

I hope this helps, but please let me know if you have any questions.

Best Regards,

Gary | Product Support Supervisor"


For one undoing you're updates is bad for security reasons and should never be the solution just a desperate hack. RED should also make this public knowledge so were not caught off guard on set when you need to offload footage and plan ahead for this issue, also this would make Windows fix it sooner. Also why does RED use UDF over exFAT like every one else?

The lack of response from RED is the final straw with me being a RED customer after I am done with my Gemini, I am so tired of stomach ulcers trying to solve camera issues and bugs and work arounds. They have become an expensive Blackmagic camera for the rich hobbyist. There is a reason why big productions are using them less and less and why the V-Raptor and Komodo are so much cheaper than the DMSC3 line cheaper than DMSC2. They are abandoning the professional realm and will only get worse since they value flashy specs vs solid tools to relay on.
 
Certainly RED could have sent out a mailer or soemthing, I'll agree there, but.....

You are abandoning RED because of a Windows update?

Don't know all the reasons why UDF is in use over ExFat, but there are some pretty specific differences between them in terms of writing data and recovering data. I suspect one way or another that is why, but who knows.

Things I know that I can say with confidence. exFat is pretty vulnerable to corruption when media is removed improperly or unexpected power cycles. Wild fragmentation on flash media is also pretty prone to occur as well and will have an impact on media performance. There's a lack of logging/journaling on exFat as well.

This will be a shocker perhaps, but other industries use UDF and Microsoft was pretty aware once the world starting pounding on the door. It's just a matter of fixing the software bug with a proper update. Don't know how long that will take, but I would suspect the next push solves the problem.

Not to be to bleak or blunt, but any software update camera or computer, particularly with a new OS version as well, needs to be examined if you are seriously relying on things. There's a reason DITs don't just willy-nilly update an OS mid-shoot and why studios often don't update while in progress on a large project. Whether firmware, Windows, MacOS, or Linux related; same idea. This has been par for those course for 20+ years now. Ideally things work smoothly. No driver conflicts, no connectivity issues, no random black or pink screens, clips being able to be played and loaded as expected. But anytime major code is released things can break and slip through the cracks.

The oddity at least from my perspective is this a Windows issue and Microsoft is who needs to be reached out to and alerted, which has happened. But yes, I'll agree that RED could have mentioned or released a warning regarding the updates, but equally I'm sure there was a bit of "what the hell is going on" going on as they don't control Windows.

And no, unless it's super critical security patch due to something pretty bad being spread around like an exploit found (rare, really, really, rare), reverting to a previous update on any OS shouldn't provide a major security risk.
 
You guys have read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy right?

Microsoft is aware of this and there's likely a fix coming sooner than later.

For now, to get you up and running literally right now, uninstall these updates.

Windows 11:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-au...-preview-7f3e18d7-4189-4882-b0e9-afc920253aee

Windows 10:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb...-preview-d1847be9-46c1-49fc-bf56-1d469fc1b3af

Don't panic.

Is there a walk through on this? I tried it, still wont read my cards. Unsure if I did it correctly.
 
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