Hacking SD keeps crashing/erroring out

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Hi all,

Just got a new San Disk Ultra 128 to replace my (same model) 32Gb due to instability with the 32Gb in 2DS XL system ONLY. FAT32 32KB (32768) Custer size, used all the tools to format, none of them differing with the 2DS.

Fast forward to 3 128s on my doorstep, and a batch of WBFS files larger than 64Gb, to test the Fake Capacity scam cards, it's legit and maintains 34+MB/s throughout 60+Gb steadily, works even better and fast than my 32.

Copy everything except Nin3DS folder (corrupted CIAs or bad card, left all games behind to check if card or CIAs bad) from 32 old > 128 new. Copy 12+Gbs CIAs. THEN copy 60+Gbs WBFS. When it was all done, the original files were still there, 2DS boots up.

Everything seems slower on 2DS with new 128Gb card. Time between installing CIA, and time the data actually starts counting, increases. The actual speed is the same (1.9/2.1 MB/s avg) but smaller tasks take longer.

Games still crash with arm11 handler error, others simply being crashed by included processes (Super scribble nauts crashed by 'scribble' process), quake crashing randomly with seemingly clean data on the SD. I don't understand what's the matter?

Is there any fix for something like this?

TL;DR

32Gb mSD 'faulty'. Replaced with 128 mSD of same make and model, only to have the same issues persist.
 
FIRST
Re-Check if your SD card is fake, faulty, or dying.
  1. Copy everything off the SD card to a computer.
  2. Quadruple reformat.
  3. Full Write + Verify the empty card in H2testw. Do not skip.

( Optional / Conditional )
Consider reformatting 128 GB or larger capacity (micro)SD cards in FAT32 + (65536) 64 KB cluster size.
***

SECOND
After the emptied out SD card has been tested and passed in H2testw or replaced with a good SD card that passes in H2testw,

Salvage the games, dlcs, updates, saves, and extdata in the Nintendo 3DS folder like in these examples. I recommend following Path (B) when rebuilding the folder.

***

THIRD
Further troubleshoot the games once the above two (2) issues have been sorted out.
***

FOURTH
Still having problems at this point?

Repair the 3DS firmware + custom firmware with CTRTransfer (Type D9) - CTRTransfer. Carefully read and follow the Instructions.
 
Last edited by TurdPooCharger,
FIRST
Re-Check if your SD card is fake, faulty, or dying.
  1. Copy everything off the SD card to a computer.
  2. Quadruple reformat.
  3. Full Write + Verify the empty card in H2testw. Do not skip.

( Optional / Conditional )
Consider reformatting 128 GB or larger capacity (micro)SD cards in FAT32 + (65536) 64 KB cluster size.
***

SECOND
After the emptied out SD card has been tested and passed in H2testw or replaced with a good SD card that passes in H2testw,

Salvage the games, dlcs, updates, saves, and extdata in the Nintendo 3DS folder like in these examples. I recommend following Path (B) when rebuilding the folder.

***

THIRD
Further troubleshoot the games once the above two (2) issues have been sorted out.
***

FOURTH
Still having problems at this point?

Repair the 3DS firmware + custom firmware with CTRTransfer (Type D9) - CTRTransfer. Carefully read and follow the Instructions.
Damn thanks. #2 doesnt matter for me, I am paranoid about faulty data to the point if I reformat im also reinstalling not copying games updates dlc etc.


Oddly enough all GB(A) VCs work, it's SNES and 3DS titles giving me crap. Don't have time to quad format right now, will get back with the results when I can.

If I do still have problems, why do I need to repair CFW? If I still have problems, the CFW is broken? Then isnt that the CFW on the SD and not the one installed the CTRnand? So removing downloading and pasting new CFW should work right? Or is CFW fixing required IF I still have problems later on?
 
Damn thanks. #2 doesnt matter for me, I am paranoid about faulty data to the point if I reformat im also reinstalling not copying games updates dlc etc.
SECOND is for those who didn't backup their saves + extdata with Checkpoint/JKSM save manager and would like to preserve their hours of game progress.

