Hardware Corrupted Memory Cards

[Ampersound]

Hi,
Recently my sd2vita micro sd card got completely corrupted and from what i've read, it seems to be a general issue with the vita console.
(at least it was mentioned in this guide)
I've lost all games/homebrew/savefiles, even the backup-save was corrupted.

Someone on reddit mentioned that this can happen when you transfer files via usb, is that true? Do you guys know more about why and when this happens?
I'd like to prevent it from occuring, not circumvent the issue by running chkdsk for example. In my case it didn't help anyways.

I used to be really excited about the vita, but this has started giving me headaches. I'd like to be able to trust it with the data.
Thanks for your input

 

[Kur0shitsuji]

What card were you using in said psvita console?
It isn't quite common for files to suddenly get corrupted as you transfer via usb unless you deliberately unplug it.

Try using a file recovery program such as recuva (assuming you have enough space) to retrieve old saves etc. It takes time so wait until it finishes

 

[Anderxale]

Noooo! I'm so sorry!

Memory cards and sd cards break, they can only be written so many times. Manufacturers rate their sd cards for how much data can be written under warranty. If you can somehow prove that you wrote less than the advertised data... they probably will just replace it free. Your data still lost.

They are tiny and fragile. They contain hours and hours of your game playtime and setup.

This is true for all consoles using rewrite media - hacking the switch, vita, psp, and 3ds all can suffer from this pretty hard as we constantly add and remove large files.

I sync my saves to my android phone a few times a week. That sync software also uploads the saves to my google drive.




A solution is to back up your saves
You could also add save states
You can also back up your entire sd to a computer and copy it all back to a zblank formatted card and it will work.

In ur0: (Or whatever you are using uma0: or...)

Vita game saves
user/00/

Vita game saves decrypted (resavedata plugin)
https://github.com/Princess-of-Sleeping/reSavedata
resavedata/

PSP and PS1 game saves
pspemu/PSP/SAVEDATA

RetroArch saves
data/RetroArch/savefiles/

DaedalusX64 saves
data/DaedalusX64/SaveGames/

Other emulators are in data as well, they probably have their own save folders.

 

[yaum]

SD cards are not to be considered reliable out of the box. Even if you're in a hurry (we all are), do not use it as-is, format it and test it using tools such as h2testw. You'll at least be certain your data will be on the drive, and get out of the way counterfeit, low performance or defective cards.
Apart from that, file system could be corrupted through software issues. Chkdsk is not to be used in the first place. It could mess up the file system even more by trying to collect garbage data on the drive, and prevent real data recovery.