What to do with a corrupted SD card: reformat it or trash it?

Solution 1:

Start by using a utility like fsck or chkdsk to check the file system for bad sectors. If you don't find any, that implies the corruption was caused by a transient data problem, and might be safe to reuse--although I wouldn't use it to store anything irreplaceable. Bad sectors might indicate a deeper problem with the media.

If it were me, actually, I'd probably just chuck it either way, unless money were particularly tight. Even a 16GB card can be had for about $30 (US) these days. The problem may never recur, but you have to weigh the value of your time in dealing with it if it does.

Solution 2:

Reformat, fill it, check if everything saved ok. If it does then fine, use it. If not, chuck it. If at any point the size shows different than what it originally said, then chuck it. If it corrupts a second time, then chuck it. That's my basic theory of trustworthiness of flash media from digital photography experience.

Also, Transcend isn't on the top of my list of trustworthiness. But I'll not get into that because there's all kinds of arguments over that.