format micro sd error

[AznFlavor]

seems you can format the micro sd only once with the deck if you try twice it corrupts the card. found this out factory reset my deck an tried to reformat my 1tb card but now it wont format and tried it on switch and pc and cant access card. its broken now i have to try to rma my card....

[JW]

Escrito originalmente por zwl199464:

I found a force for formatting the sd card option in the developer setting after I failed to format the sd card regularly. It is working for me now. Not sure if anyone mentioned this already or not, but maybe you should try that.

This is the only thing that worked. I tried 4 different new msd cards with no luck until I tried this!!!

[Shadowslip,..]

For people that receive an error in gaming mode when trying to format a supported memory card this worked for me.

Here is how I fixed the issue.
I went into desktop mode.
I opened KDE partition manager.
I deleted the sd card partition table.
I created a new partition table on the sd card using MBT and ext4.
During the format in KDE I still received an error message but the memory card mounted.
I formatted the memory card in game mode and now everything seems to work fine.

[Arcive]

Format the sd-card to exFAT on a separate computer. Put the sd in the deck and restart. Then format.

[lostgoat]

If a force format works but a regular format doesn't, that implies your card is failing the validation tests, aka f3 tests.

That most likely means the card advertises a different size than it actually supports, or it is faulty in some other way. Using these faulty cards will most likely lead to data loss, please be careful and don't store anything important in them

[Marlock]

Escrito originalmente por lostgoat:

If a force format works but a regular format doesn't, that implies your card is failing the validation tests, aka f3 tests.

That most likely means the card advertises a different size than it actually supports, or it is faulty in some other way. Using these faulty cards will most likely lead to data loss, please be careful and don't store anything important in them

could you elaborate on the performed tests and (more important) on how to confirm exactly which tests a card failed (eg: path to log file)?

[zenstrata]

Escrito originalmente por AznFlavor:

I also forgot to mention I have not taken the card out of my deck and tried to format it on a computer and then put it back in the deck and use the format tool in steam OS settings yet. I will once I get my 1tb card back from sandisk. Because right now I have to use an old 400gb card I have from sandisk that I was using in my switch I hope it doesn't break that one too.

I hate to say this, but practically every time I see a thread where these cards are failing, they are almost always sandisk cards.

I suggest avoiding sandisk. Instead go with the Samsung 512 cards. This one specifically has treated me very well, and I have suggested it several times to people here on the forums, and so far they have had good success with it as well. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09B1HMJ9Z/

Also be very careful that wherever you get your card, is from a legitimate vendor and the card is not a fake. There are a ton of fake cards on the market these days, so it's best to stick with either getting it direct from the manufacturer, or using a very large vendor with a solid and *proven* return policy. (this advice applies to modern hard drives/SSD's as well! - beware the fakes!)

This is why I linked one sold directly from amazon instead of a third party which might sell for a few dollars cheaper - because if the amazon card fails, you can return it at no cost to yourself pretty easily.

[PopinFRESH]

Escrito originalmente por Marlock:

Escrito originalmente por lostgoat:

If a force format works but a regular format doesn't, that implies your card is failing the validation tests, aka f3 tests.

That most likely means the card advertises a different size than it actually supports, or it is faulty in some other way. Using these faulty cards will most likely lead to data loss, please be careful and don't store anything important in them

could you elaborate on the performed tests and (more important) on how to confirm exactly which tests a card failed (eg: path to log file)?

The format process runs f3 (fight flash fraud). While they haven't said (that I've seen at least) that they do f3write to fill the disk with files and then do an f3read to verify the files, I don't believe that is the process they are using given how quickly the validation took for my 1TB SanDisk. Given the time that took I'd expect they are doing "f3probe --destructive" directly on the block device to test it.

Docs for f3[fight-flash-fraud.readthedocs.io]

[PopinFRESH]

Escrito originalmente por zenstrata:

Escrito originalmente por AznFlavor:

I also forgot to mention I have not taken the card out of my deck and tried to format it on a computer and then put it back in the deck and use the format tool in steam OS settings yet. I will once I get my 1tb card back from sandisk. Because right now I have to use an old 400gb card I have from sandisk that I was using in my switch I hope it doesn't break that one too.

I hate to say this, but practically every time I see a thread where these cards are failing, they are almost always sandisk cards.

I suggest avoiding sandisk. Instead go with the Samsung 512 cards. This one specifically has treated me very well, and I have suggested it several times to people here on the forums, and so far they have had good success with it as well. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09B1HMJ9Z/

Also be very careful that wherever you get your card, is from a legitimate vendor and the card is not a fake. There are a ton of fake cards on the market these days, so it's best to stick with either getting it direct from the manufacturer, or using a very large vendor with a solid and *proven* return policy. (this advice applies to modern hard drives/SSD's as well! - beware the fakes!)

