Hacking Repeate issues with "Couldn't find _DS_MENU.dat

[nlightningm]

I already know most of you guys will probably tell me to check which firmware I've got and I can tell you that's not the issue, as I've had this card running multiple times.
For some reason on my 3DS (I think I'm using some kinda clone card) if I do *something* wrong -
last time, I started up an .nds rom and then hit the kill buttons to get back to the rom selection menu - this time, I just moved a rom from one folder to another because it wasn't working, gave just a white screen (I started it up after moving it and it ran all of a sudden) -

My card will suddenly become unusable next time I try to launch it and it just gives the error "couldn't find _DS_MENU.dat". Sliding the MicroSD into a computer doesn't help because BOTH TIMES this has happened, it just shows up blank in the computer. Not gonna format because all of my save data is on there and that's hours upon hours of progress in games.

Last time, I managed to rescue a lot of the data using some software, but I really don't want to go that route if I can help it, I just want to avoid this happening at all.



Is there any permanent fix for this, since there's no easy way to determine when it mighthappen?

 

[Technicmaster0]

Sounds like a corrupted microsd. That's either because the microsd is very shitty or because the FAT drivers of the flashcart are very shitty. Or you shut the console while it copied something or something similar.

 

[nlightningm]

Intersting.... it's probably the quality of flashcart. I was being lazy and just bought one of those 500-in-one cards on eBay. Works great when it works. I definitely didn't do anything physical while it was copying, but maybe it was still transferring folders and I booted the ROM up too quickly before it was finished.


So is there any way to rescue the data from the microSD before formatting it? I'm running a chkdsk \r on the drive as we speak in hopes that I can get the files off (those saves! really hurts to lose those saves )

Sounds like a corrupted microsd. That's either because the microsd is very shitty or because the FAT drivers of the flashcart are very shitty. Or you shut the console while it copied something or something similar.

 

[nlightningm]

edit (can't edit..)
I guess I'm lucky I backed up my full MicroSD with all the ROMs and hierarchy after this happened the first time. I'll just use my chkdsk files to try and recover the savefiles and hopefully that's all I need to do.