How to Format SD Card When Unable to Format SD Card - 6 ways
Video - how to fix raw sd card
For recovering raw sd card, be free to visit -> Recover raw sd card
Summary
How to format a memory card SD/Microsd which says not formatting or can’t be formatted in camera/android phone/pc? This article tells you solutions when your memory card (sdhc, sdxc, micro sd card) is damaged/raw and unable to format sd card solution with a raw sd card formatter.
SD has got format error on phone/camera/pc
Need data from the SD?
SD Card Cannot Be Formatted Solutions - 6 ways
"Yesterday, I want 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. And the sd card became raw and show 0 byte. How can I repair the raw SD card and recover data from it?" -- Tom
Unable to Format SD Card
Sometimes your SD card becomes raw because it is corrupted, and it is also not able to be formatted by Windows system. When you try to format it, your computer will report "Failed to format the device". If so, you will need a professional format tool for help.
Windows can't format the sd card, raw sd card format failed.
Don't worry about that, that is a common problem when the drive turns to raw, it often happens on SD card, USB flash drive, and other removable storage device. And this is not an irreversible error. Now I will show you some ways to recover the raw SD card.
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.
Solution #1 - Delete SD in Disk Management and then create new volume (Most efficient
)
Delete sd in disk management
Create volume for sd in disk management
How to operate the deleting?
- Go to disk management (right click 'This PC' on desktop->Manage->Disk management)
- Right click your sd in the disk management
- Delete volume option in the right click pop up window
- Create new volume with its empty space by right click sd under disk management
When it still reported 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 recovery first.
Solution #2 - Format SD Card Using CMD Diskpart Clean when it cannot be formatted
CMD, command prompt of windows system, can act many command line on your system, formatting is one of them. When your SD card is recognized as raw drive, you are 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 raw SD card.
Step1: Run CMD.
Format raw sd card using CMD
Step2: Type"format K: /fs:fat32", or type "format k:/fs:ntfs"(K is the drive letter of SD card that you need to replace it with the drive letter how your sd card shows in your laptop, desktop.)
Format raw 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 can 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.
Solution #3 - Force Format SD Card when it failed to be formatted
If your SD card turns to raw or it is damaged, you may wonder how to force a format on your sd card, because the raw file system can not be recognized by windows system and the SD card will shown as inaccessible. It will also pops out the message that ask you to format it before you can use it every time. And you can not right click it and choose "format" option to solve this problem. So you need to force format it.
Sd card won’t format problem
How to force a formatting on SD?
- use a disk format tool
- format it on camera/phone
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 for them 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 usb disk that cannot be formatted
Also recommend: 8 free disk format tools
If it still does not work, there should be some other errors that you may need to perform reparing before the formatting like remove the write protection, repair its bad blocks etc.
Recommend: how to remove write protection on SD
Solution #4 - Remove sd card write protection
Step 1 - Remove sd write protection by switching off its write lock
Disable sd card write protection
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
Video - How to Remove SD Card Write Protection
Also read: 10 ways to disable write protection on sd/usb
Solution #5 - Format SD Card in Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista/xp
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.
For windows users, CMD is a good way to force format your SD card. You can also try system built-in format option, follow the steps to force format your SD card.
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
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
Solution #6 - RAW SD Card Formatter – Format Tool
If your windows system fails to format your SD card, and even CMD is not able to format your SD card, you still have ways to perform the formatting on your SD card. How to make it? Try a professional format tool.
This is a link that can download many free format tools: https://www.icare-recovery.com/howto/free-usb-format-tool.html
You can download one of them and use it to format your SD card easily.
raw sd card formatter--format tool
Notice: formatting will erase all your data, please take care of your data first.
Also read: 6 free sd card format tools
Recover Data from Raw SD Card
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, you need to think twice before you format your SD card. Do you know how to protect your data on the SD card? Make a backup or recover them before formatting.
If you didn’t make a backup, you can still make it with a data recovery tool. You can choose a reliable program like iCare Data Recovery Pro which is a safe data recovery program that can help you retrieve your data from the corrupted SD card.
Instructions of recovering data from raw SD card won't format
Step1: Download and Run iCare Data Recovery Program on your computer.
Step1 to recover the data on the sd card
Step2: Scan your SD card.
Step2 to recover the data on the sd card
Step3: Preview the found data after scanning, choose those you needed to recover.
Step3 to recover the data on the sd card
Step4: Save them to another place.
After you recover your data on the SD card, you can repair the raw SD card by performing a formatting on your SD card.
This format error may happen to various kinds of memory card on different kinds of cameras and cellphones
- SDHC, sdxc, microSD, minisd...
- Samsung SD card unable to format, toshiba sd, SanDisk SD, Fujifilm xD...
- Canon camera sd card, Sony sd card, samsung camera sd, Nikon sd, Kodak, Fujifilm, Olympus SD...
- Samsung galaxy sd, Honor, Blackberry, LG phone, HTC SD, Nokia sd, and more
FAQs
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
- if it's new, it means the sd card is too large for the camera, or the camera has reader damage -> Format sd card FAT in Windows to fix incompatible issue, or ask local repair shop for help to know more about camera repair.
- If it's an old sd card, it means the memory card is either incompatible with the camera on file system or the sd card has logcal damages. -> You may format sd card FAT to see whether it is the file system incomaptible issue, or repair sd card with the following methods.
More methods to repair sd card: sd card repair software [8 free]
Last updated on Oct 20, 2021
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