Hacking Does transferring files corrupt my MicroSDHC Memory Card??

[Bootsum]

Here's my case:[*]I attached the MicroSDHC to the card reader coming from Supercard DS One pack[*]As usual, I transferred a few game ROMs to the memory card[*]I realised 2 weird files occurred out of the blue. Both are roughly 3GB o.O . The name seemed to be "USGB??." & "USGB??." (no file extension. I forget the exact name). I tried to delete the weird files in vain.[*]I went to the device manager dialog and stopped the card reader. I removed the card reader when it told me it was safe to remove.The card was unreadable afterward. My NDSL can't recongize it. All my games and saves, and my personal files are lost.

When I re-accessed the memory card on the computer, it says "The disk is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?"

What's up? Why simply transferring the files will make the card unreadable? Did you experience similar problems?

What can I do now? I would like to get back the files in the memroy card. Obviously the memory card is formatted but it can't be read for some weird reason.

Info:
I bought NDS and the accessories for one month or so only.
Adapter: Supercard DS One
Memory Card: Transcend 4GB MicroSDHC

 

[mysticwaterfall]

The card reader that comes with most flash carts is preatty cheap and are known to corrupt data. You're better off getting a cheap card reader at walmart or somplace for like 8$. (even though, I haven't had a prob with the ak2 card reader)

Re-formatting your card with the panasonic sd formatter (http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/sd/download/sd_formatter.html) and then copying everything back over should fix it.

edit: re-reading your post, I don't know of a way to fix it without formatting. sorry

 

[Bootsum]

So it sounds like I have to say goodbye with my data.

I somewhat wonder the 2 weird files block my access, so I can access it again if I managed to get rid of these 2 files (?).

Is there any software which can recover my data from the MicroSDHC?


Is it okay to use cheap card reader which is selling at about US$2.5-3 only?

Actually I have a cheap card reader handy as a backup but I bought it for US$2.5 only. So I don't know if it is of the same (sucky) quality as the free card reader coming with the flash cart.

Do you know what brand of card reader is reliable? Is the price the way to know how reliable the card reader is (ie target for the card reader which costs US$8 and I should be fine)?

Learned the lesson. Perhaps I should backup every time I make any changes on the micoSDHC. But well, simply plugging in or doing backup may corrupt the data. Hmm....

 

[mysticwaterfall]

Yeah, I backup my .sav's everytime I add new games, just in case. I wrote a quick batch file that does it for me. That way, I don't lose much.

There's no real "price point" that says if something's good, because the prices vary dramatically depending where you go. The $8 figure just seems about average. Make sure it does sdhc if you have one of those and you should be fine.

 

[mcjones92]

Same thing happened to me, I had to format my MicroSD card to delete the files. When I accessed them on the computer it gave me an error saying corrupt data.

 

[Bootsum]

Yeah, I backup my .sav's everytime I add new games, just in case. I wrote a quick batch file that does it for me. That way, I don't lose much.

Would you mind sharing the batch file?

You may use any file hosting like http://www.mediafire.com

 

[mysticwaterfall]

cut and paste this into notepad and then save it as "saves.bat" (with the quotes):


c:
cd\
cd "ds games"
cd saves
e:
cd games
copy *.sav c:

This assumes you have all the directories set up as above. If not, change those lines. It also assumes that your card reader is drive e: in windows, change that line if not.

 

[Bootsum]

cd\
cd "ds games"
cd saves

I don't get it. What do those commands do?
What are they for?

----

If I want to do the following, how?
Search Drive E and its sub-folders. Copy all *.sav files to "C:\Sav Backup"

 

[mysticwaterfall]

cd changes folders. They set up which folder to copy to. For your setup:


c:
cd\
cd "sav backup"
e:
cd games
copy *.sav c:


To have it search the entire drive, you would have to write a full program. And I'm too lazy for that. lol So change the "cd games" line to wherever you have your game stored on the card. If there in multiple folders (again, I keep all my games in the "games' folder) , you'll need to add

cd ..
cd other folder
copy *.sav c:

for each folder that has .sav's you want to backup in it.

 

[Bootsum]

OK, finally I managed to get my data back.

Originally I thought I must use some memory card specialized recovery software to help me out. But it appears they are mostly for digital cameras (so they mainly focus on image recovery). Too bad!

But I read that actually a normal Windows recovery tool can be used on memory cards too. After all, they are still formatted to something that Windows understand (that is FAT16 / FAT32).

I tried a few tools:
* Active Undelete
* File Scavenger
* TestDisk

Active Undelete -- Rubbish. It spends like hours to scan and it can't find anything
File Scavenger -- Fast scan. It managed to find most of my lost files. I got no difference between "quick scan" and "deep scan". No detailed comparison but it looks like they still display the same result.

Finally, my life-saver, TestDisk.
It's an Open-Source Free program. The interface is DOS but you don't need type commands to use. It's still GUI-like (but DOS crude style). It gives you options for you to choose.

It's a bit hard to use if you know nothing about computer. You may even get scared off due to the DOS interface.

I suspect I can't access my memory data simply because the card reader corrupts something. It can be the boot sector. TestDisk has an option to repair boot sector. It has an option to restore a backup boot sector (which is actually included in your memory card).

I used this tool to try fixing the boot sector.
OK! Done! I'm able to access my memory card and read the data again. Very happy.
Under deep checking, all files are restored successfully except a few (damaged/unreadable/missing). I suspect they got corrupt by the card reader. Hopefully none of the bad ones is important.
I copied the things that I wanted to backup and reformat the memory card.

Hope this helps.

 

[mysticwaterfall]

Hmmmz, might have to try test disk sometime. I've used file scavenger for a while.

Glad you fixed the problem

 

[Bootsum]

Thank you.

TestDisk is good since it can repair/restore the backup boot sector. It is particularly useful if it merely damages your boot sector (so Windows no longer recognises it).

But if the card reader somehow damages your files, you may want to resort to File Scavenger.

Both tools may come into handy so use both.

Very disappointed at Active Undelete - waste hours of time + can't recover at all