You might be using your SD card to view your photos or videos and suddenly you could see an error saying your SD card needs to be formatted. In such cases, you need not worry! In this article, we have listed various methods that you can use to fix this error for free and method to recover data from SD card without formatting it.
The usage of memory cards is not only limited to increasing the storage size of a camera, drone, smartphone, or any other device. But they are also used to take a backup of your media files, such as photos and videos.
SD cards have always been an important device to increase the storage capacity of your camera or PC. Irrespective of how important your SD card is, it can be prone to corruption or error. One such SD card error is SD card needs to be formatted.
When your SD card suddenly says it needs to be formatted, it not only forces you to format it but even makes the data inaccessible until you don't successfully format or repair it.
One of the cons of formatting the SD card in such cases is data loss, as it erases everything present on it.
If you have not taken a copy of your important SD card data, then it is recommended to first recover the data from it and then fix the SD card that suddenly needs formatting error.
When you encounter an SD card error saying, "You need to format the disk," then your priority before fixing or formatting it should be recovering your important files. This will help you avoid an SD card data loss scenario. If you have not taken a backup of your card, then recovering files is impossible without using any reliable formatted SD card recovery tool.
Use Remo Recover to recover data from an SD card that says it needs to be formatted. It makes data recovery easy in such situations. The software can understand various file formats and also offers a free preview. Try this software to restore your inaccessible SD card data before considering formatting it safely.
Note: Have you formatted an SD card as an internal storage device on your mobile phone? Check out this article to learn how to recover files from an SD card formatted as an internal storage device.
Before jumping to any fixes you can check for basic checks like inserting the SD card in a new port, and look for any dust or damage in the dust near the SD card pins.
Even after checking all these, still, the SD card still says it needs to be formatted.
Following are the reliable ways to fix the SD card that needs to be formatted for free.
This method helps you fix multiple SD card errors, including the SD card not formatted issue. Follow the below simple steps to fix your SD card without formatting it.
In case this method doesn't resolve your SD card issue, then this could be due to the high severity of corruption. In such cases, you should format the SD card to fix the error.
Once the scan is completed, the errors in the SD card will be fixed, make sure you don’t leave any unsaved work in the SD card.
If the above solutions didn’t fix the formatting error in the SD card then you need to format the SD card using Diskpart.Exe
This will format the SD card in the NTFS file system, and you will not encounter any format errors after this fix.
Follow the simple steps to force an SD card to format it using the Disk Management tool on Windows. Make sure to take a backup of all your important photos and other media files before you format the card.
Note: In case you have formatted SSD, USB, or even a hard drive, you can refer to the links mentioned to know how you can recover data from the same.
Some of the common reasons for a (micro) SD card that needs to be formatted are as follows:
The errors in SD cards are always a threat to the data present in them; on such error, "SD needs to be formatted error," this article aims to help users who suffer from this situation. The effective solutions in this article will help you get over this issue without formatting the SD card so that your data is always safe.
Make sure you take a backup of the SD card to avoid panic from this kind of error.
Suppose your camera card is showing, "You need to format the disk". We would first suggest you recover all your photos from it using Remo Recover software. And then follow the below steps to format it for a digital camera, DSLR, or camcorder.
Step 1: Insert SD card in your camera that is showing the formatted error
Step 2: Go to the Menu option on the camera and click on Setup
Step 3: Choose the Format card option and click on the OK button
After performing the above steps wait for the formatting process to complete, and then you can start fresh with your SD card without any errors.
Yes, formatting the SD card deletes everything. Therefore, it is always suggested you take a backup of your data before you format the card.