Gaming Micro SDHC problems

[_Chaz_]

Okay, so I have this micro SDHC card that I use for my CycloDS Evo. It's an 8GB Sandisk class 2 card, and it's got my fucking life on it.

All of my games, saves, homebrew, and music are on this card, and the only backup is outdated and on a lost 4GB micro SDHC somewhere.

Problem is, this thing isn't reading in my PC anymore. I've tried the USB card reader that came with the CycloDS and I've tried the SD converter that came with the card. Neither read on my PC but indicated that they were inserted (i.e. lit LEDs). The card reads on my DS fine, so making a list of everything on it and finding it again isn't impossible (except for the saves :[ )

If someone could help with a solution on how to get it to read, I would be very grateful. I can easily make a list of everything I need back on it in case I have to erase it for any reason.

 

[tk_saturn]

Stick it in a phone and back it up over bluetooth. Or use the phone to transfer DSFTP onto thecard, and then backup over FTP.

 

[_Chaz_]

Stick it in a phone and back it up over bluetooth. Or use the phone to transfer DSFTP onto thecard, and then backup over FTP.

Should have mentioned this, but I don't have a cell phone... Probably the only person in the world that doesn't.

 

[_Chaz_]

Bump, this topic is extremely urgent!

If it helps, the card was used to transport a few files from my PC running Vista to a netbook using Windows XP.

 

[BakuFunn]

Transfer with FTP to your computer?

EDIT: Woops, didn't see this suggested before, sorry. Try running repairs and opening devices and hardware and see if it shows up there.

 

[_Chaz_]

Hmmm...


It's odd, but I plugged it in yet another time to try out BakuFunn's suggestion of Hardware and Devices, immediately before I could do anything, a prompt came up telling me of bad sectors and to recover them. I've seen this prompt before, so it's not new to me. I wonder why it decided to activate now rather than the first few times?

Sure is taking quite some time though...

 

[_Chaz_]

Okay, and now after the recovery of bad sectors, it refuses to read.

Can anyone shed some light on what's happening?


EDIT: Still reads fine on the DS... I'm confused and really upset.

 

[_Chaz_]

Nobody has any clue?

I Googled my problem and found nothing but a lot of people who didn't have a reader, which I have. I doubt that it's a problem with the reader as I have two different ones and neither show anything.

I'm absolutely stumped and it's killing me.

 

[_Chaz_]

I tried looking for it in the opening devices and hardware menu and I found it. It knows it's there but won't read.


Why is Vista so user un-friendly?

 

[Originality]

First to be a stick in the mud: double and triple posting are not allowed on these forums. Edit your earlier posts if you need to add more information, but don't keep posting to bump your thread every hour. You've not said anything so far that makes this "Urgent".

Now back to suggestions. If it still works in the DS, then obviously the card is not faulty. If it doesn't work in the PC, then something between the card and the PC isn't working properly. The first thing to check is always the card readers - check them with another MicroSD card to make sure they work at all. If they do, then it's either dirt, worn contacts, bad boot sectors on the MicroSD card, or bad software/firmware.

To avoid most of the more annoying steps, just try it in another computer. If it still doesn't work, you can try uninstalling and reinstalling all relative drivers to clean them up (Windows I/O drivers have a bad habbit of corrupting themselves without knowing over time and moderate use) but it may not help much if you've tried another computer (unless both have similarly screwed up drivers). Everything else is inbetween... try one or more MicroSD->SD converters, MicroSD readers, SD readers, etc, to see if it's just bad hardware. It is VERY common for readers and converters/adaptors to die (since they're built so cheaply), roughly as common as it is for MicroSD cards to die (that said, I've never had one die on me yet). EDIT: USB readers tend to work better than laptop readers. The only exception is the one in my PB media laptop - as for everything else, they don't build them like they used to. On this, I speak with plenty of experience in both fields (laptops/computers and USB readers).

One thing you can try that I haven't mentioned yet: find some program that is not Windows Explorer to browse your MicroSD card. I don't know of any - only ones that are better at formatting SD cards than Windows Disk Manager.

If all else fails, as mentioned before, try getting a FTP application on your DS. I know CycloDS supports it, but I can't remember what homebrew does it (since I've not touched the scene in months). Once it's set up, you can just dial into your DS through a web browser and transfer everything over the painfully slow FTP protocol. There may be a WiFi homebrew application to do it better, but I don't think I've ever heard of one working for anything more than web browsing.