Straight up reinstalling game CIAs (sdmc:/Nintendo 3DS/<ID0>/<ID1>/00040000) will permanently overwrite and erase their savedata (00000001.sav) that are in place.

Path (B) helps to suss out corrupted titles while trying to maintain those saves + extdata.

There's no point salvaging the Nintendo 3DS folder if the SD card isn't verified to be reliable in holding your data.

Oddly enough all GB(A) VCs work, it's SNES and 3DS titles giving me crap. Don't have time to quad format right now, will get back with the results when I can.
Quad reformatting is easy and fast. See the provided image in that link. All four (4) programs use their respective 'quick' option.

If changing your 128 GB card from 32 KB cluster to 64 KB cluster size settings, you would have to quadruple reformat. See the explanation post below that guide.

I can't say why SNES VC and 3DS titles are giving you trouble. All I know is that there's no point troubleshooting those if the FIRST and SECOND aren't done in those order.

If I do still have problems, why do I need to repair CFW? If I still have problems, the CFW is broken? Then isnt that the CFW on the SD and not the one installed the CTRnand? So removing downloading and pasting new CFW should work right? Or is CFW fixing required IF I still have problems later on?
After the process of elimination concludes,
  • (1) The SD card hardware condition is intact.
  • (2) The data in the Nintendo 3DS folder is not corrupt.
  • (3) Various typical/possible causes why certain games don't launch or play have been accounted for.
, that FOURTH point assumes there is a software fault in the 3DS firmware. If you did nothing out of the ordinary to warrant softbricking the 3DS firmware, your 3DS probably had a failed or incomplete system update that resulted in a frankenfirmware.

Keep in mind the 3DS firmware and custom firmware are separate entities. You can have a softbricked 3DS firmware with the custom firmware still working.

These two (2) are lumped together as that CTRTransfer (Type D9) specializes fixing both where needed.
 
Last edited by TurdPooCharger,
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SECOND is for those who didn't backup their saves + extdata with Checkpoint/JKSM save manager and would like to preserve their hours of game progress.

Straight up reinstalling game CIAs (sdmc:/Nintendo 3DS/<ID0>/<ID1>/00040000) will permanently overwrite and erase their savedata (00000001.sav) that are in place.

Path (B) helps to suss out corrupted titles while trying to maintain those saves + extdata.

There's no point salvaging the Nintendo 3DS folder if the SD card isn't verified to be reliable in holding your data.


Quad reformatting is easy and fast. See the provided image in that link. All four (4) programs use their respective 'quick' option.

If changing your 128 GB card from 32 KB cluster to 64 KB cluster size settings, you would have to quadruple reformat. See the explanation post below that guide.

I can't say why SNES VC and 3DS titles are giving you trouble. All I know is that there's no point troubleshooting those if the FIRST and SECOND aren't done in those order.

After the process of elimination concludes,
  • (1) The SD card hardware condition is intact.
  • (2) The data in the Nintendo 3DS folder is not corrupt.
  • (3) Various typical/possible causes why certain games don't launch or play have been accounted for.
, that FOURTH point assumes there is a software fault in the 3DS firmware. If you did nothing out of the ordinary to warrant softbricking the 3DS firmware, your 3DS probably had a failed or incomplete system update that resulted in a frankenfirmware.

Keep in mind the 3DS firmware and custom firmware are separate entities. You can have a softbricked 3DS firmware with the custom firmware still working.

These two (2) are lumped together as that CTRTransfer (Type D9) specializes fixing both where needed.
For the record, I got this machine to mod, for games/saves preservation. I haven't had it in a 100% usable state yet, with the games me and my friends need kept safe. I got to the half-way Castle in nsmb2 that's it, I have to get all kinks out first. I can't stray away from the tech/modding side of things till all this is sorted out, so I can finally let my Gma and bro use it worry free.

Thanks so much for your help and Info, I really hope to one day have knowledge and pass it on through one of the scenes.

