filesystems - Recovering a damaged microSDHC

I just bought from eBay a Kingston 32GB microSDHC that was advertised as defective. The seller said that there could be formatting problems or with transfer of large files.

Unfortunately, when I got it, it was a total mess.

• My Nikon camera doesn't read it at all (OK, maybe it doesn't support 32GB)


• My Linux laptop doesn't mount it: can't read superblock


• The same laptop refuses to mkfs.msdos because it failed whilst writing reserved sector


• The same laptop, under Windows, doesn't read nor format the card


• HTC HD2 mounts the MMC, allows me to write via USB, but is unable to open the just written files

OK, folks, now you would say I would have to go through Paypal complaint... that's not that easy. I consciously bought a half-price card that was known to show some defects, and Paypal complaints take time.

Obviously, I can't accept somebody sold me a completely use-less computer decoration. So I'll keep it as last option.

Do you know a way, under either Linux or Windows, to thoroughly scan, test and possibly repair memory cards, even if I have to lose some percentage of space because of bad sectors?

If I can keep at least half of the card intact it would certainly be fine. I used to do broken sector marking with hard disks in the past.

I almost forgot:

MONSTR:/home/djechelon # fsck /dev/mmcblk0p1
fsck from util-linux-ng 2.17.2
dosfsck 3.0.9, 31 Jan 2010, FAT32, LFN
Read 512 bytes at 0:Input/output error

Answer

Try with the official SD card Formatter. If that doesn't help and you have no problems with your card readers, then I'd say there's no fix for the card.