Question Verify external drive integrity without assigning a filesystem to it?

[DynV]

Is there a way to verify external drive integrity without assigning a filesystem to it? I was on a shared system with the Windows OS with what seem to be a custom software in a corner. I set the computer to lock and there was a countdown which I tought I'd be back before; unfortunatly it wasn't the case and all had to be loaded again, but worse the micro SD card in a USB adapter wouldn't be recognized anymore. We tried a similar system beside it and it gave the same result. I put the SD card in my cell and it wasn't recognized there anymore, which it was the last time it was inserted in; so the cell OS asked if it should be used to run apps or be used for external storage, basically the default formatting app. I'd really prefer to not change anything to the SD card as doing so they could either attempt at shifting all the blame to me or partially so, but I'd still like to know if the SD card is still physically good, if the issue is only related to data.

The monitor of the 2 shared systems had an Intel sticker to it and both

1. the monitor seemed to have a top vent than I expected, which to me is a clue it might be an all-in-one desktop, and
2. the furniture seemed to include a box with a vent at the top of it, although that might have been for a previous setup,

but it could have been a thin client. Whichever case, in the past such system was running an hypervisor with Windows on top.

Thank you kindly

 

[TerryLaze]

You can use any sector based cloning software (dd under linux for example) to take a full image of the sd card it doesn't care about the file system and just copies anything there is, if it does so without errors the card should be ok, you would have to write it back without errors as well though to be completely sure that the writing part of the circuit also works.