As for the format not taking long, I gotta clock in in a little while, and don't want to boot up windows, tether my phone with VPN Hotspot to laptop (for free) download (and maybe unzip) and run the program, copy back the CFW, HB apps, CIAs (even only the previously 'broken' ones), quake, then running HBL FBI FBI again then 12Gb+ @2MB/s. I would just prefer to handle it after work, and gather info that I can now.
 
For the record, I got this machine to mod, for games/saves preservation. I haven't had it in a 100% usable state yet, with the games me and my friends need kept safe. I got to the half-way Castle in nsmb2 that's it, I have to get all kinks out first. I can't stray away from the tech/modding side of things till all this is sorted out, so I can finally let my Gma and bro use it worry free.

Thanks so much for your help and Info, I really hope to one day have knowledge and pass it on through one of the scenes.

As for the format not taking long, I gotta clock in in a little while, and don't want to boot up windows, tether my phone with VPN Hotspot to laptop (for free) download (and maybe unzip) and run the program, copy back the CFW, HB apps, CIAs (even only the previously 'broken' ones), quake, then running HBL FBI FBI again then 12Gb+ @2MB/s. I would just prefer to handle it after work, and gather info that I can now.
The quadruple reformat (step 2 in FIRST) is fairly fast. The other steps (especially step 3's H2testw) are the slow and tedious parts.

2 MB/s write speed is suspiciously slow. Unless you're using an older computer that was made from the Windows 95/98/XP era, I'm almost certain your SD card is a fake one.

Here's a quick and dirty trick if you're short on time. Most fake SD cards have a usable (real) capacity of 4 GB; some up to 8 GB. In H2testw, you can partially fill up to 4 GB (Data volume: ⦿ only 4096 MByte) when doing a Write + Verify. During the Verify stage when data is being read back, there is a likely chance that H2testw will detect an inconsistency. You can then stop the program early if it lights up red like in the [BAD] shown in this image.

Edit - That quick & dirty trick isn't full proof. This might miss detecting fake cards that have a large enough real capacity (ie, testing only 4 GB on a supposedly 128 GB card that has 16 GB of usable capacity). It also won't work for real cards that have small defects (ie, authentic 128 GB but 4 MBytes are worn out).
 
Last edited by TurdPooCharger,
  • Like
Reactions: E1ite007
The quadruple reformat (step 2 in FIRST) is fairly fast. The other steps (especially step 3's H2testw) are the slow and tedious parts.

2 MB/s write speed is suspiciously slow. Unless you're using an older computer that was made from the Windows 95/98/XP era, I'm almost certain your SD card is a fake one.

Here's a quick and dirty trick if you're short on time. Most fake SD cards have a usable (real) capacity of 4 GB; some up to 8 GB. In H2testw, you can partially fill up to 4 GB (Data volume: ⦿ only 4096 MByte) when doing a Write + Verify. During the Verify stage when data is being read back, there is a likely chance that H2testw will detect an inconsistency. You can then stop the program early if it lights up red like in the [BAD] shown in this image.

Edit - That quick & dirty trick isn't full proof. This might miss detecting fake cards that have a large enough real capacity (ie, testing only 4 GB on a supposedly 128 GB card that has 16 GB of usable capacity). It also won't work for real cards that have small defects (ie, authentic 128 GB but 4 MBytes are worn out).
Oh heavens no, the 2MB/s is the FBI installing speed, of which takes far longer than copying. It takes me 23 minutes to copy my CIA collection at 36 or so MB/s, didn't feel like doing all that again, I guess I wouldn't have to.

I've written to at least 3/8 of the drive, with consistent speeds, like the OP says, the SD card is faulty ONLY in 2DS XL System, PC side (Linux/Windows/ Android phone) is fine AF.

I'm just lazy and perfer to do stuff like that when I have way to much time to get the task done, as I stray from task to task easily and would have enough time to wipe it 4 times, but not when multitasking as I do.
 
Last edited by moto4mods,
Oh heavens no, the 2MB/s is the FBI installing speed, of which takes far longer than copying. It takes me 23 minutes to copy my CIA collection at 36 or so MB/s, didn't feel like doing all that again, I guess I wouldn't have to.

I've written to at least 3/8 of the drive, with consistent speeds, like the OP says, the SD card is faulty ONLY in 2DS XL System, PC side (Linux/Windows/ Android phone) is fine AF.

