Corrupted SD card from cheap Chinese USB to SD adapter. Recovery help

[T4nk3d]

Good morning All,

Working on my sister's switch last night, had to fix the DAT0 line and while waiting I figured I would update the hats pack etc. couldn't use hekate since it was still taken apart so I threw the Samsung Evo card into a cheap Chinese sd to USB adapter.

1. Removed the old atmosphere, switch and config folders.
2. Copied over the new HATS files
3. Created folder named Firmware (to put the 18.1.0 firmware on card to update)

Step 3 is where everything went wrong. When I created the firmware folder and went into it I noticed an odd file named USB (file size was reported as 2gb) and then some Chinese chars (I think otherwise they were just some random corrupt looking chars). It looks like the adapter seen the firmware folder and thought it was an update or something?? At that point I kinda panicked, ejected the SD card from Windows and put it back in the switch. Instinct error, unable to init SD card. Stuck it back in the computer and showing both partitions need to be formatted.

Windows disk manager shows the partitions as RAW and 100% free space. I'm thinking some headers or something we're corrupted when I created the firmware folder and hoping someone has an idea to help recover at least 1 game save from the card (sis is gunna kill me if we lose her many hours wielding the magic wand)

I have not attempted any data recovery or anything yet wanted to get some opinions first. I have access to Linux and some data recovery tools on Medicat but not sure exactly how to proceed with this issue at the moment and don't want to make anything worse yet.

I'm sure I'll have to recreate the emunand etc and copy all games back over, really the only imp thing is that 1 game save.

Thank in advance

 

[SylverReZ]

Pick up an Anker USB 3.0 adapter, it's worth buying than a cheaply made $1 SD card adapter that will corrupt data.

 

[Hayato213]

Good morning All,

Working on my sister's switch last night, had to fix the DAT0 line and while waiting I figured I would update the hats pack etc. couldn't use hekate since it was still taken apart so I threw the Samsung Evo card into a cheap Chinese sd to USB adapter.

1. Removed the old atmosphere, switch and config folders.
2. Copied over the new HATS files
3. Created folder named Firmware (to put the 18.1.0 firmware on card to update)

Step 3 is where everything went wrong. When I created the firmware folder and went into it I noticed an odd file named USB (file size was reported as 2gb) and then some Chinese chars (I think otherwise they were just some random corrupt looking chars). It looks like the adapter seen the firmware folder and thought it was an update or something?? At that point I kinda panicked, ejected the SD card from Windows and put it back in the switch. Instinct error, unable to init SD card. Stuck it back in the computer and showing both partitions need to be formatted.

Windows disk manager shows the partitions as RAW and 100% free space. I'm thinking some headers or something we're corrupted when I created the firmware folder and hoping someone has an idea to help recover at least 1 game save from the card (sis is gunna kill me if we lose her many hours wielding the magic wand)

I have not attempted any data recovery or anything yet wanted to get some opinions first. I have access to Linux and some data recovery tools on Medicat but not sure exactly how to proceed with this issue at the moment and don't want to make anything worse yet.

I'm sure I'll have to recreate the emunand etc and copy all games back over, really the only imp thing is that 1 game save.

Thank in advance

Have you h2testw the sd card though?

 

[T4nk3d]

There was no issue with the SD card until I used the cheap adapter clone. As far as the Anker adapter I tried to use an official Samsung micro to full SD adapter and plugged into my laptop. Still unable to see any data so the card was for sure corrupted by the cheap adapter.

Just hoping someone knows of a way to extract that save game file from it. It's a 256gb Samsung Evo card that was about 90% full and had zero issues until that adapter.

 

[Hayato213]

There was no issue with the SD card until I used the cheap adapter clone. As far as the Anker adapter I tried to use an official Samsung micro to full SD adapter and plugged into my laptop. Still unable to see any data so the card was for sure corrupted by the cheap adapter.

Just hoping someone knows of a way to extract that save game file from it. It's a 256gb Samsung Evo card that was about 90% full and had zero issues until that adapter.

