Can a device ruin an SD Card or microSD card?

2

1

I have a device that I think might be ruining microSD storage cards (SanDisk cards).

The device happens to be a smartphone (an older Samsung Galaxy S), but this question applies to any device.

Is it reasonably possible that a device could ruin perfectly good microSD cards (cards with a reliable track history)?

By ruin, I mean that after being used in the device for a while, the card cannot reliably be read/written in any device, even after formatting in another device.

RockPaperLizard

Posted 2018-05-24T16:10:30.660

Reputation: 5 415

3Yes, it is possible. – music2myear – 2018-05-24T16:16:30.010

Answers

1

Have you checked if you are using the proper microSD for your device? For instance, I had a family friend using a class 4 SD card that resulted in a corrupted disk - when they upgraded to a class 10 they did not have any issues. The fact that it cannot read/write on any device even after being formatted leads me to believe this is probably not the solution, but check that out and make sure as it could be something small like that.

Could you share with us:

  1. What device are you using that is corrupting the MicroSD's? (FYI I'm reading here that it may be an issue with Android 7.0 and/or common with the Moto G5)

  2. What MicroSD's have you tried thus far?

Also a few troubleshooting tips:

  1. If possible, format the MicroSD using the device itself rather than an external device - conversely, if you have only tried formatting the MicroSD using the device itself, try formatting on a different device.

  2. Try to pay attention to when the MicroSD gets corrupted (i.e. when you power down the phone then power back on it is corrupted; when you try to move files to or from the disk, when you connect the device via USB and the newly connected device tries to read from or write to the MicroSD etc.)

  3. If the MicroSD is immediately corrupted when inserted into your device, try a new MicroSD on a different device first to make sure you don't just have really bad luck with faulty MicroSD's

  4. Run chkdsk on the MicroSD before and after it is used/corrupted

  5. Assign a new drive letter to the MicroSD. I have heard of this being a fix in pretty specific situations but is worth giving a shot.

Hope this helps, please update with any developments!

Sgnilleh

Posted 2018-05-24T16:10:30.660

Reputation: 41

Thanks for your tips. I've updated my question to answer your questions. – RockPaperLizard – 2018-05-24T18:23:05.957