This is why I linked one sold directly from amazon instead of a third party which might sell for a few dollars cheaper - because if the amazon card fails, you can return it at no cost to yourself pretty easily.

There isn't anything wrong with actual SanDisk cards. They are however the most "copied" cards and more people are likely to think they bought a SanDisk and bought a counterfeit card if it is an actual fake card.

Lastly, as lost goat pointed out in another thread they've identified an issue where the formatting process may report an error and fail to mount the newly created filesystem after successfully formatting the microSD card. Dismissing the error and rebooting will then successfully mount the filesystem. This should be fixed in the next major update.

[hup]

Escrito originalmente por zenstrata:

Escrito originalmente por AznFlavor:

I also forgot to mention I have not taken the card out of my deck and tried to format it on a computer and then put it back in the deck and use the format tool in steam OS settings yet. I will once I get my 1tb card back from sandisk. Because right now I have to use an old 400gb card I have from sandisk that I was using in my switch I hope it doesn't break that one too.

I hate to say this, but practically every time I see a thread where these cards are failing, they are almost always sandisk cards.

I suggest avoiding sandisk. Instead go with the Samsung 512 cards. This one specifically has treated me very well, and I have suggested it several times to people here on the forums, and so far they have had good success with it as well. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09B1HMJ9Z/

Also be very careful that wherever you get your card, is from a legitimate vendor and the card is not a fake. There are a ton of fake cards on the market these days, so it's best to stick with either getting it direct from the manufacturer, or using a very large vendor with a solid and *proven* return policy. (this advice applies to modern hard drives/SSD's as well! - beware the fakes!)

This is why I linked one sold directly from amazon instead of a third party which might sell for a few dollars cheaper - because if the amazon card fails, you can return it at no cost to yourself pretty easily.

I did go with SanDisk Ultra microSDXC Class 10 UHS-I U1 A1 120 MB/s 1TB

You can get an extreme version
Thats offer faster speed

I got it from compumail

[zenstrata]

Escrito originalmente por hup:

I did go with SanDisk Ultra microSDXC Class 10 UHS-I U1 A1 120 MB/s 1TB

You can get an extreme version
Thats offer faster speed

I got it from compumail

I am unfamiliar with compumail, so I can not speak to their reliability as a company.

I can say that you will likely experience slow data transfer speeds to the card you mentioned. You should be looking for U3, A2, XC 1 cards for better performance. (all those numbers mean different things about how data is handled on the cards, and the one you listed is going to be slow.)

Here is a video that goes over the reasons why. Be aware that this video is extremely information dense, he goes over the ratings you should target very quickly, so you may have to re-watch it a couple times to catch everything. I have had people complaining about A1 cards because they were too slow for their Steam Deck needs.

Anyway, here's that video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGHZs8RTlVU

[hup]

Escrito originalmente por zenstrata:

Escrito originalmente por hup:

I did go with SanDisk Ultra microSDXC Class 10 UHS-I U1 A1 120 MB/s 1TB

You can get an extreme version
Thats offer faster speed

I got it from compumail

I am unfamiliar with compumail, so I can not speak to their reliability as a company.

I can say that you will likely experience slow data transfer speeds to the card you mentioned. You should be looking for U3, A2, XC 1 cards for better performance. (all those numbers mean different things about how data is handled on the cards, and the one you listed is going to be slow.)

Here is a video that goes over the reasons why. Be aware that this video is extremely information dense, he goes over the ratings you should target very quickly, so you may have to re-watch it a couple times to catch everything. I have had people complaining about A1 cards because they were too slow for their Steam Deck needs.

Anyway, here's that video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGHZs8RTlVU

https://www.compumail.dk

I know that video
The extreme card was 60% more expensive

I hadn't had any problem with the card
Game with big unpack slow down as expected

I get download speed over 120 Megebit, in the steam download managager
And google nest wifi app, its max out at my internet speed 120 negabit
All good their

I know what i bought into

[CptShig]

Sup scrubs. If you're having trouble, go to the desktop mode and try searching partition manager. Same thing as disk management in windows. Delete any existing partitions (will delete any data present) and then hit "new" at the top. From there, you can choose to format it in any filesystem you want. Apply. Hopefully it works out well for you.

[Synplex]

Just use this to view your EX4 Formatted card (what steam deck format them to): https://www.paragon-software.com/us/home/linuxfs-windows/
Download the free version and you can access the entire card in windows...done.

[comicsansgreenkirby]

Found the problem. The deck is not unmounting the SD card before attempting to format it. This might be a side effect of assigning a password to the `deck' user.