Top 5 SD Card Formatter Free Download | Format SD Card on Windows 10/8/7
You will need to format SD card on Windows 10 for various reasons, such as convert file system to FAT32, remove write-protection, convert FAT to NTFS, restore SD card back to the original size, remove unknown virus or malware, fix corrupted SD card issues, etc. So what's the common way to format the SD card without a hitch? Use Windows 10 SD card formatter that's good at formatting your SD card of all capacities to any file system you want.
No matter what reason you want to format the SD card in Windows 10, a reliable SD card format tool can guarantee an easy and successful formatting process. Here, we carefully selected the five best SD card formatter for Windows 10/8/7 that's free to use. The former two recommendations are from the third parties so you need to download and install, while the latter three are built within the Windows operating system. Both the third-party tools and the native ones have their own pros and cons. Read on or jump to the one you're interested in.
2021 Top 5 SD Card Formatter for Windows 10/8/7:
Top 1. Qiling Partition Master
Top 2. SD Memory Card Formatter
Top 4. Windows Disk Management
Top 5. Windows Diskpart Command Prompt
1. Qiling Partition Master - Best SD Card Formatter
Serving in the market for over a decade, Qiling Partition Master enjoys a long and high reputation in the field of computer disk & partition management. It's developed based on Windows Disk Management & Windows Command Prompt but comes with more practical and advanced management solutions, including disk formatting.
The free partition manager is treated as a comprehensive hard drive management and hard troubleshooting solution to all Windows-compatible devices. One of the universally utilized functions is "Format". You can easily use the format option to resolve file system incompatibility or corruption issues on SD card, SDHC card, SDXC card, USB flash drive, pen drive, HDD, SSD, and all the popular storage drives. What makes it the top one choice to format an SD card on Windows 10 include the following benefits:
- Simple design and user-friendly
- Be able to format SD card over 32GB to FAT32
- Be able to solve the problem of Windows was unable to complete the format on SD card
Pros:
- Format SD card in every way that native tools can
- Format SD card when Windows cannot format due to limitations in FAT32
- Include but not limited to disk formatting, it offers the most disk management functions than many rivals: Migrate OS to HDD/SSD, delete partition (s), resize partition, wipe partition, convert between GPT and MBR/dynamic and basic, convert to NTFS without erasing data...
Cons:
- It doesn't support a Mac version
Guide: How to Format SD Card on Windows 10 with Qiling Free SD Card Formatter
Step 1. Click the external drive or USB you intend to format and choose "Format" in "Disk management" page.
Set the Partition label, File system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3/EXT4), and Cluster size, then click "Proceed".
2. SD Memory Card Formatter - Windows & macOS SD Formatter
Developed by the SD Association (SDA), the SD Memory Card Formatter is universally adopted for formatting SD memory card, SDHC memory card and SDXC memory card. It's a trustworthy brand that particularly resolves SD card issues by formatting, at the same time, keeps the original performance.
Instead of offering auxiliary features in the program, the SD Memory Card Formatter is a dedicated formatting tool for SD card and USB flash drive.
Pros:
- Support to install on Windows OS and macOS
- Easy-to-use but powerful enough to format different types of memory cards
- Offer "Protected Area" for SD card security purposes. It does not format the protected SD card
Cons:
- Serve as an SD formatter tool only
- Lack of regular software optimization
Guide: How to Format SD Card on Windows 10 with SD Memory Card Formatter
Step 1. Run the SD Formatter Application
Step 2. Select the drive letter for the SDHC/SDXC card and then select format.
Step 3. Click yes to confirm format process.
Step 4. Once format is complete the SD card will be properly formatted.
3. Windows File Explorer - Easiest SD Formatter
Press Windows + E in Windows 10, you'll quickly evoke the File Explorer window. Windows File Explorer can't be more familiar to us Windows users since it's the place where we can check and view Photos, Downloads, Music, installed hard disk partitions, and basically all the basic computer settings there.
In Windows File Explorer, you can make some essential changes to the local disk partitions and removable disks like a memory card, one of which is "Format".
Pros:
- An inbuilt formatting tool for SD card in all Windows PCs and laptops
- Incredibly easy to access and simple to use
- Allow users to perform a quick format SD card to exFAT, FAT32 or NTFS
- Perform a quick format by default
Cons:
- Too basic to deal with some sophisticated formatting issues
- Windows cannot complete the format on SD card very frequently
Guide: How to Format SD Card on Windows 10 with Windows File Explorer
Step 1. Right-click on the connected SD card and select "Format".
Step 2. On the format window, select a proper file system among NTFS, FAT32 or exFAT.
Step 3. Click "Start".
4. Windows Disk Management - Windows Built-in Formatter
Not all computer users know Windows Disk Management like professionals. Windows Disk Management is the other native Windows program that is available in Windows 10/8/7. It enables users to undertake many more tasks to manage a disk as they want.
It comes with the option of "Format". Chances are when you need to format a RAW SD card that is not showing up in the File Explorer, you can dive into the Disk Management to do the format.
Pros:
- Very useful when SD card is not showing up in File Explorer
- Include but not limited to format SD card, and users can extend/shrink/delete a volume as well
- Change a drive letter and paths
Cons:
- Comparatively sophisticated to operate than other programs
- It can hardly format SD card that is corrupted or damaged
Guide: How to Format SD Card on Windows 10 with Disk Management
Step 1. Right-click on This PC and navigate to Manage > Disk Management.
Step 2. Right-click on the SD card, and choose "Format".
Step 3. On the format window, check the box of "Perform a quick format", and in the same way, you need to choose a file system and allocation unit size.
Step 4. Click "OK" to start formatting the SD card.
5. Windows Diskpart Command Prompt - Admin SD Formatter
Among all the five, only the Windows Command Prompt is suggested as an administrator's choice, who has a solid computer skill.
Windows Command Prompt is a built-in tool in Windows that can troubleshoot all kinds of computer problems with various commands. You can use the diskpart command, for example, to format an internal or external hard drive, USB drive, SD card, etc. This method is somewhat higher-leveled, but so far the most utilized way to tackle some tricky issues.
Pros:
- Each command aims to fix a specific hard drive problem
- The diskpart command works at a pro-level that it can check and format SD card that is corrupted or damaged
Cons:
- Kind of risky for average users to use some complex commands, which can affect computer data or performance
Guide: How to Format SD Card on Windows 10 with Diskpart Command
Step 1. Type cmd in the search box in Windows 10, and then you'll get the best match Command Prompt. Right-click on it and choose "Run as administrator".
Step 2. In the command prompt, type diskpart and press "Enter".
Step 3. Type list disk to list all the available drives and press "Enter".
Step 4. Type select disk + disk number ( for example, select disk 2) to select the SD card you want to format and press "Enter".
Step 5. Type list volume and press "Enter".
Step 6. Type select volume + volume number (or example, select volume 10) and press "Enter".
Step 7. Type format fs=ntfs (or format fs=exfat) and press "Enter" to format the drive with NTFS or exFAT.
Conclusion
Regarding the topic "how to format SD card on Windows 10", we introduced five of the best SD card formatter for Windows 10 computers, include two third-party tools and three local Windows programs. Formatting an SD card is not hard, but knowing how to react to the failure of formatting an SD card is also important. Each SD card formatter here can be used as a complementary solution to remove a virus or restore a full capacity.
To convert a file system between FAT32 and NTFS, or troubleshoot a RAW, corrupted, and inaccessible SD card, Qiling Partition Master Free should come to the first place.
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