I'm just lazy and perfer to do stuff like that when I have way to much time to get the task done, as I stray from task to task easily and would have enough time to wipe it 4 times, but not when multitasking as I do.
If you need better write speeds for the cias you got. Just skip the 3ds process using https://gbatemp.net/threads/custom-...a-nintendo-3ds-sd-card-entirely-on-pc.551496/ and follow that for installing the games.
 
If you need better write speeds for the cias you got. Just skip the 3ds process using https://gbatemp.net/threads/custom-...a-nintendo-3ds-sd-card-entirely-on-pc.551496/ and follow that for installing the games.
I assume that wouldn't go to well with a laptop Intel card running Host AP, I don't have a router, or any networking hardware beyond what's integrated in my phone, and installed in my laptop.

I would most likely be bottlenecked by the max throughput of my laptops internal NIC, more so than the "install from same drive" speeds with my UHS-1 card. I will have to give this a try for sure, as I'm going to install my 12+(and growing) GBs of CIAs a few more times before I finally get it working properly.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

If you need better write speeds for the cias you got. Just skip the 3ds process using https://gbatemp.net/threads/custom-...a-nintendo-3ds-sd-card-entirely-on-pc.551496/ and follow that for installing the games.
Could it be possible to install games from a Flash Cart SD to internal?
 
I assume that wouldn't go to well with a laptop Intel card running Host AP, I don't have a router, or any networking hardware beyond what's integrated in my phone, and installed in my laptop.

I would most likely be bottlenecked by the max throughput of my laptops internal NIC, more so than the "install from same drive" speeds with my UHS-1 card. I will have to give this a try for sure, as I'm going to install my 12+(and growing) GBs of CIAs a few more times before I finally get it working properly.
Even with a good card like that. the 3ds bottlenecks the speeds aswell on the 3ds. I think its like almost a c4 or 6 that the 3ds was made for.
 
Even with a good card like that. the 3ds bottlenecks the speeds aswell on the 3ds. I think its like almost a c4 or 6 that the 3ds was made for.
Sorry I thought the link was to the custom LAN FBI server thing, but that does seem promising, I'll probably try it but not use it long term, doesn't seem like the best method for installing games yet.
 
My laptops internally HDD started failing after purchasing a 2.5" drive 2x the capacity, along with a DVD drive HDD adapter. I now keep all important stuff on the "external (but still kinda internal cause DVD slot)" drive.

When I go to start copying back all my important stuff to my 3ds SD, I find my 1Tb NTFS, with a 4Gb FAT32 partition, now has 2 FAT32 and no NTFS partition.

I'm currently weighing my options getting the data back from a quick format, before I can move forward with this. Most of the CIAs I had were legit dumps shared from friends, very few were actually from ISO sites.

Any help as to recover data from a quick format, would be greatly appreciated. I do not have a drive larger than that of the drive I need recovered, so I cannot dump the drive itself anywhere for safety, I gotta go in on the drive itself and possibly further loose what data may be left.
 
My laptops internally HDD started failing after purchasing a 2.5" drive 2x the capacity, along with a DVD drive HDD adapter. I now keep all important stuff on the "external (but still kinda internal cause DVD slot)" drive.

When I go to start copying back all my important stuff to my 3ds SD, I find my 1Tb NTFS, with a 4Gb FAT32 partition, now has 2 FAT32 and no NTFS partition.

I'm currently weighing my options getting the data back from a quick format, before I can move forward with this. Most of the CIAs I had were legit dumps shared from friends, very few were actually from ISO sites.

Any help as to recover data from a quick format, would be greatly appreciated. I do not have a drive larger than that of the drive I need recovered, so I cannot dump the drive itself anywhere for safety, I gotta go in on the drive itself and possibly further loose what data may be left.
Invest in (another) portal external hard drive.
Once you have a large enough hard drive that can backup everything, try to get back lost data on the laptop.
Go no further in fixing the 3DS system's SD card and its library of games until you have such a drive.

