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The flash card works but is not formatted. MicroSD problem: Can't format memory card

So, you tried to connect a flash drive to your computer, and in response the system displays a message that the disk is not formatted and you need to do the same - formatting, but in the end the following message appears: "Windows cannot complete formatting the disk." There are several reasons why you cannot format a USB flash drive. Depending on the cause, you can find a way to eliminate it.

If the flash drive is defined as a storage medium, then let's try to check it in the standard way, using the CHKDSK application.

Checking the file system of a flash drive for errors using CHKDSK

We connect the flash drive to the computer, and then as you like:

"Start" → "Search programs and files" → enter the command "cmd"

"Win + R" → and enter the command "cmd". As a result, the following window should appear.

In the window, write the command " chkdsk x: /f /r”, where x is the letter that your flash drive is designated, in this example the flash drive is assigned the letter “f”, then we do not change anything and write the command as it is in the example (the letters “f” and “r” are special keys). After entering the command, press "inter" and look at the results of the check.

You can also check it in the following way: right-click on the flash drive icon and select in the context menu that opens:

"Properties" → "Service" → "Perform verification"

"Scan for and repair bad sectors" → "Startup"

Trying to format the flash drive.

Formatting with special utilities and programs

If, after checking and correcting errors, the flash drive did not come into working condition, and the files stored on it are not of particular value to you, you can try formatting it with special programs like - Hard Disk Low Level Format Tool. The program performs formatting with blocking of damaged memory cells and clears the partition tables, these actions allow you to restore the flash drive to working capacity even in cases where it cannot be formatted using Windows tools, this method is described above. Read more about special programs that allow you to format flash drives in the article -.

If the files on the flash drive are of value to you, then before formatting, you can try to check the flash drive with data recovery utilities: R-Studio, Recover My Files or the like, more details in the article -. If the formatting was done, and the files turned out to be necessary, then the next article will help. These programs do not require disk layout information that is used in the operating system. They scan, cluster by cluster, read information from a flash drive and “connect” file fragments, relying only on signatures.

Flash drive controller chip reprogramming

If the flash drive is not detected in the system at all, there may have been a physical impact on the drive, carefully examine the flash drive. And finally, advice: do more often located on a flash drive. Good luck!

Are you getting a message that Windows can't format? As a rule, the problem is in most cases solvable and, most likely, in this article you will be able to find an answer that allows you to fix it.

Below we will look at several methods to resolve formatting problems. Start with the very first method and move on. As a result, you will be able to solve the problem.

Method 1: using standard OS tools

1. Call up the window "Run" using a combination Win+R . In the window that opens, enter the command "diskmgmt.msc" (without quotes).

2. A window will appear in which disk management is performed. In the list of disks, find the problematic flash drive and click on it once with the left mouse button. A graphical display of the flash drive will unfold just below. Right click on it and go to "Format" (if the status of the flash drive is “Healthy”) or item "Create Partition" (if the status of the flash drive is "Unallocated").

Method 2: Formatting Using the Command Line

1. Start the PC in safe mode (to do this, send it to reboot and at the time the download starts, press the key several times F8). In the window that appears, go to the "Safe Mode" menu.

2. Open "Start" (for Windows 7) or press the key combination Win + Q (for Windows 8) and in the search box type cmd (without quotes). Right-click on the found result and go to the item "Run as administrator" .

3. In the window that appears, you will need to enter a command of the following type:

format x

Where x is your schema drive letter.

Method 3: Using a Third Party Utility

Almost every manufacturer of flash drives that respects itself and users has a special utility in its arsenal that will help restore its full performance to a branded flash drive. Below is a list of major manufacturers with links to utilities.

If the manufacturer of your flash drive is not in the list, then you can try the D-Soft Flash Doctor utility, which is not linked to the manufacturer. Unfortunately, today the official website of the developer does not work, so we do not provide download links in the article.

In the modern world, flash drives for PCs are quite popular, and in mobile devices - microSD memory cards. The popularity of devices is due to their low price, the ability to store large amounts of data, and at the same time easily transfer all this data to other devices.

But these devices also have drawbacks - this is a problem in formatting. Users of these storage media are at a loss because the SD card is not formatted. At the same time, the following questions are often asked: The memory card is not formatted, what should I do? And the SD card is damaged Android how to fix it? Let's answer these questions, and also find out what to do if the memory card is not formatted.

Flash drives are an indispensable part of the modern world, so it is important to know how to properly operate and maintain these devices so that you do not run into problems at the most inopportune moment.

