- Format Micro Sd Card Android
- How To Reformat Sd Card Windows 10
- Format Write Protected Micro Sd Card Windows 10
- Format Micro Sd Card Mac
A micro SD card is a tiny memory card that is often used for extra storage in devices such as cameras, GPS devices, and mobile phones. In most cases, you can format a micro SD card using commands built into your device. However, you can also format a micro SD card using your Windows or Mac computer. I couldn't do anything with my microsd card other than copy the files. I couldn't write to it, or delete or format it. I just solved the problem by going into properties and 'sharing' it, and adding all controls to the user of my pc.
Active8 months ago
In windows 10, when you want to format a partition specifically as FAT32 (for example an SDcard that is going to be used in your phone) when you right-click the disk and choose format, only NTFS and exFAT are shown as possible format options.
Is there another way, preferably without installing an additional tool or booting into a different mode to format as FAT32?
LPChipLPChip39.2k55 gold badges5757 silver badges9393 bronze badges
3 Answers
While LPChip's answer is 'correct' and should work in most cases unless the partition is over 32gb. I typically use a bit of third party software from ridgecrop that does the same thing but handles larger partitions. I've used their command line fat32formatterextensively over the past few years.
They have a GUI tool that more or less does what it says on the tin now. Formatting speeds are crazy fast and I've not had any issues with it.
Journeyman Geek♦Journeyman Geek115k4646 gold badges226226 silver badges382382 bronze badges
Yes.
The GUI version of format is limited only to NTFS and exFAT, probably because this is what you'll ever need on Windows.
Luckily if you run
format
from the command prompt, you can specify far more options to format your disk in.Format /?
shows the following:As you can see,
/FS:filesystem
allows you to format as FAT (fat16), FAT32, exFAT, NTFS, UDF and ReFS.
Alex5,50611 gold badge1111 silver badges2121 bronze badges
LPChipLPChip39.2k55 gold badges5757 silver badges9393 bronze badges
I just ran into this issue and found that the Disk Management tool built into Windows can handle this for partitions of 4GB or less.
Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools > Create and format hard disk partitions or search for Disk Management.
Right click on the volume and choose Shrink Volume..., then shrink it to 4GB or less. After that, both FAT32 and Quick Format options will be available in the Format... dialog.
Sean FujiwaraSean Fujiwara
protected by Community♦Sep 8 '17 at 10:12
Format Micro Sd Card Android
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An SD Card is a small electronic storage medium used by a plethora of storage devices including smartphones, games devices, camcorders, cameras and even single-board computers such as the Raspberry Pi.
- Normal
- Mini
- Micro
Insert the SD Card Into Your Computer
Most modern computers have an SD card slot somewhere on the side of the computer. The slot is generally designed to be the same size as a normal SD card and so micro and mini SD cards need to be inserted into an SD card adapter in order to insert them into the computer.
It is possible to get an SD card adapter that accepts Mini SD cards and in turn, a Mini SD adapter that accepts micro SD cards.
If your computer doesn't have an SD card slot you will need to use an SD card reader. There are hundreds of these available on the market and they come in many different shapes and sizes.
With an SD card reader, you simply need to insert the SD card into the reader and then plug the reader into the USB port on your computer.
The way that you format an SD card has been the same for a number of years and these instructions are for all versions of Windows.
The Easiest Way to Format an SD Card Using Windows
The easiest way to format an SD card is as follows:
- Open Windows Explorer.
- Find the drive letter for your SD card.
- Right-click, and when the menu appears click Format.
The file system defaults to FAT32 which is fine for smaller SD cards but for larger cards (64 gigabytes and up) you should choose exFAT.
You can give the formatted drive a name by entering it into the Volume Label.
A warning will appear notifying you that all of the data on the drive will be erased.
At this point, your drive should be formatted correctly.
How to Format Write Protected SD Cards
Sometimes when attempting to format an SD card you will receive an error saying that it is write-protected.
The first thing to check is whether the little tab is set on the SD card itself. Remove the SD card from the computer (or the SD Card reader).
Look at the edge and you will see a little tab which can be moved up and down. Move the tab into the opposite position (i.e. if it is up, move it down and if it is down, move it up).
Reinsert the SD card and try to format the SD card again.
How To Reformat Sd Card Windows 10
If this step fails or there is no tab on the SD card follow these instructions:
- If you are using Windows 8 and above you can right-click the start button and click Command Prompt (Admin).
- If you are using XP, Vista or Windows 7 press the start button and right-click on the Command Prompt option and choose Run as administrator. You may need to navigate through the menus to find the Command Prompt icon.
- Type diskpart.
- Type list disk.
- A list of all the available disks on your computer will appear. Make a note of the disk number that resembles the same size as the SD card you are formatting.
- Type select disk n (Where n is the number of the disk for the SD card).
- Type attributes disk clear readonly.
- Type clean.
- Type exit to exit diskpart.
- Format the SD card again using Windows Explorer as shown in the previous step.
Note that if there is a physical tab on the SD card then this overrides the above instructions and you need to amend the position of the tab to turn read-only on and off.
Format Write Protected Micro Sd Card Windows 10
In step 7 above, 'attributes disk clear readonly' removes the write protection. To set write protection back on, type attributes disk set readonly.
How to Remove Partitions From an SD Card
If you have installed a version of Linux to your SD card because for use on a single board computer such as a Raspberry Pi then there may come a point in time when you want to re-purpose that SD card for other uses.
When you attempt to format the drive you realize that there are only a few megabytes available. The chances are that the SD card has been partitioned so that the SD card could boot correctly into Linux.
If you suspect your SD card has been partitioned you can check by following these steps:
- If you are using Windows 8 and above right click on the start button and choose Disk Management from the menu.
- If you are using Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 click on the start button and type diskmgmt.msc into the run box.
- Find the disk number for your SD card.
You should be able to see a number of partitions assigned to your SD card. Quite often the first partition will show as unallocated, the second will be a small partition (for example 2 megabytes) and the third will be for the rest of the space on the drive.
Format Micro Sd Card Mac
To format the SD card so that it is one continuous partition follow these steps:
- If you are using Windows 8 and above you can right-click the start button and click Command Prompt (Admin).
- If you are using XP, Vista or Windows 7 press the start button and right-click on the Command Prompt option and choose Run as administrator. You may need to navigate through the menus to find the Command Prompt icon.
- Type diskpart.
- Type list disk.
- Find the disk number that matches your SD card (should be the same size)
- Type select disk n (where n is the disk number representing your SD card)
- Type list partition.
- Type select partition 1.
- Type delete partition.
- Repeat steps 8 and 9 until there are no more partitions (note that it will always be partition 1 that you delete because as soon as you delete one the next one along will become partition 1).
- Type create partition primary.
- Open Windows Explorer and click on the drive matching your SD card.
- A message will appear as follows: 'You need to format the disk before you can use it'. Click the Format Disk button.
- The Format SD Card window will appear. The capacity should now show the size of the whole drive.
- Choose either FAT32 or exFAT depending on the size of the SD card.
- Enter a volume label.
- Click Start.
- A warning will appear stating that all data will be deleted. Click OK.