What is your SD card format?

 

[T4nk3d]

Good question, don't really remember as I set it all up about a year ago. I did follow sthetix guide and used the option that was recommended for the best support, I believe that was partition based iirc. I also opted to shrink the original nand backup on the SD card to only use like 8gb I think it was and left the rest to "user" storage, probably getting some of the terminology wrong.

**Edit** just thought about this, are you asking fat32/exfat? Don't remember lol

I do have my switch that was setup the same way so I could look at that if needed.

Post automatically merged: Dec 3, 2024

Just checked my SD and it has 3 partitions, 16mb unallocated - 226gb fat32 and finally another 12gb partition at the end

 

[Hippocampus_Hamster]

Just checked my SD and it has 3 partitions, 16mb unallocated - 226gb fat32 and finally another 12gb partition at the end

Its probably set up correctly then. I wouldn't mess with it further trying to get more space or anything; the 12GB partition is probably system files or something, tho I am not well-versed in how the Switch sets up partitions on SD cards.

**Edit** just thought about this, are you asking fat32/exfat? Don't remember lol

I do have my switch that was setup the same way so I could look at that if needed.

"Format" usually refers to what file system is being used. Pretty sure the Switch requires either FAT32 or exFAT, but both have issues; the former doesn't allow file sizes above 4GB, and the latter is less stable.

Step 3 is where everything went wrong. When I created the firmware folder and went into it I noticed an odd file named USB (file size was reported as 2gb) and then some Chinese chars (I think otherwise they were just some random corrupt looking chars). It looks like the adapter seen the firmware folder and thought it was an update or something?? At that point I kinda panicked, ejected the SD card from Windows and put it back in the switch. Instinct error, unable to init SD card. Stuck it back in the computer and showing both partitions need to be formatted.

This sounds to me like the adapter crapped out. It may or may not have corrupted the file system index as well, which isn't as bad as it sounds (the "quick format" option when formatting just deletes and rewrites the file system index so that new files can be written over the old). If that's the case the files still exists, but the computer doesn't know where they are, like a book having its index, table of contents, and page numbers removed.

Personally I would first try with another adapter that wasn't scraped out of a garbage bin before getting desperate. If you can get your hands on one for fairly cheap (about or less than $20), StarTech is a reputable brand that I've used and still use for many PC periphreals, and it should work out of the box. Here's one on Amazon that's ~$15 or less (as of writing): https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-USB-Memory-Card-Reader/dp/B071VMH96B

Additionally, recovery software like Recuva is available, if a different SD card adapter doesn't solve the issue. That route will be a PITA though, as every single folder and file will have likely lost its naming scheme and will show up as numbers, so it will require digging to find the save file. It'd help tremendously if you know or can find out how big said save file should be, as from experience many console games tend to create a block of data for save files, instead of individual save files, so the size may be fixed unless the Switch handles saves differently.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

Good morning All,

Working on my sister's switch last night, had to fix the DAT0 line and while waiting I figured I would update the hats pack etc. couldn't use hekate since it was still taken apart so I threw the Samsung Evo card into a cheap Chinese sd to USB adapter.

1. Removed the old atmosphere, switch and config folders.
2. Copied over the new HATS files
3. Created folder named Firmware (to put the 18.1.0 firmware on card to update)

Step 3 is where everything went wrong. When I created the firmware folder and went into it I noticed an odd file named USB (file size was reported as 2gb) and then some Chinese chars (I think otherwise they were just some random corrupt looking chars). It looks like the adapter seen the firmware folder and thought it was an update or something?? At that point I kinda panicked, ejected the SD card from Windows and put it back in the switch. Instinct error, unable to init SD card. Stuck it back in the computer and showing both partitions need to be formatted.