If your SD card is not formatted, that is, there are problems in formatting the flash drive and you can’t complete this action in any way, then you need to either carry the device to a service center or throw it away. But there are also other ways to "rescue a flash drive." One of them is a way to format a flash drive through the console.

In the Windows system, there is one feature when deleting files - if the file itself is occupied by any processes, then it will not be possible to delete it. And through the console, we can destroy everything without any problems. So, here is what we do in the console if the micro SD card is not formatted:

  1. Use the key combination Win+R
  2. The Run window appears. We enter the command there - diskmgmt.msc.
  3. Click "OK" and the "Disk Management" window will appear in front of us. We are looking for our flash drive, right-click on it and select "Format".

If everything went well for you and without errors, then you're done. If it didn’t work out, then don’t close the article - we have a couple more ways.

If your microSD memory card is not formatted, then the SNDFormatter utility will help you. The program is free and easy to download on the Internet, and we will tell you how to use this utility.

  1. We start the program.
  2. In the "Drive" tab, select our flash drive.
  3. In the "Format Type" tab, select "Full" or "Erase". "Format Size Adjustment" set to "On".
  4. And click "Format".

If the program did not work, then try this one - Apacer USB 3.0 Repair tool. The utility is similar to SDFormatter, but it is supplemented with the following functions:

  • low-level formatting;
  • disable protection for flash drives.

You can download the program from the Internet.

  1. We open the standard Windows utility "Command Prompt" through the key combination Win + X, or look for it in the start menu.
  2. In a new window, write "diskpart"
  3. In the next window that opens, write "list disk". In the window, we will be shown all the available data recording disks on the computer, including our flash drive. We find our flash drive (usually it is at the very bottom of the list).
  4. We register the data in the "select disk 1" window. It is your flash drive that may have a different name, and not "disk 1".
  5. Next, we clear the write protection attribute through the command - "attributes disk clear readonly". To check disk attributes, use the "attributes disk" command.
  6. We exit the utility through the “Exit” command, and again try to format the flash drive.

If the above methods did not help you, then the following is just for you.

Download the program "Flashnul". The utility is designed for testing and deep work with removable drives on your computer. Therefore, use it carefully and try not to “click” anything extra. Otherwise, you will damage your data and recording disks.

  1. We unpack / install the program on one of the main disks on our computer. For example, let's take drive C. The path to the program will be - C:\flashnul.
  2. Launch the command line through Win + X or through the start menu and enter this command:

cd C:\\flashnul

  1. Next, a directory with a utility folder appears in front of us, where we need to define our flash drive. We write this command: flashnul -p
  2. In the list that opened, we are looking for the name of our flash drive (number or letter). We remember him. For example, you have a flash drive with the name N. In this case, we write a command to completely clear the data: flashnul N: -F
  3. We run a test for controller errors, all data will be destroyed along with it: flashnulN: -l
  4. Upon completion of the test, we start formatting through the management console. After the actions taken, there should be no errors.

Problems with the program

Numerous problems can occur in Flashnul. One of the important problems is the appearance of this kind of error, in which flashnul itself cannot work with internal and external commands.

To solve the problem, you need:

  1. Open a command prompt and navigate to the directory where our program is unpacked. Let's take drive C as an example.
  2. On the command line, write " C:».
  3. Next, you need to go to the Flashnul utility directory. Enter in line cd flashnul and that's it.

Use the Usbflashinfo utility. After starting the program, click on the "get information about the flash drive" tab. Finding lines VID, PID. Copy the values ​​found in these lines to the search engine. Most likely, there are special formatting programs for this flash drive.

On the flashboot.ru website you will find an incredible variety of programs, utilities and useful information for flash drives and microSD memory cards from all popular manufacturers. Perhaps it is there that you will select the program you need that will help your formatting problem.

We hope that the article helped you to the full and now you know what to do if your SD card is not formatted or there are other problems with formatting other storage media. Now you can not only work with flash drives for yourself, but also help your friends and acquaintances, who will thank you more than once for your efforts.

Good hour!

In the life of any USB flash drive (and microSD too), unforeseen moments happen: sometimes it stops opening and asks for formatting. And Windows formatting fails for unknown reasons (example in Figure 1 below)...

Many users, in this case, put up with this and buy a new flash drive. In the meantime, I'll tell you, there are several recovery options that I recommend doing before you send the flash drive to the scrap (in many cases, you can return the drive to life and it works like new). I will tell about them in this article.

Rice. 1. Typical type of error "Windows cannot complete formatting".

The flash drive is not formatted: causes, recovery methods

Is write protection enabled - "Lock"

Perhaps I will say a banal moment, but SD-flash drives have a special lever that blocks the recording of information on a flash card (just like deleting and formatting). Check if off is in position lock(means blocked).

