How to Fix Damaged SD Card Easily and Effectively?

▶ My 32GB micro SD card is damaged
▶ How to fix damaged SD card?
▶ Verdict

My 32GB micro SD card is damaged

“I got a 32GB Samsung micro SD card for my Smartphone to store data. It used to work smoothly, but now I am unable to access my 32GB micro SD card with a message saying that SD card is damaged. Try reformatting it. Do I have to reformat SD card to fix it? Or is there any other solution that can help me to repair the damaged SD card without formatting? If so, can you tell me how to repair the corrupted SD card successfully? Any advice will be appreciated. Thanks in advance!”

How to fix damaged SD card?

When you encountered a similar situation aforementioned, don’t panic and try one or more methods to fix your damaged SD card.

✔ Quick tricks to fix damaged SD card without formatting

First of all, it is advised to check whether you have inserted your SD card to the device correctly. If not, disconnect your SD card and connect it properly to your Smartphone or camera again. If lucky, you can use your SD card normally. If you are still unable to access the SD card, you can consider whether there is something wrong with the SD card slot. If the slot is well, you can consider the solutions given below.

✔ Repair damaged SD card using CHKDSK utility

To fix SD card using CHKDSK utility, unplug SD card from the electronic device, insert it into a card reader, and plug it into a working computer running Windows. Let’s have a look at how to fix damaged SD card without formatting, supposed that the operating system of your computer is Windows 10.

1. Open the Search box, type “cmd”, locate Command Prompt, right-click it and choose “Run as administrator.”

2. In Command Prompt window, type “chkdsk d: /f” and hit “Enter”.

What you should know is that “d” is the number of drive letter of the partition on SD card. If you don’t know the drive letter assigned to SD card partition, you can go to Disk Management to locate the drive according to its capacity or something else and remember its drive letter.

When the process is over, you may repair the damaged SD card successfully and be able to access it in smartphone. If this way is invalid, try the next solution.

✔ Fix damaged SD card by formatting

As formatting will erase all data on your SD card, you can recover your data from damaged SD card firstly to another drive using certain recovery software if you don’t want to lose data on it. Then, right-click the SD card partition and choose “Format…” in Windows File Explorer. If you are prompted by the message that Windows was unable to complete the format, try to format corrupted SD using Diskpart utility and follow the steps given below:

1. Press Windows + R to open Run box, input “diskpart” and press Enter key.

2. Type the following commands and every command shall be followed by hitting Enter key.

▪ list disk
▪ select disk m, m refers to the number of the SD card
▪ clean
▪ create partition primary
▪ format fs=exfat
▪ assign drive letter f, f refers to the drive letter for the SD card partition and you can change it as you like.

Now, you have formatted your corrupted SD card successfully.

If you are unfamiliar with Diskpart command, there are chances that make wrong operations like cleaning a wrong disk. In such a condition, it is advised to third party partition tool for SD card. Here AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard is recommended. With an intuitive graphical user interface, it allows you to delete and format partition on SD card without any efforts. And it offers you several file systems including NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, Ext2, and Ext3 to choose. Free download it and have a closer look at how it works.

Step 1. Install and run the software. In the main interface, right-click the partition on the SD card and choose “Delete Partition”. 

Step 2. In the small pop-up window, choose one from two options. Then, click “OK”.

▪  Delete partition quickly (delete partition without wiping data).
▪ Delete partition and wipe data on it.

Step 3. Then you’ll return to the main interface. Here you can preview pending operation. Click “Apply” >“Proceed” to perform it. And you’ll get an unallocated space on SD card.

Step 4. Right-click the unallocated space and choose “Create Partition”.  

Step 5. In this window, you can adjust the size, change drive letter and choose file system of the new partition. 

Step 6. In the main interface, preview pending operation and click “Apply” > “Proceed” to execute it. 

Notes:
▪ It is also available to resize partition on SD card via AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard.
▪ You are allowed to create multiple partitions on SD card or format partition over 32GB to FAT32 as well via AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard.

Verdict

SD card is a kind of popular storage device for its convenience and portability. At the same time, there are chances that it is damaged or corrupted if you take inappropriate action like removing SD card while it is under operation. Thus, it is necessary to realize how to fix damaged SD card. What’s more, it is necessary to back up your SD card regularly if there is important information on it.