How to Format SD Card Using CMD?

Why need to format SD Card?

SD card is a very useful tool to store or transfer data between different devices. However, different devices may have different requirements on File System. Therefore, people need to format SD card to NTFS, FAT32 or exFAT file system in order to put it in proper use on a certain device, like a PC or Mac, music player, digital camera, game console, Android smartphone.

Furthermore, if an SD card is inaccessible, damaged or corrupted, you can format damaged/corrupted SD card to prolong its lifespan. Also, when you cannot remove write protection on SD card after trying all kinds of possible ways, you can format it to remove write protection and make it writable again.

How to format SD card using diskpart?

You probably meet this error: “Windows was unable to complete the format” when you try to format your SD card or USB drive to NTFS or FAT32 in Windows Explorer. This error may be caused by virus inflection, damaged SD card or bad sectors on SD card. You can try to format SD card using CMD.

Note: formatting SD card will delete all data on it and set it up as a brand new one. So, backup all the files and data on it.

Diskpart is a built-in tool that manage your hard drives. You can use it to format disk including internal or external hard drive, USB drive, SD card, etc. When your SD card is damaged or corrupted, you can also use this tool format it. Let’s see how to format (corrupted memory) SD card using CMD.

1. Open the command prompt by typing “CMD” at the search box, right-click the program and select Run as Administrator.

2. The command prompt, type diskpart and press Enter.

3. Next, type “list disk” to display all disks on your computer.

4. Type “select disk n” and press Enter. Here disk n is stands for the disk number of SD card.

5. Type “format fs=fat32 quick” or “format fs=ntfs quick” and press Enter to format SD card to FAT 32 or NTFS as you want.

Finally, you can create partition on the formatted partition, or assign a drive letter for it directly. You can type "exit" and press Enter to close the command prompt.

Tips: You can directly type format /fs:fat32 X: in the command prompt to format the SD card to FAT32. Replace the letter X with the letter of your SD card. However, this method will take you more time compared with diskpart.

If you are not familiar with command prompt, it is not suggested to use it. Here is a very simple way to help format SD card.

How to Format SD card using CMD with AOMEI Partition Assistant

AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro is a remarkable software that can manage your hard drive in Windows 7/8/10/11. You can either format your SD card using CMD or use its GUI. Let take a first look at how to format SD card using CMD with AOMEI Partition Assistant.

Step 1. Download AOMEI Partition Assistant. In the command window that opens type "cd + installation directory of AOMEI Partition Assistant" to get started (e.g. cd C:\Program Files\AOMEI Partition Assistant Pro Edition 7.0). Then type partassist.exe /list and press Enter.

Step 2. It will skip to the AOMEI Partition Assistant command prompt and list all disks on your computer.

Step 3. Type partassist.exe /list:0 and press Enter. 0 refers to the disk you want to list partition on it. Then a new Windows will list the volumes on the disk 0.

Step 4. To format SD card to FAT32, type the command: partassist.exe /fmt:F /fs:fat32 /label:test and press Enter. Then wait till the task done.

Format SD card in AOMEI Partition Assistant GUI

You can also format SD card with AOMEI Partition Assistant GUI. The Format Partition feature allows you to format SD card easily and quickly to any file system including NFFS, FAT16, FAT32, ExFAT, ReFS, Ext, Ext2, Ext4.

Conclusion

You have learned how to format SD card using CMD with diskpart and AOMEI Partition Assistant. If you are not skilled to use CMD, you can sure use the easy way to format SD with AOMEI Partition Assistant GUI.

Besides Format Partition, you can actually use many powerful features as you can see from the main interface of AOMEI Partition Assistant. You can make an exact copy of the SD card by using Copy Disk feature.