Checking SD card integrity/Linux

This is an add-on section for checking your SD card for errors using F3.

Depending on the size of your SD card and the speed of your computer, this process can take up to several hours!

This page is for Linux users only. If you are not on Linux, check out the Windows or Mac pages.

Copy all of your SD's contents to your PC and then format the SD card before starting this guide. If you do not, F3 will be unable to test the parts of the SD that still have data in them.

What You Need

• The latest version of F3 (the .zip file)

Instructions

1. Extract the F3 .zip file
2. Open a terminal window and cd into the F3 directory
3. Run make to compile F3
4. Insert your SD card into your computer
5. Mount your SD card
6. Run ./f3write <your SD card mount point>
7. Wait until the process is complete. See below for an example output.

 $ ./f3write /media/michel/6135-3363/
 Free space: 29.71 GB
 Creating file 1.h2w ... OK!
 ...
 Creating file 30.h2w ... OK!
 Free space: 0.00 Byte
 Average Writing speed: 4.90 MB/s

1. Run ./f3read <your SD card mount point>
2. Wait until the process is complete. See below for an example output.

 $ ./f3read /media/michel/6135-3363/
 SECTORS                        ok/corrupted/changed/overwritten
 Validating file 1.h2w ... 2097152/        0/      0/      0
 ...
 Validating file 30.h2w ... 1491904/        0/      0/      0
 ...
 Data OK: 29.71 GB (62309312 sectors)
 Data LOST: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors)
 Corrupted: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors)
 Slightly changed: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors)
 Overwritten: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors)
 Average Reading speed: 9.42 MB/s

If the test shows the result Data LOST: 0.00 Byte (0 sectors), your SD card is likely good. You can delete all .h2w files on your SD card.

If the test shows any other results, your SD card is failing. You will have to replace it!