SD card format error

[God mode]

I had a 400gb SanDisk ultra in my Switch which worked fine. I put it in the Deck and chose format. It took ages but when it had finished it said 2.9GB free of 2.9GB. I tried the format again and it says Format Error - The micro SD card failed validation tests and cannot be formatted. Contact your micro SD card manufacturer for support.
The card was fine till I put it in the Deck. It now can't be read by Switch or PC.
DiskGenius sees Partition(0) Linux Data partition 366.8GB If I try to read the card it says:
Error of partition formatting.(00000000) Unknown error.
Delete the partition and it shows free 366.8GB but then before I can format it, it changes back to Partition(0) Linux Data partition 366.8GB. This must have been done by the Deck as Switch doesn't use Linux.
I only have 1 other card a 512gb but it cost me £80 so I don't want it to be bricked like this one. Is there a correct way to format an SD on the Deck?

[bean]

there have def been other complaints saying the same thing (here on the forums and reddit) but I have yet to see a solution mentioned.
(Well, outside of the required 'Have you tried updating the Steam Deck?' or 'Have you tried turning it off and on?')

i subbed to see if you find anything and will let you know if I do.

[Mahjik]

Might be similar to:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/0/3269059787419215060/

[God mode]

Thank you both. Looks like the second format destroyed the card. If I find a solution I will put it here.
For now I'll just stick with the built in storage.

[Marlock]

Steam Deck formats the SD Card with an "ext4" partition format, which is the most commonly used on Linux but Windows (and probably the Nintendo Switch) can't understand (despite this being an open standard that they could have very easily implemented too)

The Deck does this because that format is just better for linux systems (it supports UNIX file and folder permissions, which are not strictly needed for documents but are important for running software like games from it), faster than common windows formats like NTFS and exFAT, and a lot safer against data loss (it has journaling and whatnot)


You should be able to format the disk on Windows and/or the Nintendo Switch back to partition formats they understand, but not read/write to it while formated as ext4

You should also be able to read/write to it from any Linux system


That being said, there have been a few other threads where the sd card was really damaged during a failed attempt to format it, so test the above things before giving up on it but don't be too surprised if it really is broken

[Zombie]

Formatting it a second time on the Steam Deck seems to brick SD cards. So if it messes up and you can still read it, format it using something like the well known tool direct from the SD Association https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter/

The other problem might be that there's a lot of counterfeit cards floating around that might work fine being quick formatted in windows etc, but when done on the Deck using ext4 fs it goes beyond the false (true) space and bricks them up.

This became such a big problem in the Nintendo Switch mod community that there's even verification tools in the hekate/nyx bootloader to check if sd cards are fake or legit because soooo many problems in software were attributed to garbage cards causing errors or unwanted faults.

[God mode]

I've bought sd's in the past that turned out to be fake so now only buy them directly from the WD website. The 400 was £60 ish and the 512 was £80 ish that is why I'm not keen on trying the 512.
I tried the formatter but both Quick and Overwrite give a Formatting Failed error.
I tried to format to EX4 in DiskGenius but it does the same thing as the other formats. The Deck only sees <3gb on the sd and can't reformat it so I think it's done. Luckily I bought the biggest built in memory so it's not the end of the world.

[malocadi]

Just want to come in and say that I had the exact same SD card as OP as well as the exact same problem when trying to format. I was finally able to get the Deck to properly format and recognize the card by doing the following:

* Format the SD card initially using the Switch (it was failing in Windows)
* Stick the card in the steam deck
* Restart the deck completely (I think this is key)
* Go straight into Settings and format the card

This time around it went from testing, to formatting and finally showed up in the storage menu.

[iArtur]

Escrito originalmente por malocadi:

Just want to come in and say that I had the exact same SD card as OP as well as the exact same problem when trying to format. I was finally able to get the Deck to properly format and recognize the card by doing the following:

* Format the SD card initially using the Switch (it was failing in Windows)
* Stick the card in the steam deck
* Restart the deck completely (I think this is key)
* Go straight into Settings and format the card

This time around it went from testing, to formatting and finally showed up in the storage menu.

I can confirm this solution also worked for me! God bless you! :)

[Mitaul]

Escrito originalmente por iArtur:

Escrito originalmente por malocadi:

Just want to come in and say that I had the exact same SD card as OP as well as the exact same problem when trying to format. I was finally able to get the Deck to properly format and recognize the card by doing the following:

* Format the SD card initially using the Switch (it was failing in Windows)
* Stick the card in the steam deck
* Restart the deck completely (I think this is key)
* Go straight into Settings and format the card

This time around it went from testing, to formatting and finally showed up in the storage menu.

I can confirm this solution also worked for me! God bless you! :)

I also confirm that the "Restart" is the key!

[Bigcanoe]

This worked for me too, thank you!

[adamantibus]

It didn't work for me. My Switch wasn't able to format the sd.

[Dawa]

When this happened to me, I put it in my android tablet and formatted it in there. Then put it back into the Deck, it recognised it and formatted it.

[CptObvious]

R.I.P. reporting in another dead 400GB SanDisk mSD.

I filled it with games, was working fine. Got a second one, filled that with games. Worked fine.

Made a backup of the first one. Backup was fine.
Back in the Deck. No SD card found.
Tried diskpart, SD Card Formatter, Win 11 can't even see the mSD card.
The partition can't be deleted in Windows diskmanagment. Windows 10 can format the card, fails at 98%. Switch could not save it.

It's within the warranty so I might just get my money back and wait for a deal on a better mSD card next time.

[Musclebob Buffpants]

I followed the guide on this: https://github.com/Trevo525/btrfdeck and formatted the card to btrf in kde (took roughly 1.5 hours to format). If someday the deck doesn't recognize or won't mount the card repeat step 5 after disabling read only for Deck, then re-add the sd card to steam library (without formatting duh). My installed games can run off the card, ofc.

[xXSiLeNtScReAmXx]

Escrito originalmente por malocadi:

Just want to come in and say that I had the exact same SD card as OP as well as the exact same problem when trying to format. I was finally able to get the Deck to properly format and recognize the card by doing the following:

* Format the SD card initially using the Switch (it was failing in Windows)
* Stick the card in the steam deck
* Restart the deck completely (I think this is key)
* Go straight into Settings and format the card

This time around it went from testing, to formatting and finally showed up in the storage menu.

Also worked on my 1tb card. Thank you