3DS won't read on computer; tells me to format

[Jaulin]

So this just happened. I had ordered an micro SD card USB stick to plug it into my computer and move cia files into it. As soon as I plugged my SD card into my computer, I wasn't able to open it. The same popup error came up telling me that I need to format the SD card. All I know is that formatting an SD card will delete everything. Is there a way I can recover or move my 3DS files somewhere so I can copy it to my computer\ another micro SD card??

 

[CoolMe]

Try with an sdcard adapter the one that came with the micro sdcard, if you don't have the port on your pc, then you should get an external adapter & stay away from the generic chinese ones if possible. First, make sure that sdcard is not corrupt you can plug the sdcard on your 3ds again and check if everything still there games etc, to make sure the sdcard is not at fault. If you have CFW, you can use ftpd homebrew software to ftp files from & to your 3ds with a pc or phone. If you don't, there's SMB ftp method on Windows that works with stock systems as well.

 

[Jaulin]

Try with an sdcard adapter the one that came with the micro sdcard, if you don't have the port on your pc, then you should get an external adapter & stay away from the generic chinese ones if possible. First, make sure that sdcard is not corrupt you can plug the sdcard on your 3ds again and check if everything still there games etc, to make sure the sdcard is not at fault. If you have CFW, you can use ftpd homebrew software to ftp files from & to your 3ds with a pc or phone. If you don't, there's SMB ftp method on Windows that works with stock systems as well.

I plugged in my SD card to my 3DS, and it won't read. Everything is gone. Titles, photos, etc

 

[CoolMe]

I plugged in my SD card to my 3DS, and it won't read. Everything is gone. Titles, photos, etc

Are you sure? did you check the contents of the sdcard with fbi or 3DShell? Anyway it seems that either the sdcard usb adapter corrupted it.

 

[Jaulin]

Are you sure? did you check the contents of the sdcard with fbi or 3DShell? Anyway it seems that either the sdcard usb adapter corrupted it.

Yeah. Everything is gone. Can't even access it through computer either

 

[CoolMe]

Are you using the same usb adapter? Try a different one, so you could backup/salvage whatever's left. And you should h2testw the sdcard too after that.

 

[Jaulin]

Are you using the same usb adapter? Try a different one, so you could backup/salvage whatever's left. And you should h2testw the sdcard too after that.

Sorry, I'm a newbie at this. How do I use the h2testw?

 

[CoolMe]

Sorry, I'm a newbie at this. How do I use the h2testw?

You should backup the contents sdcard if they show up on pc otherwise just format it as FAT32 32KB cluster size. But you will lose every thing and i'm not responsible if you lose something you care about. Anyway, h2testw is pc program that checks if your sdcard is faulty or not, here https://h2testw.en.lo4d.com/windows
You should do definitely this to rule out if the corruption occurred because it's a fake or not, first before trying anything else.

 

[Jaulin]

You should backup the contents sdcard if they show up on pc otherwise just format it as FAT32 32KB cluster size. But you will lose every thing and i'm not responsible if you lose something you care about. Anyway, h2testw is pc program that checks if your sdcard is faulty or not, here
You should do definitely this to rule out if the corruption occurred because it's a fake or not, first before trying anything else.

Alright. It says it needs to be formatted, so I can't access it. If there's no other choice, then I'll format it. It sucks, but I tried everything :/

 

[Jaulin]

You should backup the contents sdcard if they show up on pc otherwise just format it as FAT32 32KB cluster size. But you will lose every thing and i'm not responsible if you lose something you care about. Anyway, h2testw is pc program that checks if your sdcard is faulty or not, here
You should do definitely this to rule out if the corruption occurred because it's a fake or not, first before trying anything else.

Well, it just says to insert a disk

 

[CoolMe]

Alright. It says it needs to be formatted, so I can't access it. If there's no other choice, then I'll format it. It sucks, but I tried everything :/

You should try a different adapter really.

 

[CoolMe]

Well, it just says to insert a disk

In h2testw or when you tried to format it?

 

[Jaulin]

You should try a different adapter really.

Ok. I'll try to find/ get another one. Thanks for the help though

 

[Jaulin]

In h2testw or when you tried to format it?

In h2testw

 

[CoolMe]

In h2testw

Then it's not being detected, you should use Guiformat to format it as FAT32 32KB. If it still couldn't be detected, then you should get a new one. https://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/FAT32format-GUI.shtml

 

[Jaulin]

Then it's not being detected, you should use Guiformat to format it as FAT32 32KB. If it still couldn't be detected, then you should get a new one.

Well, I did it. Data is all deleted

 

[CoolMe]

Well, I did it. Data is all deleted

Then run h2testw and let it test it.

 

[Jaulin]

Then run h2testw and let it test it.

It's gonna take a while. I'll reply again when it's done

 

[Jaulin]

Then run h2testw and let it test it.

So it took all day. But there's a whole bunch of h2w files

 

[lone_wolf323]

So it took all day. But there's a whole bunch of h2w files

did you select to both write to the card as well as read the card after? did the program say it all went well with no errors?