Summary
How to format a memory card SD/Microsd which says not formatting or can’t be formatted in camera/android phone/pc Windows 10? This article tells solutions when memory card (sdhc, sdxc, micro sd card) is damaged/raw and unable to be formatted.
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Solutions | Remark | Links | |
---|---|---|---|
New sd card | #1 Format sd card FAT in pc | file system conflicts | Tutorial |
Old sd card | #2 Debug or mass usb storage mode shall be enabled | Easy | Tutorial |
#3 Delete sd card in disk management, and then create a new volume for it | Mostly it would fix the problem by this method | Get details | |
#4 Diskpart cmd to format sd | clean or remove attribute readonly to fix the problem | Read details | |
#5 Force format sd card with Rufus | Easy to use format tool | Read tutorial | |
#6 Turn off the write protection lock on the memory card | easy | Read tutorial | |
#7 Format sd card in Windows 10 | easy | Read details | |
#8 Low level format tool to get it formatted | easy to use | Read details |
"Yesterday, I wanted to open my SD card, but my SD card suddenly popped out a message said I need to format my device before I can use it. The sd card showed raw and 0 byte. How do I repair the raw SD card and recover data from it?" -- Tom
Why - The causes
Symptoms: Memory card cannot be formatted on your phone/camera/Windows computer when you try to format it, the format error may show up "Failed to format the device", or "Windows was unable to complete the format for sd card" ...
Windows can't format the sd card, raw sd card format failed.
When a new memory card sd or micro sdxc cannot be formatted in a camera/phone, it means the memory card is not compatible with the device, especially when
Please turn on the usb mass storage or usb debugging mode if you connect sd to computer with phone, or it would lead to a format failure! Or you may pull out your sd card and insert it with a card adaptor to a pc.
Turn on USB connection mode or usb debugging mode if you want to format memory card when you get phone connected to computer.
Delete sd in disk management
Create volume for sd in disk management
How to operate the deleting and creating volume for sd card?
Mostly it would work. However if it still reported sd card unable to be formatted error, try the following ways.
Windows cannot format sd card
Recommend: how to fix SD when Windows was unable to format
Notice: If you have important data on the SD card, do a backup or data recovery at first.
CMD, command prompt of Windows system, can act many command lines, formatting is one of them.
When your SD card is damaged or recognized as raw drive, it's not able to format the raw drive by a simple right-click. So, in this situation, CMD can do you a favor. Follow the instructions here to format the SD card.
Step1: Run Diskpart from your computer Start -> Run, and type diskpart in the run window(You need to start your pc with admin privilege).
Format raw sd card using CMD
Step2: Format the sd card in the following orders.
Or you may try this following order if the previous failed.
Format sd card using CMD
Notice: It will erase all your data on the SD card, you need to recover or backup your data in advance, or you will lose them all.
Recommend: if you confirm formatting the sd, here are 10 free formatting tools that can help do the formatting if you are not so good at the cmd.
Sd card won’t format problem
How to force a formatting on SD card?
Recommend - force format sd card with Rufus
Formatting memory card with Rufus to force format sd card when it cannot be formatted. (Many users feedback this tool worked when the sd cannot be formatted)
You may download it here:
https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/releases/download/v3.11/rufus-3.11.exe
More download link is available at its website https://rufus.ie/
Rufus to format sd card that cannot be formatted
Also recommend: how to force format sd card on pc/phone or 8 free disk format tools
If it still does not work, there should be some other errors like the write protection, bad blocks etc.
Recommend: how to remove write protection from SD card
Step 1 - Remove sd write protection by switching off its write lock
If it still did not work, try step 2
Step 2 - Remove sd write protection using cmd
Part 1 - Remove memory card read only write protection
Step 3 - Format the sd card after the readonly has been removed
Video - How to Remove SD Card Write Protection
Also read: 10 ways to disable write protection on sd/usb
If you have a laptop or desktop, you may do the formatting on your PC with a formatter, Windows format function, Windows disk management format, and more.
Step1: Go to "My Computer" and find your SD memory card.
Step2: Right-click the SD card, and click "Format" action, choose "quick format" as format type, if you want to erase all the data on it, you can also choose full format.
Step3: Click "OK" to start the format process.
Format the sd card on Windows 11/10/7
Or you may use disk management to format the memory card
Format the sd card on Windows
Notice: You need to make it clear that if you format your SD card, all your data on the card will be erased, so if you want to keep your data safe, you need to backup your data or restore them with a recovery tool.
Still unable to format sd card? Try this
Also read: 6 free sd card format tools
If your windows system fails to format your SD card, and even CMD is not able to format your SD card, Try a low level format tool.
Also read: how to low level format sd card
Notice: formatting will erase all your data, please take care of your data at first.
Also read: 6 free sd card format tools
As we all know, formatting or reset is a whole deletion of your device, it will erase all your data on your SD card, if you have some important data on the SD card, please backup data to some other drive at first. If your sd card is not opening, restore data from the sd card with sepcial tools.
Step1: Download and Run iCare Data Recovery on your computer.
Step2: Scan your SD card.
Step3: Save data from the sd card to another drive.
Step3 to recover the data from the sd card
Note: This recovery program is totally free for the first 1GB recovery. Free code is available from support team per review request. If you want a totally freeware, iCare Data Recovery Free will be a nice choice which is a 100% free tool, however the Pro edition has raw recovery which can find more files.
After you recover your data on the SD card, you can repair the raw SD card by performing a formatting on your SD card.
Chkdsk command is able to help repair logical bad blocks on the memory card if you use the following command.
chkdsk E: /f (E must be replace by your own sd card drive letter)
Details: how to repair bad sector on sd card using cmd
Bad sector repair tools: IM-Magic Partition Resizer, USB Disk Storage Format Tool (Both tools are free software.)
Question: How to format raw sd card using cmd?
You may use this command line format fs=fat32 quick to format a raw memory card in diskpart command.
Note: Type the letters without the quotation in your cmd window.
Question: How to force format sd card?
SD card can be force formatted by several ways:
Question: Unable to complete the format sd card solutions
Here are several ways to fix unable to format sd card on a computer.
Question: RAW sd card formatter download
There are many format tools that can format a memory card even it showed raw, such as Rufus, USB Disk Storage Format Tool, Low level format tool etc.
Also read: sd card formatters
Question: sd card not formatting in camera, new sd card not formatting in camera, why won't my camera format my sd card?
Answer: When sd card has not formatting error in camera
More methods to repair sd card: sd card repair software [8 free]
Question: Cant format SD card to FAT32, how to format sd card to fat32 Windows 11/10/7
The formatting an sd card over 32GB to fat32 shall be done at least in 3 ways:
Also read: how to format sd card fat32
This format error may happen to various kinds of memory card on different kinds of cameras and cellphones.
Last updated on May 14, 2023
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