SD Card Repair Tool - 10 Ways to Fix Corrupted Memory Card
To repair SD card or corrupted memory card using the Windows SD card repair tool:
- Press Windows +E keys to open Windows Explorer and select "This PC" from the left panel.
- Right-click on the SD card and select "Properties".
- Switch to the "Tools" tab and select the "Check" option.
- Click "Scan drive" to begin to scan and repair SD card if errors are found.
Common Causes and Symptoms of a Corrupt SD Memory Card
SD cards are prone to corrupt damage in the following situations:
- Micro SD card is virus-infected
- There are bad sectors on the SD card
- Abrupt card removal during file transferring
- File system error on the memory card
- Your computer is unable to assign drive letters (like C, D, E) to your storage media
- Micro SD card is physically damaged due to improper operation or other reasons
- More other unknown reasons
Usually, when the SD card is failing and you plug a corrupt SD card, you will see one of the following symptoms with different error messages.
- The SD card shows warning information 'SD card is not accessible. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable'.
- Unable to format the SD card or 'SD Card is Damaged. Try Reformatting it'.
- Your Device Manager can recognize the SD card's capacity, but you still can't access it.
- The SD card is locked or write-protected.
- The memory card is not recognized by the computer.
- You are unable to open, read, write, copy, delete, or modify any file or folder on the SD card.
- OS shows reading errors doesn't respond when you try to connect your SD card to the computer.
- Other more signs
How to Repair Corrupted Memory Card with SD Card Repair Tool
When you see these errors, if you don't handle the SD card corruption, it may lead to permanent data loss and make SD card recovery difficult. Try the following possible fixes to repair corrupted SD memory card with various SD card repair tools. You can also use an advanced solution, such as Qiling data recovery software to restore lost files from corrupted SD card before format.
Fix 1. Use a Different Computer a Card Reader
Sometimes, a device may not read your SD card just due to incompatibility or driver-related issues. In this case, your SD card is probably not corrupted. Try to connect your SD card to another computer or use a different card reader to fix the trouble. If the problem still exists, move to the SD card repair software below to repair SD cards.
Fix 2. Fix File System Error for SD Card Repair
If there are file system errors on the SD card, you may not open and read any file on it. To solve the problem and repair a corrupted SD card, you can use an SD card repair tool - Qiling Partition Master for help. It's 'Check File System' feature can check for errors on the corrupted SD card and fix it automatically.
Fix 3. Remove Write Protection from SD Card
When the SD card is write-protected, you won't be able to open, edit, copy or save your photos, videos, and other files in the SD card. Virtually all SD cards have a physical lock that can be toggled to enable (or disable) write protection. You can slide the switch upward on the left side of the SD card to disable write-protection.
But if your SD card is locked down due to digital write protection, you can remove the write protection from SD card in three ways on your computer.
Fix 4. Unhide Hidden Files in Corrupt SD Card and Run Antivirus Software
When your SD card is infected by the virus, or when you connect an SD card to a virus attacked PC, your files may be hidden, and you can't see any data on the SD card. Follow the below steps to recover hidden photos, videos, and audio from SD card in File Explorer.
Step 1. In Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7, open File Explorer and on the left pane, double-click on the Control Panel.
Step 2. Switch the view to Category and click "Appearance and personalization".
Step 3. Click "Show hidden files and folders" under "File Explorer Options".
Step 4. Click the "View" tab, check "Show hidden files, folders, and drives" and click "Apply".
Also, you can use command lines to show hidden files in the SD card, USB, and pen drive. Or you can still refer to a virus attack data recovery tool if CMD fails, a recovery program enables you to recover shortcut files and hidden data easily.
After file recovery, use antivirus software to scan your SD card and remove the virus.
Fix 5. Assign a New Drive Letter to SD Card for SD Card Repair
When you get the error message 'Please insert the disk into drive E:', it means that your SD card is not detected by PC. To resolve this problem, you can assign a new drive letter to your SD card in Disk Management by following the steps below.
