Are you wondering how you can format your SD cards? Well, there are many ways to delete and format your memory cards. In this article you’ll learn about a free SD Card formatter software from SanDisk.
What is SanDisk SD Card Formatter Tool?
SanDisk formatter tool is a convenient way for SD Card owners for formatting their memory cards into a specific file system type. It is advisable to use the SD Card formatter tool compared to built-in operating system formatting tools which are not optimized for SD/SDHC/SDXC cards which can result in low performance.
The Card format tool formats memory cards within the FAT parameters which are optimized for flash memories that result in higher endurance and better card performance. It is available on most Windows versions and macOS.
This format tool does not format the protected area of SD/SDHC/SDXC cards which is great if you have important files stored on that part of the memory. It has support for SD Card slots on your computer and USB card readers (USB 2.0, USB 3.0, USB 3.1, and USB Type-C).
How to format your SD Card with SanDisk SD Card Formatter Tool
In general, using the format tool is quite easy. However if you are looking for a detailed guide on how to reformat your SD Card proceed to the guide below.
Step 1. Open the SD Card formatter tool
Step 2. On the main screen, you will see a drop-down menu of the available storage devices to format.
Step 3. Select the SDHC/SDXC memory card that you want to format.
Step 4. Choose between quick format and overwrite format
- Quick Format – this format method erase all the files and data by initializing system parameters of the card, but it doesn’t format data written in files.
- Overwrite Format – this method also starts by initializing system parameters to delete files and directory. The difference between overwrite and quick format is that overwrite format also erases all data including areas of user data. This also take more time to finish compared to a quick format.
Step 5. Wait for the format to finish then remove your SD Card.
Take note that if you are going to use the card on another device, it is advisable to go through the Overwrite format to avoid any SD Card errors.
What if SD Card Formatter Fails to Format?
In some cases, if your SD Card is not formatting successfully, chances are the card is broken or about to die. The best way to fix this problem is to replace the card with a new one to avoid further errors.
However, you can still try different methods to reformat your memory card before replacing it with a new one.
Device method
The first thing that you can try is to insert your card to the device that you want to use it. Most of the time your device would automatically format it to the compatible file system. If this is not the case, go to your device settings and format the card manually.
Computer Method
Another thing to try is formatting the memory card using the Windows built-in format tool or macOS format tool. To do this right-click on your memory card and select format. Format your card on your desired file system type and wait for the process to finish.
Find out how to format SD card on different computers:
CMD method
The last thing to try is by using the Windows Command Prompt. Here you can reformat your card manually with a few lines of command. You can find a lot of tutorials on youtube about this.
If all the methods above failed, you should now proceed with buying a new memory card for your device. Check out our suggestion for your memory card replacement below.
SanDisk Extreme Memory Card
The SanDisk Extreme SD Card has over 39,000 customer reviews on Amazon with an 80% 5-star user rating. It is the lowest model on the Extreme lineup but it still performs well compared to most SD cards in the market. The card has support for 4k videos which is great for GoPros and professional cameras. It has a write speed of up to 40 MB per second with a V30 rating. In terms of transfer speed, the SanDisk Extreme memory card can reach up to 150 MB per second which is great for transferring large files from your SD Card. It is offered on a variety of storage options and also available on storage bundles.
The SanDisk Extreme memory card is great for most smartphones, handheld consoles, professional cameras, and drones. If you want other SanDisk SD Card alternatives, you can check our full review of SanDisk Memory Cards on the link below.
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