How to Format Corrupted/Unreadable SD Card

SD card is a popular storage device which is widely used in Mobile phones, digital cameras, and other devices to extend internal memory. But sometimes, it might become unreadable, corrupted, damaged, or has some kind of error. When this happens, you are not allowed to access the card and the files on it. But don't worry! There are two ways for you to fix a corrupted, damaged or unreadable SD card without data loss:

Fix a corrupted or damaged SD card using chkdsk

When your Micro SD card is corrupted or damaged, you should first do a check disk error within an MS Windows chkdsk command prompt. It can help you fix the corrupted SD card file system and make the card accessible. And during the process, all your files will keep intact. 

1. Plug in your SD card to your computer with a card reader.
2. Go to the start menu, type in: cmd in a search bar, hit enter and then you can see something named "cmd. exe" under a list of programs.
3. Right-click "cmd. exe" and then you will get the following command windows that allow you to fix your corrupted SD card without format.
4. Type in: chkdsk /X /f sd card letter: or chkdsk sd card letter: /f, for example "chkdsk /X /f G:" or "chkdsk h: /f".

After all the steps, Windows will check and fix the corrupted SD card file system. It usually takes several minutes. After that, if you see "Windows has made corrections to the file system" in the command window, then congratulations!

The damaged SD card is successfully fixed and you can access your data with ease. If you still see no data in the SD card, refer to this tutorial for help: Recover Corrupted SD Card. 

Format unreadable/corrupted SD card with third-party software

Usually, a Micro SD card which appears unreadable in the computer may not have a drive letter assigned nor read its contents. This happens because the SD card may use an incompatible file system, such as EXT S, or its file system is probably damaged. So you need to format the card with reliable SD card format software to solve compatibility issues before you can use it again. But, how do you format an unreadable SD card? It can be done easily with EaseUS partition tool as long as Windows detects and connects to it. 

Here's the step-by-step guide. 

 

Step 1: Open EaseUS Partition Master. Find your SD card and right-click the partition you want to format and choose "Format".

Step 2: Set a new partition label, file system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3), and cluster size to the selected partition, then click "OK".

Step 3: Click "OK" on the pop-up window to continue.

Step 4: Click the "Execute Operation" button on the toolbar, then click "Apply" to start formatting your SD card.