Step 1. Connect the SD card to your computer.
Step 2. Open "Disk Management" (You can search it or right-click "This PC")
Step 3. Right-click on your storage media and click "Change Drive Letter and Paths".
Step 4. Select the drive letter from the drop-down list. Click "OK".
Fix 6. Reinstall the SD Card Driver to Repair SD Card
To fix the memory card is not recognized by the computer, you can try reinstalling the driver by following the below steps:
Step 1. Right-click on My Computer/This PC > "Manage" > "Device Manager".
Step 2. Click to expand "Disk Drives", right-click on the name of your memory card. Click "Uninstall" and click "OK".
Step 3. Unplug your SD card, and restart your PC. Then, reconnect your SD card again. Your PC will detect it.
Fix 7. Use Windows SD Card Repair Software - Error Checking
You can use the 'Error Checking' feature to repair the corrupted SD card results from file system issues.
Step 1. Connect the SD card to your PC. Press Windows + E to open Windows Explorer.
Step 2. Right-click on SD card and click "Properties" > "Tools" > "Check". If any errors are found, follow the onscreen instructions to fix.
Fix 8. Use Diskpart Sd Card Repair Tool
If remove the write-protection of the SD card still can't solve the 'read-only' error, you can continue trying to fix the error by using the diskpart utility in CMD command.
Step 1. In Windows 10, for example, type cmd in the search box, you can get the best match called Command Prompt. Right-click on it and choose "Run as administrator".
Step 2. On the Command Prompt window, type diskpart and press "Enter".
Step 3. Type list disk and press "Enter". According to the list disk information, check which disk is your SD card.
Step 4. Now type select disk (the number of your disk), for example, disk 2, and press Enter.
Step 5. Type clean. Wait some time for disk erasing.
Step 6. Type create partition primary and press "Enter".
Step 7. After Diskpart successfully created the specified partition, type format fs=ntfs, and press "Enter". If you prefer other file system formats, change the command NTFS to the desired one such as fat32, exfat, etc.
Fix 9. Use Windows Troubleshooting to Repair Corrupt SD Card
To fix a corrupt SD memory card caused by hardware and drivers' issues, you can try the Windows Troubleshooting feature, which may find problems and fix memory card errors.
Step 1. Connect your SD card to PC. Open Control Panel, and click "Troubleshooting".
Step 2. Find Hardware and Sound, and click "Configure a device". Click "Next" to start detecting and fixing problems with devices and hardware. Next, restart your computer; the SD card issue should be resolved.
Fix 10. Use Corrupted Memory Card Format Software
Formatting can fix file system related corruption. It also helps to reuse your SD card. You can use this method to recover the corrupted SD card. But we all know that hard drive formatting will lead to data loss, and you can't get them back unless using a professional data recovery application.
Here, we highly recommend you use the best SD card recovery software to restore photos, videos, and music from inaccessible or unreadable SD card before using the corrupted memory card format software.
Recover data from corrupt SD card before format
Step 1. Connect the SD card corrupted to your PC.
Step 2. Run the Deep Data Recovery. Select the location of the write-protected/corrupted device, click "Scan".
Step 3. Preview and restore files and data. You can preview and select found data and click "Recover" to save found data to a safe spot on your PC or external storage device.
Use Qiling corrupted memory card format software to repair SD card
After recovering the SD card, follow the step-by-step guide to use the memory card repair software to format the corrupted memory card.
Step 1. Find your SD card and click the partition you want to format and choose "Format".
Step 2. Set a new partition label, file system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3/EXT4/exFAT), and cluster size to the selected partition, then click "Proceed".
Step 3. Click "OK" on the pop-up window to start formatting your SD card.