Windows disk manager shows the partitions as RAW and 100% free space. I'm thinking some headers or something we're corrupted when I created the firmware folder and hoping someone has an idea to help recover at least 1 game save from the card (sis is gunna kill me if we lose her many hours wielding the magic wand)

I have not attempted any data recovery or anything yet wanted to get some opinions first. I have access to Linux and some data recovery tools on Medicat but not sure exactly how to proceed with this issue at the moment and don't want to make anything worse yet.

I'm sure I'll have to recreate the emunand etc and copy all games back over, really the only imp thing is that 1 game save.

Thank in advance

I have used a lot of cheap SD card readers and never had any issues with them, not to say it can't happen though. But this sounds a lot like a dead SD card, I had a SD card die like this one time, it was a Transcend (the reason I don't buy that brand anymore) which was not even 6 months old. The entire card was filled with garbage file names and nothing was recoverable. The card went straight in the trash after some tests to make sure it was actually faulty. Luckily there was no important data on it.
As far as data recovery goes I seem to have the best luck with GetDataBack, compared to free tools like Recuva.
But data recovery software won't be able to recover your save data since it's in the encrypted emuNAND partition.

 

[T4nk3d]

Its probably set up correctly then. I wouldn't mess with it further trying to get more space or anything; the 12GB partition is probably system files or something, tho I am not well-versed in how the Switch sets up partitions on SD cards.


"Format" usually refers to what file system is being used. Pretty sure the Switch requires either FAT32 or exFAT, but both have issues; the former doesn't allow file sizes above 4GB, and the latter is less stable.


This sounds to me like the adapter crapped out. It may or may not have corrupted the file system index as well, which isn't as bad as it sounds (the "quick format" option when formatting just deletes and rewrites the file system index so that new files can be written over the old). If that's the case the files still exists, but the computer doesn't know where they are, like a book having its index, table of contents, and page numbers removed.

Personally I would first try with another adapter that wasn't scraped out of a garbage bin before getting desperate. If you can get your hands on one for fairly cheap (about or less than $20), StarTech is a reputable brand that I've used and still use for many PC periphreals, and it should work out of the box. Here's one on Amazon that's ~$15 or less (as of writing): https://www.amazon.com/StarTech-com-USB-Memory-Card-Reader/dp/B071VMH96B

Additionally, recovery software like Recuva is available, if a different SD card adapter doesn't solve the issue. That route will be a PITA though, as every single folder and file will have likely lost its naming scheme and will show up as numbers, so it will require digging to find the save file. It'd help tremendously if you know or can find out how big said save file should be, as from experience many console games tend to create a block of data for save files, instead of individual save files, so the size may be fixed unless the Switch handles saves differently.

I'm fairly certain it did corrupt the file table as using a good SD micro to full adapter with this card shows the same results and my good SD card is read just fine.

Not sure if anyone knows the size block of it's saved that way for Hogwarts legacy but that's the file I'll need. I'll try booting up a recovery software here after dinner to see what I can see if anything and report back.

Post automatically merged: Dec 3, 2024

I have used a lot of cheap SD card readers and never had any issues with them, not to say it can't happen though. But this sounds a lot like a dead SD card, I had a SD card die like this one time, it was a Transcend (the reason I don't buy that brand anymore) which was not even 6 months old. The entire card was filled with garbage file names and nothing was recoverable. The card went straight in the trash after some tests to make sure it was actually faulty. Luckily there was no important data on it.
As far as data recovery goes I seem to have the best luck with GetDataBack, compared to free tools like Recuva.
But data recovery software won't be able to recover your save data since it's in the encrypted emuNAND partition.

It's def the adapter after it happened I remembered it corrupted a different SD card before but I thought it was just a crappy SD previously. The adapter was included with the elegoo 3d printer iirc and that time I only had some gcode files on it so I just formatted and went on my way.

You mentioned you won't be able to get the saves tho since they are encrypted? There's no way around that I'm guessing?

 

[Hayato213]

Just checked my SD and it has 3 partitions, 16mb unallocated - 226gb fat32 and finally another 12gb partition at the end

What brand is the SD card?

 

[T4nk3d]

What brand is the SD card?

