Last updated on Sept 14, 2023
My sd card says it needs to be formatted but I have pictures on it, how to avoid formatting sd card? Or how do I repair a memory card that cannot be formatted?
SD, CF or Micro sd card not formatted is a common problem that we may meet with mobile phones or cameras. The reasons that Micro sd card not formatted error occur are very complex, maybe the reading part or head of the micro sd card has been damaged, so it's not accessible, or you formatted sd card accidentally or virus has attacked your Micro sd card, it doesn't work. When you turn on your cellphone or connect the tf card to your PC, there may be an error saying that micro sd card is not formatted, do you want to format it now?
Damaged sd card that needs formatting when it is connected to computer in Windows 11/10/8/7, sd card unformatted error, this sd card needs to be formatted before you can use it
Blank sd card with unsupported file system in mobile and the sd card needs formatting once it was inserted in computer
'SD card is damaged, try reformatting it' error in android mobile
Camera reported SD card is not formatted in Nikon/Canon
No matter your memory card sd or microSD or miniSD shows not formatting, sd card unformatted error, sd card not formatting or your sd card was formatted by accident, you can avoid formatting sd card by perform free memory recovery with iCare Pro Free.
Download iCare Data Recovery Pro Free Edition to rescue files from damaged/corrupted micro sd card, or any kind of memory card and save data on to your PC disk or backup digital media for completely FREE if data is within 1GB.
iCare Data Recovery Pro is a free micro SD card recovery program which can recover files from SD card that shows not formatted error in your camera, phone, or Windows 11/10/7/8/XP/Vista computers.
Step1. Download iCare Pro Free and connect the not formatted micro SD card to PC via card reader(required). Run iCare Data Recovery to select deep scan recovery module.
Step2. Choose the micro SD card, click Next, and then the software will begin to search files.
Step3. Preview and select the memory card files to save them somewhere else eg, the computer hard drive.
After you have recovered the data, you can try the following solutions to fix the damaged memory card needs to be formatted before you can use error. (sd, cf, microSD, miniSD etc.)
You may right click the property of your sd card on your PC, and then find "Property" -> "Tools" -> "Error-checking". This function is provided as free utility in Windows.
Repair damaged sd card filesystem error with Error-Checking
Video - how to repair damaged sd card not formatting with error-checking
Attach the micro SD card to Windows computer > click Start button > Run > type CMD > enter Diskpart in cmd > list disk > select disk > clean > create partition primary > Active > format fs=fat32 quick
format fs=ntfs quick is the command line you may need when you want to format it ntfs.
Repair unformatted SD card with CMD
Or you can format the raw sd card into FAT32 or NTFS as following steps:
Step1: Run CMD.
Repair unrecognized SD card with CMD
Step2: Type“format l: /fs:ntfs”(l is the drive letter of your raw hard drive)
Repair unrecognized SD card with CMD
Recommend: CMD to format microSD>>
Chkdsk is another efficient way for repairing the damaged sd card that you may start it by the following guide.
Repair damaged SD card with chkdsk /f
If this chkdsk /f does not work for you or when it reported chkdsk is not available for raw drives, you may try the following chkdsk that has a video in the guide.
Repair damaged SD card with chkdsk /f/r/x
Video - how to repair damaged sd card with sfc and chkdsk /f/r/x
Solution 5: Format sd card by disk management
This is a simple formatting that you can start it by
Step 1 - right click 'This PC' -> Manage -> Disk Management. And then wait to load its devices.
Open disk management and then wait to see device list
Step 2 - right click the raw sd/microsd that shows in disk management -> Format
Format not formatted sd card in disk management
Cannot format sd card here? Try the following methods.
How to format unformatted sd card? Delete sd card under disk management and then reload it, and then create new volume, format it. This is the key for memory card not formatted solution when memory card cannot be formatted in a phone/camera/pc.
Delete sd card in disk management
Create partition for sd card in disk management
Solution 7: Download Rufus to format sd card if it cannot be formatted/repaired
This freeware would efficiently repair damaged sd card by formatting even when it could not be formatted properly.
Rufus download url: Rufus download url: https://github.com/pbatard/rufus/releases/download/v3.11/rufus-3.11.exe
Rufus to format memory card that cannot be formatted
Video - how to format sd with Rufus
SD card write protected? Cannot format? Read more tips to fix sd card unable to be formatted
This sd not formatting error may happen to but not limited to the following types:
Also read: Fixing sd card not formatting unable to format sd card >
Question: Need to format sd card before use, do I need to format sd card?
Answer: If your sd card is in use in a camera/phone or other digital device, it means the sd card is damaged and has logical errors, a formatting is needed to fix sd card so it says sd card need to be formatted before you can use it.
Solution: Recover data from sd card at first, and then do the formatting to make the sd card work again.
Question: How to avoid formatting sd card?
Answer: Here are three ways to avoid formatting an sd card if it contains important files.
The details can be found on the above content.
Question: Sony camera wants to format memory card
"I cannot even use my Sony digital camera to take pictures because it said memory card needs to be formatted. When I confirmed to format the memory card, my camera says that all data will be deleted after formatting. I want to know if it is possible to fix the memory card not formatted error without deleting files from memory card."
Can I Format SD Card That Needs Formatting in Sony/Canon/Fujifilm/Nikon Camera
1. It is totally safe to format the sd card directly with camera when there was no important data on the camera camera that asks to format memory card.
Formatted sd card by mistake and lost data? Rescue them by iCare Free.
2. Back up copies are available or not?
If there were other copies of your data, then you may directly format the memory card on the camera.
Format failed? ==>> To get methods for RAW error fix when Sony memory card cannot be formatted, please go to this article - Windows cannot format memory card>>
Question: RAW sd card not formatted in casio camera
Answer: You may recover data from sd card in a Windows computer, and then format the sd card with free sd card formatters. Link: sd card format tools
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