SD card will not format

Question

Earlier today I was looking at pictures in my micro SD card I do this every once in a while and I have never had any problems until today. I was able to use the card as usual until I tried to delete a few pictures. A message popped up saying that the pictures could not be deleted. I thought this was very odd considering I do this all the time with no problems. I exited the message and took out the SD card and put it back in then it said the card could not be used and must be formated. Loosing pictures and other data on the card doesn't bother me at all but I have not been able to format the card. I had another SD card that was barely ever used. I deleted the files on it but was not able to put anything on it. I took it out then put it back in and the exact same thing happened. I've done everything I could think of from downloading a formatting program to going into Disk Management from My Computer and trying to format it there. I only have a USB type card adapter that worked perfectly fine. I'm not sure if it's the adapter causing the problems, the SD cards themselves, or my computer. Can somebody please help me? I don't need the data on the cards I just need to be able to use them again.

Answer 1

Hi,

I would suggest you to connect the SD card on different computer and check if you face similar issue?

Method 1:

I would suggest you to run the Microsoft fixit tool and check.

Hardware devices not detected or not working

http://support.microsoft.com/gp/hardware_device_problems

Also:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Tips-for-fixing-common-driver-problems

Method 2: if the above doesn’t work, try to format your SD card from command prompt.

a. Type cmd in start search box then right click on cmd and click on run as administrator.

 b. when cmd opens, type diskpart.

c. After that type listdisk.

d. Select the disk of your SD card.

e. Type clean.

f. Type create partition primary.

 g. Type fomat fs=fat 32 quick .

 h. Type exit.

Also refer

The capacity of a Secure Digital (SD) card that is larger than 32 GB is reported incorrectly in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/976422

Even though the drivers are up-to-date, you may re-install the drivers from the manufacturers and check.

You may refer the link:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Update-a-driver-for-hardware-that-isnt-working-properly

If the issue persists then you need to Contact your hardware or card manufacturer for replacing it with new card.

Answer 2

On Mon, 8 Oct 2012 02:06:44 +0000, Alex0821 wrote:

I'm not sure if it's the adapter causing the problems, the SD cards themselves, or my computer. Can somebody please help me? I don't need the data on the cards I just need to be able to use them again.

Do you have a friend with a computer and a USB SD card reader? Try
using your cards on his machine.

If you need a new reader, they are very inexpensive--they start around
$1.50 US at Amazon.com.
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP

Answer 3

On Mon, 8 Oct 2012 16:58:12 +0000, Ken Blake -  Microsoft MVP [MVP]
<kblake@kb.invalid> wrote:

On Mon, 8 Oct 2012 02:06:44 +0000, Alex0821 wrote:

I'm not sure if it's the adapter causing the problems, the SD cards themselves, or my computer. Can somebody please help me? I don't need the data on the cards I just need to be able to use them again.

Do you have a friend with a computer and a USB SD card reader? Try
using your cards on his machine.

If you need a new reader, they are very inexpensive--they start around
$1.50 US at Amazon.com.

And let me add that if the same things happen with two different
cards, it's almost certainly not the cards.

Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP

Answer 4

hi i tried the cmd format but in cleanstep its showing request could not be performed because of an i/o device errorwhat im do i tried lots of methods all not works please tell me a solution

Answer 5

I had the same issue on Fujitsu Lifebook T901 after upgrading a previously updated version of windows 10 to Windows Creator 1703 (which, by the way had absolutely zero issues, everything worked fine after that). Then this latest upgrade to Windows 10 Fall Creator's Upgrade which everything worked fine this time EXCEPT that the SD Card was recognized as "this device is working properly" at every point except that it would NOT read the data on the SD Card and kept asking me to format it to use it. When I tried formatting it, the process failed with an unknown error.

SOLVE: First, remove the SD card from its slot. Next, go into device manager and uninstall the device from storage controllers, and storage devices. If asked, also delete the drivers for every instance. Then, once that is done, fully Shut Down your computer...do not just restart it, that won't work. Completely shut it down. When you turn it back on, allow time for your system to find and install the Microsoft drivers from Windows 10. After that, insert your SD Card into its slot and it should work. This is what worked for me.