If you don't like hard drives because they're susceptible of platter damage from mishandling, drops, or bumps, be ready to fork some $$$ in another (micro)SD card, USB flash drive, or SSD that's bigger than everything you have combined. This one would also have to be tested in H2testw before using.
 
Last edited by TurdPooCharger,
Invest in a portal external hard drive.
Once you have a large enough hard drive that can backup everything, try to get back lost data on the laptop.
Go no further in fixing the 3DS system's SD card and its library of games until you have such a drive.

If you don't like hard drives because they're susceptible of platter damage from mishandling, drops, or bumps, be ready to fork some $$$ in another (micro)SD card, USB flash drive, or SSD that's bigger than everything you have combined. This one would also have to be tested in H2testw before using.
No, I have a 250GB with everything that was on the 1TB, except my CIAs and maybe some updated distros, maybe Win10LTSC, idk. My point in staying that, is I know to backup bit for bit, the drive, to a larger drive, in a solid ISO if possible, so you have an unaltered copy of your HDD before repair.

Since im unable to do that, I don't trust ease US, I'm gonna burn um, Windows Preinstallation-Environment and run minitool from there. I just need to grab the CIAs off, that's all really, and like I said internals failing so while it boots windows (maybe that part of the platter isn't scratched if that's the cause) full speed it goes from adequate SATA 1 speeds then drops, blah blah blah it's definitely screwed, can't worry about it now.

Don't have ANY money, shelling out the $58 for 3 128GB SDs was tough, I can't shell out another $40 on another 1tb new Mac HDD off eBay like I did for the backup for internal initially.

I also don't like the idea of an external backup drive for these exact reasons. If I had the money I wouldve built/bought a beast of a NAS and a small one for a buddies, and that off-site one would have all my data from the drives I'm struggling with..... Ya know, in a perfect world and all. Also never had external flash beyond SD or flash drive, so a portable (or internal + adapter) SSD may solve the issues I have with the ext backup drive concept.

I usually am either dealing with worse issues than this type of silly format or I'm wiping drives for new installs after backing up data, I've never been caught in an accidental format before.

Edit: before all you guys facepalm cause I accidentally formatted, no one palmed more face than I have today, rest assured.
 
Last edited by moto4mods,
Then there's not much else we can do from our end. I guess the lesson to be learned here is if you're going to pirate that many games for those 3DS systems, pirate within your means. LOL.
 
Then there's not much else we can do from our end. I guess the lesson to be learned here is if you're going to pirate that many games for those 3DS systems, pirate within your means. LOL.
I mean, that's not the case really, as the only storage device I can't store ALL the CIAs on, is the 4Gb it came with, all my other drives are larger than the collection of CIAs I had. I guess it's outside the scope of my laziness to back it up though.

It's all good, I'm getting a zip 'er to, to replace the ones I had. Willing to bet their copy of SMW will have the same problems.

Edit: hey who knows, maybe minitool pulls through for me, and I'm just offending copyright law in my country for no reason. Welp, what can ya do?
 
Last edited by moto4mods,
Then there's not much else we can do from our end. I guess the lesson to be learned here is if you're going to pirate that many games for those 3DS systems, pirate within your means. LOL.
Ok I'm currently running Rescuva in WinPE, as I didn't feel like finding a portable or PAF format copy of minitool. It says 4 hours left. I also don't know if the files go back where they were on the 1TB HDD, it didn't ask for a place to put stuff before scanning.

Booted off my ext backup drive 250Gb currently, as not only do I have my backups of stuff here, it was burned with Redstone modified-PE.

So I can run programs without using installed OSs, and since it's burned to a 250Gb, I have plenty of space left to just Drag'N'Drop some stuff on there, say, after a file undelete.

Fingers crossed for no 2nd downloads.
 
FIRST
Re-Check if your SD card is fake, faulty, or dying.
  1. Copy everything off the SD card to a computer.
  2. Quadruple reformat.
  3. Full Write + Verify the empty card in H2testw. Do not skip.

