Micro SD card, formerly known as Trans-flash Card (TF card), was invented by SanDisk Inc. and primarily used for portable data storage devices like mobile phones. While enjoying the convenience of the Micro SD card, people also need to bear the consequences of its damage. For instance, there’s a hot topic – Micro SD card not formatted, which indicates that the memory card is recognized by the computer as not formatted.
My SD Card Is Asking Me to Format
The problem is most of the Micro SD cards running into the SD card not formatting error are actually formatted and worked well before. The error occurs suddenly and people need a practical method for recovering files from Micro SD card not formatting urgently. Can’t find the right way to perform Micro SD card data recovery, so many people are stuck in an awkward situation and need others to pull them out.
"HELP! I put the card back in the camera to hook up the entire camera to the computer and the camera said 'Card not formatted - format card?' I DID NOT format the card. The pictures are or were there. I was able to view the pictures with my camera just a few days ago. I don't know what happened. I hooked it to my pc via a card reader and it says E:\ is not accessible. I am a photographer. I've never had this problem. I absolutely cannot lose these pictures. I am desperate and need the pics today. Please help!" - AwandererTom's Guide Forum
When you connect your Micro SD card to a computer & the system asks you to format it or when you see the prompt message on the screen of devices using a Micro SD card, you shouldn’t format the memory card as suggested until you have recovered all useful data from it. Now, let’s see the demonstration on how to recover data from a damaged Micro SD card.
Rescue Data from Micro SD Card Not Formatted
To securely rescue your data from the problematic SD card, you should choose a reliable data recovery software to do a damaged SD card recovery. Among a large number of secure data recovery services, MiniTool Power Data Recovery is highly recommended with its sparkling features:
a). It is totally clean without any viruses and spyware;
b). It is widely compatible with Windows operating systems and other Windows-recognized data storage devices;
c). It contains functions to filter out unnecessary files and preview file content.
You can get MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free to check whether this software can recover data from damaged SD card with the following guidance.
MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
SD Card Not Formatted Error Appears, How to Recover Data
Suppose you have downloaded and installed this free data recovery software on your computer, you should now connect the SD card to the computer and launch the software. Ensure that the Micro SD card is recognized by the software. If not, click the Refresh button or reconnect it to your computer.
Step 1: In the main interface, you should choose the partition of the Micro SD card and click the Scan button. If your Micro SD card contains several partitions, turn to the Devices tab and scan the entire Micro SD card directly.
All the found files will be listed on the result page during the scan process. You can browse those files but do not interrupt the scan process in order to find all the files on your Micro SD card.
Step 2: You can look through the file list under the Path tab, or change to the Type tab to check files by their types and file formats. To narrow down the file list, you can set some filter criteria, such as file size, file type, file category, and file last modified date. When you want to search for a specific file, you can type its partial or full name into the search box and press Enter. The software will automatically filter the matched items for you.
After the preliminary filter, it is necessary to confirm which file is the one you require. Double-click on the file or choose the file and click on the Preview button to verify the file content on the result page. The Preview function allows you to check documents, pictures, videos, audio, and other types of files. You can get more detailed information by visiting this page.
Step 3: Select all the files you want to restore and click the Save button. You need to choose an appropriate save path for the recovered files which should be different from the original one. Restoring files to the original file path might overwrite the lost files, causing lost data irrecoverable.
If you are running the Free edition to restore files, you should note that only 1GB of data recovery capacity is reliable. Files more than 1GB cannot be restored successfully. You should get a premium edition to complete the data recovery task. MiniTool provides several editions to meet different requirements of different people. You can jump to the License Comparison page to choose one edition that suits you best.
Top Recommendation
Clicking on an external hard drive but receiving a prompt message asking you to format the disk before use, you should fix this problem by using methods mentioned in How to Fix: You Need to Format the Disk before You Can Use It.
