SD card deleted, cant see it anymore

Hello.

Sorry if I sound Noobish - its because I am.

Anyway, I have had my Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1 since they very first came out.
I have never jailbroke'ed it (although I am thinking about it, but thats another thread).
I have never had an issue with it, except for the last month (overheating, games crashing, etc etc. From what I have read of the new Play Store update, this may have been the cause of these issues though).

But, a few days ago, my SDXC card just up and went poof! Gone. Adios. Bye-bye.
My games are all gone, my data is all gone (just games, really, some pics and apps).
I can not even see the SDXC card now, at all, in any machine (mind you, I havent tried another android slot, just pc slot in a usb card reader).
I cant re-install games, because it says they are installed on the sd card.
And, I cant uninstall, because it says they are on the sd card.

I tried doing (today) what was suggested in the sticky thread about the play store, about removing cache and everything, so I tried it.
As soon as I tried to delete the cache, a popup message came up about I cant do this, that the admin has locked it (I am the admin! ), so I went to the link it told me to go to (inside android still), and I saw that this 'security feature' was enabled, and it had the right to wipe my SD card and something else I cant remember, something about protecting the system.

So, for 1, does anyone know what this 'security feature' does to the SD cards? Why cant I see it anymore? It used to work fine, I transferred my music to it via computer, and some large games, so I know it worked then.
Can the security thing actually make the device so you cant see it?
(I know there is a possibility that the card went out, but it seems unlikely. Lately (in the last month or month and a half, both my wifes old old old tablet (it wont take my micro sdxc card, otherwise I would have stuck it in there to see if its found or not), we have had SO many problems with both of our tablets (both galaxy, S or S2, and Tab Pro 10.1), what with crashing all the time, both tablets slowing down to a crawl, overheating for no reason, and now with the play store error all the time.

Is there anything I can do to get my micro sdxc card back?

I dont want to have to do a total re-install, just because my sd card cant be seen. (I cant re-install games, because it says they are installed on the sd card. And, I cant uninstall games, because it says they are on the sd card).

Thank you very much.

 

Well, my sd slot is fine, as my wifes old sdhc card works fine in my tablets slot.
But, my card does not work in my slot or my wifes slot (although I didnt expect it to work in hers, as it cant see that high a card in her tablet).

So, at least I know my sdxc slot works.
But, funny how it just went out all of a sudden.
When BOTH of our tablets are having issues in the last month.


And, yes, in my OP I said it 'could' be a failed card, but it just dying like that overnight?
I have used it for 3 years, and it has a 10 year warrenty.
Guess I will be contacting Sandisk now.
Sigh.

But, that still doesnt fix my issues of not being able to remove or re-install my games.
I am left hanging, not being able to do anything.
I cant install, I cant uninstall.
And, I have 2 games I guild in.

 

Yeah, the card was dead.
I was NOT able to get my games and stuff back, UNTIL I put in the wifes card AND did an 'Unmount External Card'. THEN I was able to re-install all of my games.
Whew.
Was getting pretty bad there, as I had not been able to use my tablet for anything but web searches for a week or more.
That is weird that the tablet actually locked the apps in, so I could do nothing with them until I did that other card in/unmount trick.
Just glad I didnt have to do a wipe.


- - - - - - - -
Off Topic:

Should I create another thread about rooting, or can I talk about it here?

I have never rooted anything, except a psp, and the psp had a battery/card/instructions on how to do it, and it let me use a much higher sony card in it after that, and I could download all of my games to it (that was a HUGE thing back then).

So, is it really hard for a noob, who doesnt know any code, or anything like that, to root a device?
My wifes old tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tab, or Tab 2, 10.1, or 10?), only has 4.1.1 on it. It needs 4.2.x on it to be able to run trim (I guess it only runs on 4.2, and nothing lower).
It only has 1gb memory. Just running at startup she gets to click something after about a few minutes (and I sped it up using dev tools, and shutting off updates, and other stuff that just gets toggled back on after a real google update).
It is getting very very slow now, and needs a wipe/redo anyway.

How hard is it to root a device to have only the necessary things on it (she plays games, and uses email, and thats it. Oh, and my Kindle, and her google books).

How hard is it to root, AND maintain through all of the game updates, and play store, and google books, and everything else that might pop up?

How much memory can she save with only having barebones android and the few things she actually uses? Right now, its at 700MB of 800MB just on bootup and after a few minutes of nothing going on. Once she uses an app, she has to shut it completely down using the task manager, and she is tired of doing that (and, we are broke, dead broke, so a new tablet isnt going to happen for maybe a year or 2, maybe 3). She said it was fine until a few months ago, and it just suddenly started taking literally 5 minutes to click 1 thing. So, I am guessing the internal hard sd card just hit a brick wall with no trim support. I know there is a fix for 4.1.1 to be tricked into thinking its 4.2, and then we can use an app to force trim to happen, but thats ONLY if we root the tablet.

Or, should we just stick with a wipe/redo of android, since we are old people and dont like to change our ways, or learn new ones (she isnt tech savy at all, I am pc tech savy, but not android savy, but it isnt my device either, but I would have to maintain it for her if anything went wrong after rooting it)?

Thanks for any info!