( Optional / Conditional )
Consider reformatting 128 GB or larger capacity (micro)SD cards in FAT32 + (65536) 64 KB cluster size.
***

SECOND
After the emptied out SD card has been tested and passed in H2testw or replaced with a good SD card that passes in H2testw,

Salvage the games, dlcs, updates, saves, and extdata in the Nintendo 3DS folder like in these examples. I recommend following Path (B) when rebuilding the folder.

***

THIRD
Further troubleshoot the games once the above two (2) issues have been sorted out.
***

FOURTH
Still having problems at this point?

Repair the 3DS firmware + custom firmware with CTRTransfer (Type D9) - CTRTransfer. Carefully read and follow the Instructions.
I ran the quadruple format, and while I haven't had any issues with 3DS games, I haven't yet installed the ones that were giving me issues.

Quake does still error out and crash, I usually ant get 1 hour in before it crashes.

Edit: I ran HW2test both before and after placing quake on the SD, and while I'm sure I shouldn't be putting this much wear on a new mSD, I'm sure nothing is wrong with the card. It's for sure my copy (at least) of quake, so I'll go ahead and test whatever CIAs I can scare up.
 
Last edited by moto4mods,
I ran the quadruple format, and while I haven't had any issues with 3DS games, I haven't yet installed the ones that were giving me issues.

Quake does still error out and crash, I usually ant get 1 hour in before it crashes.

Edit: I ran HW2test both before and after placing quake on the SD, and while I'm sure I shouldn't be putting this much wear on a new mSD, I'm sure nothing is wrong with the card. It's for sure my copy (at least) of quake, so I'll go ahead and test whatever CIAs I can scare up.
One complete scan run done on the SD card with H2testw is all that's needed. It's just to check if the SD card is a genuine product and has intact nand cells that are fully functional.

Quake and other homebrew ported games crashing is not out of the ordinary. If something like PrBoom or RetroArch emulator(s) throws a ARM11 error, assume those bugs are the stability limits of those apps.

Official licensed (pirated) 3DS games that fail to launch or do not play that far in-game are another story. These you do have to look out for and figure out why an individual or specific game isn't working.

From post #2 in SECOND, after copying the Nintendo 3DS folder back onto the microSD card, you may choose to go with Path (A). It is the more passive method of checking which installed titles are corrupt. Unlike Path (B) where it automatically back up the titles into CIAs and their saves, Path (A) leaves alone the Nintendo 3DS folder and simply reports back which ones have failed their TMD (title metadata) hash checks.
 
One complete scan run done on the SD card with H2testw is all that's needed. It's just to check if the SD card is a genuine product and has intact nand cells that are fully functional.

Quake and other homebrew ported games crashing is not out of the ordinary. If something like PrBoom or RetroArch emulator(s) throws a ARM11 error, assume those bugs are the stability limits of those apps.

Official licensed (pirated) 3DS games that fail to launch or do not play that far in-game are another story. These you do have to look out for and figure out why an individual or specific game isn't working.

From post #2 in SECOND, after copying the Nintendo 3DS folder back onto the microSD card, you may choose to go with Path (A). It is the more passive method of checking which installed titles are corrupt. Unlike Path (B) where it automatically back up the titles into CIAs and their saves, Path (A) leaves alone the Nintendo 3DS folder and simply reports back which ones have failed their TMD (title metadata) hash checks.

I have a copy of Zelda NES VC, I can't see the title but it plays fine. Some CIAs have region unknown, don't have covers, etc. This hasn't seemed to effect usage, as the ones that have messed up on my system, show proper cover title region and all. Not sure how relevant that might be.

Alright I'm rebuilding my collection, unfortunately Rescuva is either a fake program or file recovery is much different than I had already experienced.

After rescuing my files I looked over what was recovered. I had some Wii HB icons, APK icons, etc. That I genuinely had on that HDD. I also found files like the default screensavers from Vista/7 on there, some intact PDFs about IP/MAC filtering, XSX and other office files, etc. None of that was mine, I know 100% I don't keep those types of files.

It literally gave me free files from somewhere other than My HDD. Idk about you guys, I don't keep office files on my HDD, I sure as hell don't keep default screensavers and wallpaper, especially from Vista/7.
 

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