"can't open _dsmenu.dat" error message and empty dscard?

[BeRNLeiGHToN]

Hi, I purchased a R4 SDHC 2023 card from a chinese seller in Aliexpress, and all seemed nice, I installed the kernel with menu and the games I wanted and everything seems to wrk flawlessly. My kids are enjoying playing the all the ds games. The problem is that already this is the third time, after several weeks of using it succesfully, that suddenly the console stops working, showing an error "can't open _dsmenu.dat". What is most disturbing is that when I look at the dscard on my mac, it shows completely empty, as if absolutely all folders, games, save files, etc.. had been deleted. I looked at the dscard with a file recovery tool which finds many old files previously deleted of different file types but there aren't any files or folders from the ds kernel or games showing up available to be recovered.

Any idea why this is happening, and any idea on how to recover the folder and files? My kids are going nuts, since if I install everything from scratch, they lose all their played games saved states.

Thanks,
Bern

 

[anotherthing]

One of the first things I do when I get a flashcart is I back up everything on the SD card that comes with it. Then I junk the SD card and put everything on a name brand SD card like a SanDisk or Samsung. Typically the Chinese flashcarts come with some questionable SD cards. I told my stepson to do this after getting him a flashcart, which he didn't do, and I had to rebuild his SD card with the information I had backed up from a similar flashcart. The SD card that came with that flashcart maybe lasted a month and a half tops.

One thing I would recommend, and I may be completely off base here and welcome correction, but I would only use the save files from the recovery and scratch build everything else from a file source you know is good. The reason is that some of that data in file recovery operations gets mangled in the process. The bigger the files, like the _DSMENU.DAT and ROM files, the more likely you are to have stuff mangled.

 

[SylverReZ]

Use either one of these firmwares for the correct type of flashcart you have.

https://gbatemp.net/download/firmwa...3ds-www-r4i-sdhc-com-english-clone-fix.37690/

https://gbatemp.net/threads/ds-i-3d...-ds-i-games-and-ds-i-menu-replacement.472200/

https://gbatemp.net/threads/retrogamefan-updates-releases.267243/

https://gbatemp.net/download/wood-r4-nds-boot-files.37522/

 

[BeRNLeiGHToN]

Use either one of these firmwares for the correct type of flashcart you have.

https://gbatemp.net/download/firmwa...3ds-www-r4i-sdhc-com-english-clone-fix.37690/

https://gbatemp.net/threads/ds-i-3d...-ds-i-games-and-ds-i-menu-replacement.472200/

https://gbatemp.net/threads/retrogamefan-updates-releases.267243/

https://gbatemp.net/download/wood-r4-nds-boot-files.37522/

The kernel that the chinese seller of my flashcart told me to download and install is:
http://flashcard-archive.ds-homebrew.com/Ace3DS+_R4iLS/Ace3DS+_R4iLS_Wood_R4_1.62.7z

Do you recommend that instead of that one, I install a different one and why?
Thank you.