Card formatting

[Mr_C_]

I just got my Deck today, and I just ordered it last Wed.! So stoked to get into it!

Is there a max size on the Micro SD card? I put a brand new Sandisk Ultra Plus 32G card in it and it won't format it. Did I get the wrong format card?

[gametaunt]

it is probably somehow related to the speeds, i formatted 2 new (A2 class) 512GB cards a few days back and those went really fast and smooth. i tested several other cards now (most A1 and some even older/slower) and it does seem to impact the "TESTING" phase of the formatting within steam deck. anything below 32gb seemed to outright fail. Anything below UHS-1 class 3 seemed to take ages to format/test but eventually succeeded. so yes the steam deck does seem a bit picky when it comes to sd-cards.

[GGMan]

There loads of reports about sd cards not formatting, I had this issue and formatted my sd via my Android phone, then reformatted it in the steam deck, it now working.

[Mr_C_]

Originally posted by GGMan:

There loads of reports about sd cards not formatting, I had this issue and formatted my sd via my Android phone, then reformatted it in the steam deck, it now working.

I wondered if this might work. I think they are unformatted from the manufacturer, and the deck isn't doing it quite right.

I'll format it elsewhere and report back.

[MJ711]

Originally posted by Mr_C_:

Originally posted by GGMan:

There loads of reports about sd cards not formatting, I had this issue and formatted my sd via my Android phone, then reformatted it in the steam deck, it now working.

I wondered if this might work. I think they are unformatted from the manufacturer, and the deck isn't doing it quite right.

I'll format it elsewhere and report back.

Did you try restarting the SD while having the cards inside?
That was my solution.

[Mr_C_]

I'll try that first, maybe. It's in hibernate right now while I take a break from Transistor.

[Mr_C_]

Originally posted by MJ711:

Originally posted by Mr_C_:

I wondered if this might work. I think they are unformatted from the manufacturer, and the deck isn't doing it quite right.

I'll format it elsewhere and report back.

Did you try restarting the SD while having the cards inside?
That was my solution.

This didn't work.

So I put it on my debian system, and the card refused to mount - BUT I was able to flash an ubuntu 64-bit boot system to it. When I put the card back into the Steamdeck, it still wouldn't format.

Hm. I'd hate to have to actually use Windows to resolve this. Maybe later I'll see if I can boot from the card with the Steamdeck, and if that works it won't be a total loss. Right now I'm too tired to fool with it anymore.

[PopinFRESH]

You can `dd` the card to completely wipe the bits for the partition table. Or you can boot the Steam Deck to desktop mode and use the partition manager to wipe it and create a new GUID partition table, then reboot back into Gamemode and let it format it as ext4 with case folding.

Also fake microSD cards are rampant. You can check if the card is legitimate with h2testw on Windows or F3 on Linux, the latter of which is effectively what Valve is doing when you format it via game mode.

[Mr_C_]

Originally posted by PopinFRESH:

You can `dd` the card to completely wipe the bits for the partition table. Or you can boot the Steam Deck to desktop mode and use the partition manager to wipe it and create a new GUID partition table, then reboot back into Gamemode and let it format it as ext4 with case folding.

Also fake microSD cards are rampant. You can check if the card is legitimate with h2testw on Windows or F3 on Linux, the latter of which is effectively what Valve is doing when you format it via game mode.

Partition manager saw the card as mounted but gave an error during operation and quit. I'll play with it off and on today - I'm off work today.

[Mahjik]

You can try this process (if you haven't yet):

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1675200/discussions/0/3269061071528807540/#c3410930083339368144

[GGMan]

lostgoat 11 Sep @ 4:06pm
We've tracked down a problem that could make a card format correctly, but it would fail to mount afterwards. This was incorrectly being reported as a "Format Error" by the steam UI.

To workaround the problem, after you get the format error you can reboot the console to trigger a mount operation from a clean state. After the reboot your card will show up under Settings->Storage.

The next update to SteamOS will have a fix for this issue.
Last edited by lostgoat; 12 Sep @ 3:02am

[Mr_C_]

Originally posted by GGMan:

lostgoat 11 Sep @ 4:06pm
We've tracked down a problem that could make a card format correctly, but it would fail to mount afterwards. This was incorrectly being reported as a "Format Error" by the steam UI.

To workaround the problem, after you get the format error you can reboot the console to trigger a mount operation from a clean state. After the reboot your card will show up under Settings->Storage.

The next update to SteamOS will have a fix for this issue.
Last edited by lostgoat; 12 Sep @ 3:02am

I believe this describes exactly what happened with my 2nd card.

[MJ711]

Originally posted by Mr_C_:

Originally posted by GGMan:

lostgoat 11 Sep @ 4:06pm
We've tracked down a problem that could make a card format correctly, but it would fail to mount afterwards. This was incorrectly being reported as a "Format Error" by the steam UI.

To workaround the problem, after you get the format error you can reboot the console to trigger a mount operation from a clean state. After the reboot your card will show up under Settings->Storage.

The next update to SteamOS will have a fix for this issue.
Last edited by lostgoat; 12 Sep @ 3:02am

I believe this describes exactly what happened with my 2nd card.

This is exactly what I told you to do in 4# post but it somehow did not work for you.

[Mr_C_]

Originally posted by MJ711:

Originally posted by Mr_C_:

I believe this describes exactly what happened with my 2nd card.

This is exactly what I told you to do in 4# post but it somehow did not work for you.

Yeah, sorry. I got into doing the steps with the partition program and it slipped my mind. I really should go back and check that ubuntu boot card I made to make sure it's functional too. But thanks for the answer.

[zenstrata]

Seems like every time I see one of these threads, it is in relation to the sandisk cards.
I suggest getting the samsung card instead. Specifically (for lots of different reasons) this one. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09B1HMJ9Z/

I use this card myself and it works great, and I have never heard anyone say they had a problem with it, and I have suggested it now to several people on the forums here as well, and it seems to have fixed their problems too.

Getting a good micro sd card that matches your steam decks abilities is pretty key. Don't cheap out on this component (especially when a good one is not very expensive to begin with)

[MJ711]

Originally posted by zenstrata:

Seems like every time I see one of these threads, it is in relation to the sandisk cards.
I suggest getting the samsung card instead. Specifically (for lots of different reasons) this one. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09B1HMJ9Z/

I use this card myself and it works great, and I have never heard anyone say they had a problem with it, and I have suggested it now to several people on the forums here as well, and it seems to have fixed their problems too.

Getting a good micro sd card that matches your steam decks abilities is pretty key. Don't cheap out on this component (especially when a good one is not very expensive to begin with)

I had the same issue with Samsung sd card.