Hardware Formatting a PNY SD card for 3DS use

[The_CFW_Noob]

I bought a 16 GB PNY SD card for my 3DS so i can fit a few large size games on there. I put the SD card in the DS and it said something like “cannot read the SD card”. I then assumed that i needed to format my new SD card to FAT32 but when i try to format it on my laptop it doesnt even come up with FAT32 in the format option window, it comes up with NTFS, FAT and exFAT. I tried to format the PNY card to FAT but it says windows couldnt complete the format. I even downloaded a FAT32 formatter tool and i still cant format the PNY card. Is there any soloutions?

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Maybe the SD and/or the reader in the laptop is faulty. 16GB SD should come pre-formatted as FAT32 and the official SD formatting tool should use also use FAT32:
https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/

Try formatting the SD with any filesystem and check it with h2testw.



Edit:
Thanks @TurdPooCharger ; badly expressed. Better:

and the official SD formatting tool should also choose FAT32 because the card is ≤ 32GB

 

[TurdPooCharger]

Maybe the SD and/or the reader in the laptop is faulty. 16GB SD should come pre-formatted as FAT32 and the official SD formatting tool should use also use FAT32:
https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/

Try formatting the SD with any filesystem and check it with h2testw.

That program is meant to fix a badly formatted SD card or one that's not recognized by Windows File Explorer. If the SD Association's own program doesn't revive the card, nothing else will.

A correction about SD Memory Card Formatter. Its drawback is that it doesn't allow you to choose FAT32, NTFS, or ExFAT. Anything larger than 32 GB is automatically formatted in ExFAT. I was mistaken about this once too!!!

 

[The_CFW_Noob]

Ok thanks, I will try this now

EDIT: The formatting tool didn't work so I assume that I should just give up and buy a new SD card. I was thinking about getting a Sandisk Ultra Plus 16 GB card but I want to ask here before getting another SD card because I don't want this situation to happen again. Should I get a Sandisk Ultra Plus 16 GB card. All I want to know is if they work

@TurdPooCharger
@KleinesSinchen

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Ok thanks, I will try this now

EDIT: The formatting tool didn't work so I assume that I should just give up and buy a new SD card. I was thinking about getting a Sandisk Ultra Plus 16 GB card but I want to ask here before getting another SD card because I don't want this situation to happen again. Should I get a Sandisk Ultra Plus 16 GB card. All I want to know is if they work

@TurdPooCharger
@KleinesSinchen

Sandisk is a well-known brand. The problem is: There are many fakes and shitty SDs out there – no matter what brand is printed on them. Even normal retailers have sold a bunch of fake SDs without even knowing. Plus: Manufacturing defects can occur (I guess this is the case with your PNY card: OOBF: Out-of-box failure).

That is why you should always check a new SD with h2testw before trusting it.

The 3DS is not very fast in reading/writing from/to SD so you won't need some super-mega-ultra-highspeed thing. Just buy another SD and do the test. With only 16GB chances are good that there are no fakes anymore because 16GB is very small and cheap nowadays.