CF card stopped working

tobster · February 23, 2006, 08:25:34 AM

Hi
The subject heading says it all. My 3 month old 1GB Sandisk CF card has suddenly and without warning, stopped working. By that I mean, neither my PC card reader nor SC find it when it is plugged in. Other cards still work in the SC, so the SC is not immediately at fault here (unless it somehow fried the card??). This card was briefly used in an MP3 player before being FAT formatted & thrown into action in the SC. It has until now worked faultlessly in the SC/NDS. Obviously/thank goodness there is a 5 year warrantee so I should be able to get a replacement, but what about the saves I had on it - lost forever?

And more importantly what caused this catostrophic failure & how can it be prevented in the future? Was it because it had been used in another device before or just bad luck?? Opions/help needed, especially if anyone has any idea how I can recover the files. So many questions, so little time. Over to you guys before I come up with another question....

bitblt · February 23, 2006, 03:59:23 PM

Did you try cleaning the CF contacts? Try wiggling the CF around a little. If that doesn't work your game sav files are probably lost.

You could download save files from the Cheats and Saves forum or something. In the future backup your sav files regularly.

monk456l · February 23, 2006, 04:38:55 PM

OMG the exact same thing happened to me, my sandisk 1GB card just stopped working and neither my PC or my SC could pick it up, i could not reformat it or anything, i had to just go and buy myself another 1GB kingston card :cry:

tobster · February 23, 2006, 04:56:10 PM

monk
Interesting to hear you had a total card failure like mine AND yours was also a Sandisk - had your card also been formatted/used elsewhere or was it brand new? I wonder if there is an issue with Sadisk and CF or is it just a coincidence - spooky - something for the X files??? :oops:

And Bitbit, I have tried wriggling etc but it has no effect. I am now awaiting a response from Sandisk USA

monk456l · February 23, 2006, 07:18:48 PM

if you mean by brand new i went and bought it from the store then yes i got it from circuit city all brand new and had it in ONLY my supercard for maybe 2 months or so and all the sudden it didnt work, it died when i was at sundayschool

ironic

tobster · February 24, 2006, 03:25:26 AM

monk
oh, brand new, that's a bit more worrying. I was hoping that our failures may have been due to previous usage, as this is mentioned as a future failure scenario in the 'how to format your CF' sticky. Presumably you got a replacement from Sandisk? As for the failing after returning from Sunday schoool, let that be a lesson to all of us - Don't go to Sunday school :evil:

Blebekblebek · February 24, 2006, 10:52:44 AM

hm... maybe u just got a defect memory

every chip memory will dead after 4.000.000-10.000.000 acsess (write/read)

thank god you have 5 year warranty

tobster · February 24, 2006, 11:48:18 AM

sandisk have asked me to post the defective card back to them & they will replace then replace it. I've asked them to try and recover the game files on it as some of the saves represent many hours of hard work. I assume this card failure thing is quite rare as there have been only a handfull of repsonses to this topic. Let's hope my next card lasts longer - rest assured I'll be saving my saves more regularily