The card that was corrupted with the cheap adapter is a Samsung Evo select 256gb, my card that I checked to see what partitions and format it was is a Samsung Evo plus 256gb. I set them both up the same way last year and no issues until I tried creating the firmware folder with that cheap adapter

Just to clarify the corrupted card shows the same exact partitions but RAW instead of fat32 filesystem

Post automatically merged: Dec 4, 2024

Found this which looks promising, same mention of the USBC tag I seen when creating the folder
https://superuser.com/a/1748200

Post automatically merged: Dec 4, 2024

The card that was corrupted with the cheap adapter is a Samsung Evo select 256gb, my card that I checked to see what partitions and format it was is a Samsung Evo plus 256gb. I set them both up the same way last year and no issues until I tried creating the firmware folder with that cheap adapter

Just to clarify the corrupted card shows the same exact partitions but RAW instead of fat32 filesystem

Post automatically merged: Dec 4, 2024

Found this which looks promising, same mention of the USBC tag I seen when creating the folder
https://superuser.com/a/1748200

Ok so followed that rabbit hole and I'm using DMDE and basically everything is here besides some corrupted files due to the USBC command block overwriting some data. Or at least they look corrupted, may be able to remove those command blocks and shift the data to bring the filesystem true again.

I can see most of the data but not sure how to use this software that well so there's that

 

[BBC8x6]

Amazon is full of fake sd cards

 

[Hippocampus_Hamster]

Amazon is full of fake sd cards

True, but I think they would have noticed before now that the card was bad.

Also, only z0rg knows what's going on in any Chinese-made electronics. They should all be treated as suspect until proven otherwise beyond a doubt.

 

[T4nk3d]

Following the article I posted above I confirmed multiple USBC command blocks were written into the file system causing the filesystem to not be recognized. During my search it appears this happens most with you guessed it those cheap Chinese adapters.

The card is absolutely fine and not showing any signs of damage and appears to be legit as I had no issues loading it up about 90ish percent to capacity with no issues at all.

The issue was that stupid adapter writing data commands to the actual filesystem.

The software shows me the emunand and I was able to see screenshots in there, and 2 save folders but not sure if they are 100% correct ...just need to figure out how to import them into another and maybe?

I have to DD the entire card to preserve all the data in hopes I can grab what I need without further corruption from tools meddling in the structure.

Then I'm going to work on recovering the 2 save files I did find, if anyone has any ideas on importing those raw save files into another emunand that would be great, I thought I remembered seeing something about migrating a nand to another SD card.

I'll keep posting updates, but so far I can see screenshots from nand folder as well as basically all data minus some items that have the USBC block commands inserted in.

Lesson learned never use cheap adapters even if your in a hurry, I threw that adapter away already so I'm never tempted to use it in the future

 

[T4nk3d]

**UPDATE**

I was able to clone to SD card to another nvme drive, assigned a drive letter to the drive in Windows, still complained that it needed to be formatted as before. Then tried using NxNandManager and it was able TDI see the nand, I provided the prod keys and was then able to extract the same time i needed.

That software saved my ass, on that note I wonder if it could also recover these files from other users who have corrupted file tables etc.

Seems like the app just does not care about the file table as long as it can read the nand it will open it and extract files.

Thanks for everyones help. I'll be making a new thread as my switch was updated to 18.10 and latest atmosphere with Sthetix hat pack and the battery is draining quite fast. Also noticed CPU core 3 is basically always maxed out and not sure why, additionally I think my sister's switch modchip is dying, sometimes it will glitch and other times it repeats flashing red 8 to 9 times.

Sometimes it doesn't glitch and boots ofw but of course Everytime I attempt to debug the glitch it works just fine, sometimes I get a missing clk but I've resoldered everything fresh and all diode readings are perfect so I'm assuming the chip is on its way out, not sure why connection with the computer makes it glitch better tho

Post automatically merged: Dec 6, 2024

P.S. can you edit thread titles? Or if any mods are watching can you add a tag "Resolved or partially resolved"

Tia