Format Not Accessible Micro SD Card
If the SD card not formatting error appears on Android or other devices, you may as well recover data from damaged SD card first as shown above, and then format the card for further use. In this case, you have generally 4 ways to format your Micro SD card.
How to Reset Your SD Card
1. Format it on an Android device: Put the Micro SD card into your Android device > find the “Settings” icon > find “Storage” under the “Settings” list > find your SD card in “Storage” > find the “Format SD card“/”Erase SD card” button and then click on it.
2. Format it on a computer (Windows platform): right-click on the Start button > select “Disk Management” > find your SD card on the right panel > right-click on it and choose “Format…” > set a proper “Volume label“, “File system” and “Allocation unit size” > click on “OK” button in the pop-up window to perform a quick format. (You can also right-click on the Micro SD card in Windows Explorer to format it directly)
3. Format it running the DiskPart command line: press the “Windows” + “R” keys at the same time to open “Run” window > type “cmd” into the text box > press the “Shift” + “Ctrl” + “Enter” buttons on the keyboard > type “diskpart” and press “Enter” > type “list disk” and press “Enter” > type “select disk *” (“*” represents the order position of your memory card in the disk list) and press “Enter“> type “clean” (this will ruin all the data saved on the memory card) and press “Enter” > type “create partition primary” and press “Enter” > type “select partition 1” and press “Enter” > type “format fs=*” (“*” should be the file system that you want your card to be formatted with) and press “Enter” > wait for the completion of formatting operation.
4. Format it with a third-party tool: download and install MiniTool Partition Wizard on your computer’s local drive > run the software to enter its main window > select your memory card from the right panel > select “Format Partition” under “Partition Management” from the left panel > set “Partition Label“, “File System” & “Cluster Size” or just keep the default value > click on “OK” button to confirm > press “Apply” in the upper left corner and click “Yes” in the pop-up window to allow changes.
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Well, what if those methods didn’t work? You’re still unable to format SD card (Windows was unable to complete the format). At this time, how to repair a memory card that cannot be formatted becomes the thing that you care about the most. Now, we’ll give you some advice on how to repair corrupted SD card refusing to format.
How to Format a Memory Card Which Cannot Be Formatted
Even if you click on “Yes” to agree to format the Micro SD card when you see the Micro SD card not formatting error, you may end up in failure by receiving a “Windows was unable to complete the format” error. Under this circumstance, you need to figure out why a memory card can’t be formatted successfully and then adopt corresponding methods to fix the problem.
Possible causes:
- The virus infects the memory card.
- The card has bad sectors. (You can use MiniTool Partition Wizard to do a surface test)
- The memory card is write-protected.
- The card is not compatible with the portable device or the computer.
- Physical damage occurs on the memory card.
Solutions:
- Get a reliable & powerful anti-virus program; install it properly and then run it to scan your memory card.
- Use special tools to scan/shield bad sectors.
- Remove the write protection from memory card after connecting it to the computer.
- Update all the drivers on your computer; make sure that they are compatible with the card you want to format. Besides, you can go to BIOS during booting to check whether the settings are proper or not.
- For serious physical damage to the memory card, you have no choice but to ask professional companies for help.
After you’ve done these jobs, please choose the method mentioned above to format your memory card again and you’ll succeed this time.
Reading here, all of you must have known well about how to fix an SD card that will not format, we bet.
Bottom Line
Micro SD card, as a popular kind of memory card, is used widely in our life and work. The extensive use of it triggers a series of problems, inevitably. “Micro SD card not formatted” is one of the most popular issues users have met. When seething such error, most ordinary users feel helpless.
Fortunately, there are feasible ways to help you recover data from damaged SD card and fix the unable to format SD card error. After rescuing files from the Micro SD card, you can work with the above methods to make your SD card accessible again.
If you have any problems in using MiniTool software, feel free to contact us via [email protected].
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Andrea graduated in English and has a keen interest in the IT industry and questions that arise when computers are used. She is passionate about new things and challenging things and has a wide range of interests like playing guitar, gaming, and crafting.