How to Repair SD Card Bad Sectors [5+ Ways]
Table of Contents:
Repair Bad Sectors On Memory Card with Repair Software Free
Note: When your sd card is not opening/inaccessible, it's important to retrieve data from sd card at first. Free recovery tool iCare Recovery Free can help retrieve images videos from memory card for totally free.
After sd card data recovery, you can fix bad sectors on SD card with the following methods:
SD Bad sector repair 1. Error-Checking in Windows Computers
You can insert the SD card to a Windows computer and run Windows Error-checking tool to scan for and repair bad sectors in the SD card on Windows 11/10/7 or any Windows pc since it is provided by Windows OS.
- Insert sd card to pc
- Open THIS PC and right click your sd card -> Properties
- Click TOOLS tab on top menu, and click Check, and click Repair drive to start the sd card bad sector scanning and repairing in Windows 10/11.
Repair sd card with Error-Checking in Windows 10
Repair sd card bad sectors with Error-Checking in Windows 7
SD Card bad sector repair #2: CHKDSK CMD
CHKDSK is a little complicated than other free bad blocks repair tools. If you are a non tech professional, you may directly go with the third repair tool.
chkdsk H: /f (You need to replace H with your own sd card drive letter, capital H or not won't matter.)
For example, if your sd card shows as drive F in your computer, then it shall be replaced by this command: chkdsk F: /f
- Insert sd card to pc and see which drive letter it shows in your pc
- Run cmd
- Type chkdsk h: /f, and press enter when your sd card shows H drive (Replace h with your own sd card drive letter)
If your SD card becomes raw drive, the CHKDSK tool may be not available when serious damages came upon your memory card.
Also read: CHKDSK is not available for raw drives sd card fixes
SD Bad sector repair 3. Format to remove SD Card Bad sectors Disk Management
You may format the SD card which has bad sectors after connecting it to your
computer. You can also use some professional tool to complete the format if you get message
like Windows was unable to complete the format.
If it says that Windows was unable to complete the format, you can try Disk Management or CMD command prompt.
Format with disk management
SD Bad sector repair 4. format cmd to remove bad sectors
You can use cmd as bad sector fixing tool to scan and fix all bad sectors on your SD memory card.
Step1: insert your SD card into computer with a card reader. Run CMD.
Repair damaged SD card with CMD
Step2: Type“format l: /fs:ntfs”(l is the drive letter of your raw SD card)
Repair damaged SD card with CMD
SD Bad sector repair 5: free bad sector repairing tools.
You can download the following professional yet free bad sector fixing tool to scan and fix all bad sectors on your SD memory card.
IM-Magic Partition Resizer Free, a free tool that can help check and repair bad blocks not only on the memory card but also hard disks for you. You can free download it here:
Fix bad sectors on sd card
Also read: sd card repair tools [8 free ways] or best bad blocks repair software
How to Recover Data from SD Card That Has Bad Sectors Free
An SD card may be inaccessible when it contains bad sectors. Don't worry if you already have previous backup, just fix it without hesitation.
No backup? The final chance for SD card recovery relies on the following free data recovery software.
Free Memory Card Recovery
iCare Data Recovery Free(100% free tool) can recover files from damaged mobile phone or camera memory card that has bad sectors for free.
Recover data from sd card that has bad sectors
Step1. Download iCare Recovery Free, connect your sd with card reader to PC, and then launch the software and select 'Deep Scan Recovery'.
Step2. Choose the SD card and wait for the software to finish the scan.
Step3. Save all needed data onto a computer hard drive.
SD card has bad sectors
How to repair your SD card which becomes inaccessible or shows some error message since it contains bad sectors? At the beginning, bad sector is a term that is usually used for computer’s hard drive. Simply say, bad sectors usually refers to the sectors on computer’s hard disk drive which are damaged and cannot be used to store data. Day after day, bad sectors are also used in other storage media like external hard drive, memory card, pen drive, flash drive, etc.
The SD card usually becomes inaccessible when it contains bad sectors, so all data stored on the SD card is also not accessible. You have to extract all inaccessible files from the corrupted SD card which contains bad sectors by using free software or some other methods to repair the problem.
Also read: bad sector removal software [5 free]
Symptoms of SD Card Bad Sectors
Your SD card usually becomes not accessible when it contains bad sectors, but it does not mean that your SD card has bad sectors when it is inaccessible. Usually, you may not know that your SD card has bad sectors unless you rely on some bad sectors scan software to scan your SD card. Usually, it is necessary to check if your SD card contains any bad sector when you meet following problems:
- SD card is not recognized by digital camera or mobile phone
- You can open your SD card and see all contents stored on it, but it says SD card is corrupted or write-protected when you attempt to copy or write files on the card
- PC says SD memory card needs to be formatted when you insert it to your computer
- Windows was unable to complete the format when you click yes to format the SD card
Bad sector is a common reason for those problems, but those problems might also be caused by other reasons like virus infection and more.
Common Reasons for SD Card Bad Sectors
- Removing SD card out of camera or smartphone without turning off the device
- Ejecting SD card from PC unsafely
- Disconnecting SD card to computer during data reading, writing, transferring process
- Cheap SD card has low quality
Also read: bad sector repair tools [5 free]
Last updated on Nov 01, 2022
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