DSi Not Reading Transcend 4GB Micro SD

[GiantPC]

I have had a DSi for a few years now, and I got the device for flipnote making. One day, the SD card that had many flipnotes on there suddenly stopped working with no rhyme or reason.

The adapter isn't locked, I've tried that multiple times. I've bought multiple adapters for the SD card, none of them have aided me. I've put the SD card into my computer using a USB adapter (as my PC doesn't have an SD card slot) and the card is inaccessible. I've tried the 'chkdsk' command and still no luck. Do any of you have advice to help me recover these files, let alone get it working on my DSi again? Many thanks!

 

[Nikokaro]

I've put the SD card into my computer using a USB adapter (as my PC doesn't have an SD card slot) and the card is inaccessible

If I understand correctly, the PC does not detect the presence of the microSD, right? Or detect its presence but can not read its contents? In the latter case you simply have to format it. In the previous case, instead, the clusters are damaged and I don't think you can do anything else. If the PC doesn't detect it, you can't even use any software to format it. Only once in many years of using SD cards the same thing happened to me and I had to throw one away in the trash bin.
If I'm wrong someone else will surely correct me.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

SDs tend to fail sometimes without previous indication.

If I understand correctly, the PC does not detect the presence of the microSD, right?

This is the question. Try multiple SD readers – best some µSD reader without an adapter.
In case the PC does not acknowledge the presence of the card telling at least the correct size of the medium there is probably nothing that can be done¹. On Linux I usually run something like lsblk or fdisk -l to see all attached disks and their size – Windows should have some graphical disk management but my Windows knowledge/memory is completely outdated, rusty and blurry

In the latter case you simply have to format it.

Technically correct for getting the µSD usable again – followed by the 100% destructive (for the old data) h2testw/F3 test to ensure the SD is working normally. However, if data recovery is the goal, any write process to the µSD should be avoided. I would avoid chkdsk/fsck as well as they also modify the content.

I've no idea what (and how to use) data recovery software. I used (free software) Photorec once for restoring some files from a slightly damaged disk somebody gave me.
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Only once in many years of using SD cards the same thing happened to me and I had to throw one away in the trash bin

You got lucky here. I don't trust SDs as far as I can throw them. Spontaneous corruption and working again after formatting, going full read-only forever, "dead fish" (no reaction at all), working only sometimes, working only in one reader… I've had them all.






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¹ Very EXPENSIVE professional data recovery services might have success. However there is no guarantee whatsoever. The only thing they can guarantee is sending you a big invoice.
For considering such services the data must be important.