Hardware Is it safe to scan fix my SD Card?

riesyukira · Oct 20, 2019

I recently received a prompt from my laptop saying that my SD card has some errors when I was transfering some new games over and its advising me to scan it and check for errors.

I'm just wondering if it's a good idea to let it scan and fixed these errors, if I remembered correctly it deletes some files once it's done and what if the errors that needed fixing were system files from the 3DS or Games..or worse it just freezes and I have to forcefully pull out my SD Card corrupting it in the process..

So before any of that happens, what files from my 3DS/SD Card should I copy over to my laptop so I don't have to reinstall everything all over again?
Btw, is that okay? Just copy and pasting the files/folders over to the 3DS? I know the game's needs to be reinstalled again but I'm talking about the ones like the essentials like Boot9strap and the like, and if its alright to put them back on the SD Card as they were?

So far my new 3ds is still working just fine (currently installing game at the moment) but I'm worried if it dies on me one day.

Shadow#1 · Oct 20, 2019

riesyukira said:
I recently received a prompt from my laptop saying that my SD card has some errors when I was transfering some new games over and its advising me to scan it and check for errors.

I'm just wondering if it's a good idea to let it scan and fixed these errors, if I remembered correctly it deletes some files once it's done and what if the errors that needed fixing were system files from the 3DS or Games..or worse it just freezes and I have to forcefully pull out my SD Card corrupting it in the process..

So before any of that happens, what files from my 3DS/SD Card should I copy over to my laptop so I don't have to reinstall everything all over again?
Btw, is that okay? Just copy and pasting the files/folders over to the 3DS? I know the game's needs to be reinstalled again but I'm talking about the ones like the essentials like Boot9strap and the like, and if its alright to put them back on the SD Card as they were?

So far my new 3ds is still working just fine (currently installing game at the moment) but I'm worried if it dies on me one day.

Windows will always throw that error just ignore it

Edgarska · Oct 20, 2019

Windows just likes saying your removable media has errors all the time when you use it in other devices. Unless you notice a file actually giving you an error when you try to copy/read it then it's fine. If you do try to check for errors and fix chances are it won't do anything, and the annoying notification will be back later anyway.

ChiefReginod · Oct 20, 2019

If there are actually any errors you stand to do more damage by continuing to use the card without fixing them. That said, the Windows file scan utility isn't as informative as manually running chkdsk from the command prompt.

To scan without fixing errors:
chkdsk :X

To scan and repair errors:
chkdsk :X /f

Replace X with the drive letter.

If there are any errors you should save the output so you can determine whether anything important was lost or not.

As for backing up and moving your files back, yes, it's as simple as copy and paste. If you want to be certain that the data transferred without any data loss, generate MD5 checksums of everything on the card, then copy everything to your PC, and then finally run the checksum against the files on your PC.

Hardware Is it safe to scan fix my SD Card?

Well-Known Member

Wii, 3DS Softmod & Dumpster Diving Expert

Conjurer of cheap tricks

Well-Known Member

Similar threads

Popular threads in this forum