Why does an SD card fills itself?

[JuanMena]

My father has(d) this "32GB" Sandisk SD card in his phone... that can't be formatted, and it has literally no files, but has a shit ton of folders and it occupies *19GB out of those "32".

It's supposedly formated to FAT32 with a 32k cluster size.

I've tried to format it with his Android phone, but it instantly fills again with files upon finishing.
Then, I tried with my laptop, and it can't do it via "My PC".
Then, I tried SD Formatter, and it just can't do it.
Then, I tried AOMEI Partition Assistant, and won't do it. It doesn't even has a damaged MBR sector or anything.

Then, I thought that selecting everything and pressing "Delete" on my lap would actually delete everything to leave it empty.

Just did, stupid shit took since yesterday's 8PM up till now 6:05AM to completely "delete" everything. But it's full again and I can't format it!

The fuck is happening?
I've accepted that this card might be dead, but what is the cause of that behavior other than "it's broken"?

Here's a screenshot of the files that keeps regenerating themselves upon deleting everything:

 

[Hayato213]

Find out what those 19GB files are.

 

[Kazesama]

try a different card reader, or a different device to format it

 

[zxr750j]

If you put a new sd-card in an android phone it will create a shitload of directories and files as shown above but they shouldn't amount to that many GB's in my experience (though I'm using an Iphone for a couple of years). Try another SD card would be my first step in the elimination process.

 

[Ryab]

My father has(d) this "32GB" Sandisk SD card in his phone... that can't be formatted, and it has literally no files, but has a shit ton of folders and it occupies *19GB out of those "32".

It's supposedly formated to FAT32 with a 32k cluster size.

I've tried to format it with his Android phone, but it instantly fills again with files upon finishing.
Then, I tried with my laptop, and it can't do it via "My PC".
Then, I tried SD Formatter, and it just can't do it.
Then, I tried AOMEI Partition Assistant, and won't do it. It doesn't even has a damaged MBR sector or anything.

Then, I thought that selecting everything and pressing "Delete" on my lap would actually delete everything to leave it empty.

Just did, stupid shit took since yesterday's 8PM up till now 6:05AM to completely "delete" everything. But it's full again and I can't format it!

The fuck is happening?
I've accepted that this card might be dead, but what is the cause of that behavior other than "it's broken"?

Here's a screenshot of the files that keeps regenerating themselves upon deleting everything:
View attachment 384063

Some app likely did this automatically. I'd check which folder is taking all that space.

 

[JuanMena]

Some app likely did this automatically. I'd check which folder is taking all that space.

Deleting that folder will "fix it"?

Because like I said, deleted everything in Root but it just filled itself once again.

Post automatically merged: Jul 19, 2023

Find out what those 19GB files are.

That's the problem, every folder is empty.

 

[Latiodile]

have you tried using the "clean" command in diskpart, then formatting again in the windows disk manager?

 

[Ryab]

Deleting that folder will "fix it"?

Because like I said, deleted everything in Root but it just filled itself once again.

Post automatically merged: Jul 19, 2023

That's the problem, every folder is empty.

I'd check the size of each folder and see which one is taking all the space. It is likely some app installed on the system doing it.

 

[Hayato213]

That's the problem, every folder is empty.

If you don't need the data then format the card, but you want to double check the files.

 

[Latiodile]

If you don't need the data then format the card, but you want to double check the files, you can use something like guiformat or minitool parititon wizard if you need it in FAT32, otherwise you can use built in windows formatter.

you don't need guiformat to format a 32gb card as fat32, only when it's above 32gb

 

[JuanMena]

have you tried using the "clean" command in diskpart, then formatting again in the windows disk manager?

Kinda wanting to do it, but I know it's going to fail.

If you don't need the data then format the card, but you want to double check the files, you can use something like guiformat or minitool parititon wizard if you need it in FAT32, otherwise you can use built in windows formatter.

No dude, like, that's not working at all.

 

[Kwyjor]

I've accepted that this card might be dead, but what is the cause of that behavior other than "it's broken"?

You seem to suggest the card is magically filling itself, but isn't it more accurate to say that you can't delete the files that are already on the card?

Because the answer is yes, it's broken. Cards become read-only when they start to fail. Happens frequently enough with SD cards in 3DS units. It makes sense: if the card is failing, then you can still recover files from it without risking any further damage or corruption.

If you're wondering about the precise mechanism, then I admit that is something I would like to know more about. Something in the SD card spec, I guess.

 

[JuanMena]

You seem to suggest the card is magically filling itself, but isn't it more accurate to say that you can't delete the files that are already on the card?

It's hard to believe.
But, the files are getting deleted, it takes a fuck ton of time to delete. But once it's finished, they appear again. But the card doesn't has files, it's mostly empty folders (and no hidden items) and it still marks it as occupying 19GB.

I really gotta record in a video the behaviour to be believed.

Post automatically merged: Jul 19, 2023

Here's a video: @Hayato213 and @Kwyjor

And no, CMD didn't did anything, it says that it can't create a partition.
And I can't access the Read Only properties since they're not displayed at all.

 

[KleinesSinchen]

But, the files are getting deleted, it takes a fuck ton of time to delete. But once it's finished, they appear again.

In other words: The files/folders don't get deleted.
Normally it should throw a "this drive is read-only" error. Seems yours simply ignores write commands without sending an error.

To me it sounds like this thing is done for.

 

[JuanMena]

In other words: The files/folders don't get deleted.
Normally it should throw a "this drive is read-only" error. Seems yours simply ignores write commands without sending an error.

To me it sounds like this thing is done for.

Yeah, like, I didn't had any hopes in recovering it.
Just wanted to be sure that this wasn't going to work at all.

I left a video showing how it does get "formatted" to NTFS but once it finishes, it fills again.

It seems weird, because if it were set to "read only" it should warn me before formatting attempts, right?
But it does not, and I can't seem to change it's "read only" properties from "My PC" nor CMD or any other Partition/SD Assistant.

So, it's dead, I knew... just wanted to be sure.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

The card is dead, the first clue was that nothing would format it, unless the card was locked (which most SD-centered software would just tell you) there's no reason why it wouldn't be formattable.

I'd simply give it up, there's no recovering from errors like this.

 

[Kwyjor]

It seems weird, because if it were set to "read only" it should warn me before formatting attempts, right?

It would warn you if the OS recognized the card as read-only, but this is a problem that exists at the hardware level, below what the OS deals with.

 

[hippy dave]

It's clearly haunted. Just bury it in a pentagram-shaped grave under a full moon and get on with your life.