How to Format and Unformat an SD Card? – Rene.E Laboratory Support Center

2024-08-20 Jennifer Thatcher Technology Manager of Test Dept.

Summary

Learn how to use CMD to quickly repair a damaged SD card and eliminate complicated steps. Find out the specific execution commands needed for multiple system functions.

Table of contents

I. What is the CMD command? What does it do?

II. Recover lost data with Renee Undeleter

1. What is Renee Undeleter?
2. How to restore the lost data in the card with Renee Undeleter?

III. How to use CMD to repair damaged SD card?

IV. Introduction of other SD card repair methods

1. Check the SD card for errors and fix them
2. Format the SD card

I. What is the CMD command? What does it do?

CMD is the acronym for Command, that is, Command Prompt. It is a command line working prompt for the Windows operating system. In different operating system environments, the command prompts are different. In the Windows environment, the command line program is cmd.exe, which is a 32-bit command line program similar to Microsoft’s DOS operating system.

With the help of CMD commands, you can quickly perform a series of system function tasks, such as repairing SD card, disk defragmentation and so on. It is very simple to repair a damaged SD card with the help of CMD commands, but repairing the SD card may damage and clear the data in the SD card. If your SD card files can be accessed normally, it is recommended to back up the files before repairing them. In the event of access or data loss, it is recommended that you use the data recovery methods described below to recover first.

II. Recover lost data with Renee Undeleter

1. What is Renee Undeleter?

Renee Undeleter is a software specially used to restore various data files. When you accidentally delete important files, empty the recycle bin, or format the disk/storage, you can use this tool to retrieve the lost data. The software covers four functional modules, including file recovery, format recovery, partition recovery and image creation, which can help you solve all data loss problems in an all-round way. Regardless of the built-in hard disk, mobile hard disk, SD card, U disk and other storage devices, as long as they can be successfully connected to the computer, you can use this software to scan and restore files. The software also supports previewing files to help users accurately find the files that need to be recovered.

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2. How to restore the lost data in the card with Renee Undeleter?

Recovering lost data with Renee Undeleter is very simple, the specific steps are as follows:

Step 1: Download, install and run Renee Undeleter on the computer, and select the Whole Partition Scan option on the main interface. If the target file cannot be found, you can try the Whole Disk Scan function.

Note: Do not install Renee Undeleter in the disk where data is lost to avoid data overwriting. Whole Partition Scan can scan all partition data in the entire hard disk. If all partitions in the computer belong to the same hard disk, it is recommended to install the software on an external U disk or mobile hard disk, because this function does not support scanning the hard disk where the software is installed.

select whole partition scan in renee undeleter to recover deleted video from sd card

Data recovery function introduction:

Fast Partition Scan: Quickly retrieve files lost due to accidental deletion or emptying the recycle bin.

Whole Partition Scan: Quickly recover files lost due to inaccessible or formatted partitions.

Whole Disk Scan: It can analyze and obtain partition information, and fully scan the entire partition.

Image Creation: You can create a mirror image for a partition to back up the current partition state.

Step 2: Next, select the hard disk partition that needs to recover data (that is, the original storage location of the deleted files). After the selection is complete, click Next .

Step 3: Wait patiently for the scan to complete. You can double-click the file to preview it. If it is the file you need, please check the target file and click the Recover button.

preview and select the files to recover in renee undeleter

Step 4: Click the Browse button to select another hard disk partition to save the files, and then click the Recover button. Wait for the recovery to complete, click Browse recovered files to view the recovered files.

select the output folder for usb or sd card recovery session in renee undeleter

The above is the operation method of recovering data with the help of Renee Undeleter. After the data is recovered, you can use CMD to repair the damaged SD card.

III. How to use CMD to repair damaged SD card?

It is very simple to repair a damaged SD card with the help of CMD, the specific operation steps are as follows:

Step 1: Connect the SD card to the computer through a card reader, and make sure the computer can recognize the SD card.

Step 2: Search (cmd) directly in the search box in the lower left corner, and select (run as administrator) to open the command prompt tool.

Step 3: In the command prompt window that opens, enter the command ( chkdsk F: /f /r /x ) (F refers to the disk number of the SD card; /f will attempt to repair all errors on the disk; /x refers to force unmounting the drive before starting the scan; /r refers to scanning and attempting to repair bad sectors), and press (Enter) to fix the error. After the SD card is repaired, put the SD card back into the device and check whether the SD card works normally.

The above is the method of repairing a damaged SD card with the help of CMD. If you think it is too complicated, you can also try the other methods of repairing a damaged SD card introduced below.

IV. Introduction of other SD card repair methods

1. Check the SD card for errors and fix them

Step 1: Open “My Computer/This Computer”, right click on the SD card to be repaired and select (Properties). Switch to the “Tools” option in the properties window and click the (Check) button.

Step 2: Next, select the (Scan drive) option in the error checking interface, and then wait for the error repair to complete.

2. Format the SD card

Formatting the SD card can repair various failures of the SD card and make the SD card work normally again. The detailed steps to format the SD card are as follows:

Step 1: Connect the SD card to the computer through a card reader, and then press the (Windows+X) keys on the keyboard at the same time. Then in the pop-up list, select the (Disk Management) option.

Step 2: Next, find the SD card that needs to be formatted, right-click on it and select the (Format) option.

right click to select format sd card in disk management

Step 3: Select the required file system: FAT32 (applicable to 2-32GB SD card) or exFAT (applicable to SD card larger than 32GB), check (Perform a quick format), click (OK) and follow the instructions to complete the format process. After the formatting operation is completed, the SD card failure can be repaired.