Misc Strange undeletable files appeared in SD Card

[Magolor]

Not really a direct 3DS issue but I'm not sure where I could put this.

Today I noticed two very strange files in an existing folder on my SD Card that I can't erase. I did a google search with anything I could think of but it ultimately wasn't very helpful. Trying to delete them on my computer just results in them "not being found" but they still exist. I have tried to erase them via godmode as well which returns a failure message. I did however notice that in godmode there were several gbs of files called "?" in the folder as well.

I am curious how these files could have been generated as there doesn't seem to be any corruption or issues and what I could do to get rid of them.

 

[4d1xlaan]

I am curious how these files could have been generated as there doesn't seem to be any corruption or issues

think again lol

these files are corruption

backup your data asap, wipe the card, test it with h2testw to make sure, but I'd recommend replacing the card entirely

 

[KleinesSinchen]

backup your data asap,

This

You could run chkdsk AFTER backing up data just for fun; to see what and how many errors can be found.

But then proceed here after backing up:

wipe the card, test it with h2testw to make sure

before considering using that SD.

 

[Magolor]

Tested with h2testw and returned no errors, formatting the SD seemingly - at least visually - deleted the files that wouldn't go away but I suspect that not all is resolved as chkdsk returns this.

Which falls in line with this here, having invisible files taking up a few KB. Also, It is no longer 32GB, and instead 27.9GB which I find weird as h2testw claimed it had no issues.

What do you suggest doing next? Is there anything I can do for this SD Card or should I just move to a new one? It has been functioning seemingly without issue on the surface but I still don't feel right about the size change and the weird files I can't see.

I'm also still curious as to what could have caused this, I will say I admittedly do recklessly remove and insert it a lot into the reader so maybe that's what caused it to corrupt like this? Any advice on what to do in the future to avoid issues like this would also be appreciated.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

Which falls in line with this here, having invisible files taking up a few KB. Also, It is no longer 32GB, and instead 27.9GB which I find weird as h2testw claimed it had no issues.

View attachment 441092

All good and normal. The usual 1000 vs. 1024 calculations. 10243 > 10003
1GB is 10003 Bytes for manufacturers. Available space is roughly 31,900,000,000 Bytes in your screenshot.

You can continue using such an SD after it passed the test. Keep an eye on it, backup the data form time to time. If it corrupts again for no reason I would replace it. File system corruption can have pure software (crash for example) reasons with no hardware problem at all.

 

[4d1xlaan]

Put that card back in and check in gm9, you'll find that those hidden files are not so hidden after all

Any advice on what to do in the future to avoid issues like this would also be appreciated.

Never take it out of your computer without properly ejecting and waiting for it to tell you it's safe to remove

 

[zxr750j]

File corruption usually occurs when writing to a disk is interrupted (or takes too long). this might be due to powerloss (or spike). Ejection whilst writing is the reason why you should always eject a removable drive in software before janking it out, you force it to finish it's read and writing to the disk and inform you when it's ready. When you need to take it out of your 3ds, first power off the 3ds (hold the power button and wait for the lights to turn off). Though bad software and faulty cards are also too common (a 200gb sd card died in my switch on my after 1 year, the good people at sandisk replaced it with a 400gb one: I had no recent backup). So as everybody says: backup your data! And enjoy your 3ds!