external sd - Should i do the factory reset? If yes, what will i lose?

My android ( htc desire s ) phone is working fine when i don't put my micro sd card in it ( this card was free with the phone ). But my phone keeps restarting every few minutes if i keep the memory card in it. By that i could say that the phone is fine but issue can be with either the memory card or my phone no more support any memory card.

The thing is if the same memory card is inserted in any other mobile, be it android or any other smartphone, that phone will not start and the data is completely readable too. So, memory card is fine. When I insert some other memory card in my phone then my phone too do not restart.

So that means the issue is with the phone + that particular mem card combo.

I am ready to uninstall each and every app from my phone, but will that solve my problem? Should I perform the factory reset? Will it solve my issue ? What will i lose if will do the factory reset? Like: contacts, sms, call logs, APN settings etc . Any free software to backup all these.

But may be i am going in the wrong direction. May be there is some easy way to get the phone and memory card working. Please help.

FYI The phone and memory card worked completely fine for 8 months

Answer

Doing a factory reset WILL NOT modify the sdcard in any way. Only the data on the phone will be deleted. Contacts that are set up to sync with your google account will restore, but everything else will be gone.

If you have applications installed on the sdcard, I would start there. Uninstall them, or move them back to the device storage. You say that it only crashes when it is in the desire, and not any other android phone. This would make me think there is probably an app installed on the sdcard for the desire. You also said that it doesn't reboot when a different card is in the desire, again leading me to believe that there could be an app that is installed to the sdcard that is causing problems.

If you think there is something in your data that is causing the issue, then backing up the data with Titanium will just restore any "issue" that there is.

If you think the problem is with the data on the sdcard, then you can format it under storage in settings.

I would also consider the sdcard itself could have issues. The sdcards that come with the devices are very cheap cards and usually one of the slower class type of sdcard. I have had a few of them last only a couple months before. I suggest getting a better sdcard, one that is at least a class 6. If you have a slower class card, this could also potentially cause issues with some applications.