iriver story HD communication error with SD card

With an (empty) 8GB sdhc card in my story HD I get this error on starting Calibre.

[Errno 5] Input/output error: '/run/media/anthony/Story HD 8G/'

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages/calibre/gui2/device.py", line 85, in run
File "site-packages/calibre/gui2/device.py", line 447, in _get_device_information
File "site-packages/calibre/devices/usbms/device.py", line 171, in free_space
OSError: [Errno 5] Input/output error: '/run/media/anthony/Story HD 8G/'

When I take the card out Calibre can connect. I am running the latest (0.9.29) calibre on a linux (fuduntu) netbook. The ereader can "see" the 8 GB sdhc card, the computer/OS can "see" the 8GB card, but Calibre spits this error. The sdhc card is formatted msdos fat 32.