How to Format Corrupted SD Card

7 Ways to Format Corrupted SD Card in Windows 10/8/7

A popular storage device, the SD card is widely used in mobile phones, digital cameras, and other devices to extend internal memory. However, it may become unreadable, corrupted, damaged, or experience some kind of error, preventing access to the card and its files. Before attempting to format a corrupted SD card, it's recommended to first try using memory card data recovery software to recover data from the inaccessible SD card, rather than risking data loss.

A corrupted SD card is often irreparable, so it's essential to apply fixes as soon as possible. Most SD card corruption issues arise from virus damage, file system corruption, outdated drivers, or bad sectors. To resolve this, seven universally applied solutions can be tried, including addressing the underlying causes such as virus damage, file system corruption, outdated drivers, or bad sectors.

Solution 1. Try to Use SD Card on Another PC

If your SD card is malfunctioning, it's possible that the issue isn't with the card itself, but rather with your PC. Try connecting the SD card or other removable drives to a different computer to see if it can be read and accessed normally. If it can, then the problem likely lies with your own PC, and you'll need to investigate what happened.

Solution 2. Change the Drive Letter

Driver letter conflicts between local drives and removable storage devices, such as SD cards, USB drives, and external HDDs, are common. When this happens, your computer struggles to assign a drive letter, making the device invisible. To resolve this, you can manually assign a drive letter to your device.

In Windows Disk Management, you can change the drive letter of a current drive or assign a new one. This can also be done using a third-party partition manager, which is the fourth solution.

To change the drive letter of a partition using Qiling Partition Master, first, you need to open the software and select the partition you want to modify. Then, click on the "Edit" button and choose "Change Drive Letter".

How to change drive letter in Windows Disk Management

Step 1. Navigate to Computer/This PC > Manage> Disk Management.

Step 2.Right-click the SD card and then click "Change Drive Letter and Paths".

Step 3.To assign a drive letter to the SD card, click Change, select the desired letter, and click OK.

Solution 3. Format Corrupted SD Card in Windows Explorer

When a storage media is not working and shows as RAW or inaccessible, a universally acknowledged approach is to troubleshoot it efficiently. However, formatting the disk is a crucial step in this process, which should be approached with caution as it will erase all data. To avoid losing important information, consider copying the data to create a backup or running data recovery software to scan and export data if the SD card cannot be opened.

Step 1.Press Windows + E to open File Explorer.

Step 2.Right-click on the corrupted SD card and choose Format.

Step 3.Click Restore Device Defaults in the popup window.

Step 4.To format a drive, select the desired file system, such as FAT32, exFAT, or NTFS, and click Start to initiate the formatting process.

Solution 4. Format Corrupted SD Card with Third-party Formatter

Windows Explorer is a built-in tool that can handle minor corruption issues, but it's not sufficient for tasks like formatting a 64GB SD card to FAT32, which requires more powerful third-party software that also offers additional disk and partition management features.

Qiling Partition Master can solve nearly 99% SD card corruption issues, allowing users to format, change drive letter, surface test for logical & physical errors, check bad sectors, and wipe an SD card for a fresh start.

To format a corrupted SD card, here is the step-by-step guide

Step 1. To format your SD card, locate it and right-click on the partition you want to format, then select the "Format" option from the context menu.

Step 2. The command is used to set a new partition label, file system, and cluster size to the selected partition. It allows you to choose from various file systems such as NTFS, FAT32, EXT2, EXT3, EXT4, and exFAT, and set the cluster size accordingly.

Step 3. Click the "Proceed" button to start formatting your SD card.

Step 4. Click "Yes" on the pop-up window to continue.

Solution 5. Format Corrupted SD Card Using CMD

For some higher-For users familiar with the command prompt, formatting a corrupted SD card can be a last resort, and the process involves using the Diskpart cmd.

How to format the corrupted SD card using diskpart

Step 1.To open Command Prompt as an administrator, start by typing "cmd" in the Start search box. Then, right-click on the "cmd" result and select "Run as administrator" from the context menu.

Step 2.Then cmd opens, type diskpart.

Step 3.After that type list disk.

Step 4.Type select disk x, which represents your SD card.

Step 5.Type clean.

Step 6.Type create partition primary.

Step 7.Type format fs=fat 32 quick.

Step 8.Type exit.

If you have multiple partitions on your SD card, you should continue typing "list volume" and select the correct volume after choosing your disk.

Solution 6. Uninstall SD Card Driver and Reinstall

The SD card is not recognized by Windows, and it's not visible in the Windows Device Manager or third-party software. To resolve this, you can try reinstalling the driver to make it appear again in the Windows Device Manager. This could potentially make the SD card visible and accessible again.

Step 1. Press Win + X keys and click Device Manager.

Step 2.To remove a USB drive, expand Disk Drives, right-click on the name of your removable disk, and select Uninstall.

Step 3.Click OK. Disconnect the SD card from your computer.

Step 4.To fix the issue, restart your computer, and then reconnect the SD card. Windows will automatically install the latest driver, making the SD card accessible.

Solution 7. Repair SD Card Corruption

When a Micro SD card is corrupted or damaged, running a command prompt with the chkdsk command in Windows can help fix the corrupted file system and make the card accessible again, preserving all files in the process.

How to repair damaged/corrupted SD card with CHKDSK

Step 1.To insert your SD card into your computer, you will need a card reader. This is a small device that connects to your computer via USB and has a slot for the SD card.

Step 2.To access the Command Prompt, go to the Start menu, type "cmd" in the search bar, and press Enter. This will open the Command Prompt, and you'll see "cmd.exe" listed under Programs.

Step 3.Right-click "cmd. exe" and then use the following command lines that allow you to fix your corrupted SD card without format.

Step 4.Type chkdsk /X /f sd card letter: or chkdsk sd card letter: /f, for example "chkdsk /X /f G:" or "chkdsk G: /f".

If you're not a fan of using command lines, you can use an alternative tool called Qiling CleanGenius to fix file system errors on your hard drive. This one-click tool simplifies the process and can be used instead of the command line method.

Step 1. Download Qiling CleanGenius on your computer for free.

Step 2.To proceed, run the software and navigate to the "Optimization" option on the left panel. From there, select the "File Showing" option.

Step 3.To resolve a file system error on a drive, go to the "Choose drive" section and select the drive with the error. Then, check the "Check and fix file system error" option and click "Proceed" to initiate the repair process.

Step 4.Once the Qiling CleanGenius has finished the repairing process, you can click on the "here" link to view the results of the repair.

After completing the steps, Windows will check and fix the corrupted SD card file system, which may take several minutes. If you see "Windows has made corrections to the file system" in the command window, the process is complete.

The damaged SD card is successfully fixed and you can access your data with ease. If you still see no data in the SD card, refer to this tutorial for help: Recover Corrupted SD Card. 

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