Nintendo DS Lite Console Logo
Posted on Dec 17, 2008
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Cannot find menu dat file

R4 card came without cd (as they do now) have downloaded and transferred appropriate software to SD card via R4 website and WinWAR software menu dat files are there but when I put the SD card in the R4 and place in DS it will not boot interface and says cannot find menu dat file.

Where have I gone wrong why is it not working. Some suggest formatting but no one has a step by step guide how this is done the descriptions of formatting to fat files etc are very lite on and assume a level of computer knowledge.

can you help

  • 6 more comments 
  • louis1997 Jan 02, 2009

    i put some games on my r 4 but it was working be fore now it just wont i dont no howmto fix it can any one help me please ?

  • Coolwessie Mar 10, 2009

    I start up my ds and it says first loading and then it says "menu?"
    I gues it just cant my menu then.
    I got r4 revolution.
    Can someon help me please????? thanks

  • Anonymous Mar 14, 2009

    my r4 menu on the ds is not is not shoing up .it said lodeing by the way

  • chakra_maste Apr 22, 2009

    i accidentally changed the program for _DS_MENU.DAT file and now i can't put it back and my r4 keeps saying couldn't find _DS_MENU.DAT.

  • Anonymous May 02, 2009

    I Have the same stupid problem! >:(

  • cj198540 May 10, 2009

    i formated my card by accident and its telling me that couldn't find_ds_menu.dat

  • Anonymous May 12, 2009

    cannot find menu dat file

  • highiqhaha May 17, 2009

    hi there - when i turn on ds lite it give me black screen with can't find ds_menu.dat but it is already on the card - i took out sd chip and put in another and it worked perfectly- i have an R4 and the onethat it worked in was an edge card. can anyone help?

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5 Answers

Ed Perez

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  • Nintendo Expert 127 Answers
  • Posted on Dec 17, 2008
Ed Perez
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To format any drive just insert the memory, right click over your memory drive in My PC window, and there should be an option to Format this drive, formatting will erase all the card contents so make a backup in your computer first.

When you click on "format" a window will appear to chose FAT or FAT32 (try FAT32 first then if not working try FAT), dont have to do nothing on the size option, write a label for the drive if you want, not needed, let Quick Format clear, click on start button and you'll see a proccess bar, when it finish it tell you and you have a formatted drive.

Put the sistem files and one rom to test again in the memory, test it on your DS. Be sure you have the right files for your card, the www.R4ds.cn site only supports R4 cards, not R4 III, R4 SDHC or any fake non R4 hardware.

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  • Posted on May 07, 2009
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I just had the exact same problem. The R4 card version I have is the one that uses a micro sd card inserted in it. I had downloaded and installed version 1.18 and kept getting the error message cannot find ds.dat. I formated the card on full format fat32 and then installed a different version 1.14 This has done the trick and everything works fine again.

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  • Posted on Feb 22, 2009
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My nds shown "can't find ds_menu.dat" last night as well because I accidentally deleted it, and luckily that I've just got it fixed. I've tried tons of ways as downloaded the lastest version of the kernel, formatt the sd card, reinstall all the moonshell..., system... files but it still comes up with the same thing once I switched it on. Finally, I format the ds card (make sure you have copies of your games), then download the right version kernel for your nds (because if you download and reinstall wrong version then that "can't find ds_menu.dat" will comes up), so after the download, right click and extract the file, after that, copy the extracted files to your ds card and that is it. It works on me so I hope it also works on you!

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  • Posted on May 03, 2009
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Have tryd gettin a nw 1 from sum1 on limewire or of that sort?

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  • Posted on Oct 06, 2009
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You can update your R4 card here:

http://www.mkyong.com/game/nds-unable-to-load-data-solution-how-to-update-r4-kernal/

you need to download the latest version and replace the files/file folder with the new updated one.

BE SURE TO BACKUP original, just in case.

I just did this and it fixed everything!!!!!!!!!!!!! =)

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My ds freezes when loading the R4, or it says that there is no game in the ds slot

Stuck on Loading Screen This usually indicates that the software kernel on the micro sd memory card has become corrupted. It can also happen if the micro sd memory card is overloaded with games, music and video files etc. The solution is to reinstall the kernel software on the micro sd card and ensure the micro sd memory card is not overloaded. Leave about 25% memory free.
download SDformatter and format the sd card with that, place all the files on there, none in folders..
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Have new r4 card wont work says cant find menu dat. please advise

go 2 r4neo.com download the latest firmware copy the files and paste in ur micro sd card
P.S. make sure u have space and a micro sd card reader
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When i put my r4 into my ds its just says cant find menu?

hi it sounds like a software problem. follow the following instructions. Please can you try and reformat the 2gb micro sd card in your pc and copy firmware from the CD back onto the 2gb micro sd card following the instructions below. be warned that formating will remove even the games from the card so make sure you have a backup of the games saved to your computer. any saved games will also be erased.

To format the 2gb micro sd card
1. Insert sd card into usb stick and into usb port.
2. Close autoplay screen if it appears.
3. Right click on removeable drive. (Eg D, E, F or J etc) that appeared on screen in computer window.
4. Left click on format in menu and when format window appears, tick quick format box and select ok. This will erase all content on the sd card and remove any corrupt firmware.

To reload firmware
1. Insert cd into pc cd/dvd drive.
2. Open cd drive on screen and copy and paste the files and folders from the system/english 1.18 folder on the cd to the removeable drive that the usb and micro sd card are in. The folders that you will copy are "_system_" and "moonshl" and the files will be "menu.dat" and "mshl.nds".
3. Once copied, check removeable drive to ensure files and folders have copied over.
4. Remove usb stick from pc and insert sd card back into R4. R4 menu should appear on DS screen.
this normaly sorts this out. paul
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Couldn't dind ds-menu.dat using R4 card

you can download the files needed for the r4 just google it. You may need to use dslazy or fixit in order for the game to operate. good luck!
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Insalling m3 resl deal but cant find DS MENU .dat

apparently m3 dont do upgrades now but this might help http://www.m3-forums.net/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=312
basically it converts the r4 ds menu.dat to work on m3 simply (may work for m3 real) so now all you have to do is go to r4 download site and download latest version. 1.18 from here http://www.r4dscart.com/r4-software.html (select the english update) then patch ur dat file replace it back to where you took it from before patching and then copy all 4 files ( _system_ moonshi _ds_menu.dat _ds_mshl.nds) into the root of micro sd card. advise you to copy any files/games you have on your mem card then copy the games over to your newly installed firmware. oh by the way in the link i provided on how2 patch the ds_menu.dat it might be bit vague on where you put the ds_menu.dat file to patch it, all you do is drag and drop it into the PATCH app thats inside the "r4 to m3 patcher" folder. post a reply to let me know how you got on
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Ds r4 card

reformat your micro sd card,"by right clicking the micro card in my computer, you can format it" this wipes the card clean and download the latest software from R4 and then reinstall everything, hopes this helps
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Have an R4 card but cant get it to work

Re R4-III upgrade .I have got mine to work today after 6 days. need to go to memory bits to download files
need 5 files
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from lucydun

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Couldn't dind ds-menu.dat using R4 card

hi

first of all , check your r4 version.
there are many.

have you put the right firmware on your r4?
original : http://r4ds.cn/download/r4_v1.18_kernel.html

r4 revolution pro : http://www.r4dspro.com/download_en.html
r4 ultra and de luxe : http://www.r4deluxe.com/en/down.asp
r4 III : http://www.r4dsl.net/download-en.asp

after that it should work.
or maybe you should format your memory card first.
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