Other key benefits of Qiling partition program are:
- Resize/move partitions by sliding the partition left and right or enter the exact partition size you want, such as increase C drive to speed up your computer (move space from D drive to C drive supported by paid version)
- Create, format, delete, copy, and merge partitions
- Clone an entire disk to another even the destination partition is smaller than the source
- Convert file system from FAT32 to NTFS, convert MBR to GPT, convert dynamic disk to basic disk and vice versa, and so on
- Completely wipe out all the data on hard disk permanently
Last Advice: If your SD card has the I/O device error, you may have a rare chance to repair the corrupted SD card. But you can still try the USB production tool to repair the corrupted memory card. You can search the internet and find one to try. There are chances that the warranty of your corrupted USB drive or SD card is still valid. So, if your storage device is giving you problems, again and again, it's advisable to invest some effort and go for a refund or replacement. I agree with this as it's not worth putting your faith in a USB drive that's showing signs of unreliability again and again.
Sd Card Repair Software Summary
This tutorial covers ten effective solutions and SD card repair tools in all to help you repair a corrupted Micro SD card. If you have any questions about how to fix a corrupt memory card with the SD card repair tool or recover data from a corrupted SD card, you can contact our technical support team for help via live chat or email support.
Tips to Prevent SD Card Corruption
- Never remove a memory card while turning on/off your camera or other devices.
- Never remove your memory card while saving and viewing a photograph.
- Never taking/viewing new pictures on battery low.
- Never change your memory card when the camera is on.
- Use SD cards from big brands such as SanDisk, Panasonic, Sony, Kingston, Lexar, Olympus, etc.
SD Card Repair Tool FAQs
If you also have any of the following questions about SD card repair, check the brief answers.
1. How can I repair my SD card?
To repair SD card, you can try the ten solutions in this article. Here, we show you how to run the Windows SD card repair tool to fix a corrupt SD card.
Step 1. Connect the SD card to your PC. Press Windows + E to open Windows Explorer.
Step 2. Right-click the SD card and click "Properties".
Step 3. Click on the "Tools" tab. Click the "Check" button. And let the scan process completes.
2. How do you fix a SanDisk Micro SD card?
How to fix a Sandisk SD card? You can try the CHKDSK command to check for memory card errors, assign a new drive letter, re-install the driver, use the SD card repair software provided by the manufacturer, and more. If all these methods fail, you can fix a Micro SD card by formatting.
Step 1. Insert your Sandisk SD card into your SD-to-USB converter; or simply insert the SD card directly into your computer if there is an SD card slot.
Step 2. Open Windows Explorer and find the SD card. Right-click your SD card, then click the option "Format" in the right-click menu.
3. How do I fix bad sectors on my SD card?
When there are logical bad sectors on your disk, you can use the CHKDSK command lines to repair the corrupted SD card. The chkdsk command will scan the damaged SD card, check and repair the issues. But if your SD card has too many physical bad sectors (you can do a surface test for the SD card to know if your SD card has bad sectors) and it fails, you can't use an SD card repair tool to fix it. You may need to change to a new one.
4. How can I repair my SD card online?
It's difficult to search online SD card repair. Compared with repair SD card online, you should choose desktop SD card repair software, such as using Qiling partition master - a free corrupted memory card format and repair software. With this SD card repair tool, you can check and repair the file system with one-click.
5. How can I repair my SD card without formatting?
There are some ways to repair SD card without formatting. For example, you can repair corrupted SD card by assigning a new drive letter in Disk Management.
Step 1. Connect the corrupted SD card to your computer.
Step 2. Right-click the Start button and choose "Disk Management".
Step 3. Right-click on the SD card and click "Change Drive Letter and Paths".
Step 4. Select the drive letter from the drop-down list. Click "OK". Windows Disk Management is very useful when dealing with some SD card problems.
6. How do I fix my SD card on my Android?
You can repair and format corrupted android SD card without losing data with the following method:
- Make a backup or restore data from the corrupted android SD card.
- Format the SD card on your computer with Qiling corrupted memory card format software or Windows Disk Management.
- Repair corrupted Android SD card with CHKSDK command.
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