On USB flash drives, such a lever is much less common (and usually on flash drives from Chinese little-known manufacturers). Pay attention to the icon itself: if the lever is in the "closed lock" position, then the flash drive is blocked from writing (see Fig. 2).

Rice. 2. On / off Lock on a flash drive

Are there any errors on the flash drive? Correction of these

In general, usually, if there are errors on the flash drive, Windows itself offers to check and fix them. If it doesn't work, I recommend running the check manually just in case...

Method 1

  1. Open File Explorer and go to "This computer" ("My computer") ;
  2. Next, connect the USB flash drive (wait until it is displayed in "This computer" );
  3. Right-click on it and select from the context menu "Properties".

Wait for the verification to finish, and then try to work with the flash drive...

Method 2

You can start checking a disk or flash drive using the command line (it is advisable to open it with administrator rights).

To do this, press the button combination Ctrl+Shift+ESC- must open Task Manager . In it, click FILE/Create Task . In line "Open" enter cmd and check the box next to "Create task with admin rights" . Click OK- see fig. 5.

Rice. 5. Run Command Prompt with Administrator Rights

At the command line, enter the command:

chkdsk e: /f

Where e:- the drive letter of the flash drive (put your flash drive letter);

/f - key (do not change!).

Rice. 6. Drive check // chkdsk

Formatting a flash drive through disk management

It happens that through My computer the flash drive is not formatted, but through disk management - everything is OK (apparently the matter is in hidden processes that can interact with the flash drive). Therefore, I recommend trying this method too.

To open Disk Management: Click the buttons WIN+R and enter the command in the line "Open": diskmgmt.msc(as in Fig. 7).

Next in the list, find your flash drive, click on it right mouse button and select from the menu "Format" (arrows 3 and 4 in Fig. 7). Then it remains only to choose volume label , file system and agree to the transaction.

Important! All data on the flash drive, after formatting, will be deleted ...

Rice. 7. How to format a flash drive through disk management

Formatting a flash drive using utilities

If Windows cannot format, then you can try to do it using the special. utilities. In general, there are quite a lot of such utilities and you cannot consider them all within the framework of one article. I will focus only on the best of them.

4.1) For USB stick

HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool is an excellent utility for formatting flash drives and creating bootable media from them. The utility can format flash drives to the following file systems: NTFS, FAT, FAT32. Supports operation via USB 2.0 port. Does not require installation. Compatible with Windows XP, 7, 8, 10.

In many cases of "invisibility" of flash drives, their incorrect operation, the impossibility of maorting - this utility does its job. I recommend!

Rice. 8. Format media in HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool

4.2) For SD stick/card

This program formats all SD cards, SDHC and SDXC. The program is free and works in almost all versions of Windows. In general, I don’t know what else can be added about it - if there are problems with SD cards, I recommend using it. By the way, the developers recommend using the utility to format not only failed drives, but also those that work fine. This is done in order to avoid various compatibility issues...

To start formatting, run the utility, then select the drive (in the example in Figure 9, this is M:), then press Option and where format type- put Full (Erase), And where Format Size Adjustment - put On. Next, click the button Format.

Rice. 9. SDFormatter main window

4.3) Universal Utility

This utility is used to format problematic hard drives, flash drives, SD cards - in general, it supports almost all types of drives connected to a computer.

To start formatting in it, you need (see Fig. 10):

  1. Insert a flash drive and run the utility: then select it in the list of drives;
  2. Push button Continue;
  3. Next, open the section Low Level Format(low-level formatting);
  4. Push button format thisdevive(then wait until the operation is completed).

Important! After low-level formatting - you will need to carry out high-level formatting, as shown a little higher in the article -.

As a rule, after such a low-level formatting, the drive starts working normally (if it is not physically damaged).

Determining the controller model and flash drive firmware

If all other methods did not help, then most likely you will have to try to reflash the flash drive. You need to do this carefully, because if you choose the wrong firmware, you will ruin the flash drive and then it can no longer be restored ...

Instructions for flashing

Since the topic is quite extensive, I singled it out in a separate article to consider all the nuances. The general meaning is as follows:

  • first, the flash drive controller is determined by unique identifiers VID and PID;
  • then there is a special utility for flashing by these identifiers;
  • and then the flash drive is flashed.

As a rule, after such a procedure, even those flash drives that many put an end to begin to work ...

Finally. I accidentally dropped one of my flash drives on the floor. Everything would be fine, but after that it ceased to be displayed. After disassembling it, I found that several contacts had moved away and needed to be re-soldered. By the way, in most cases, it is the contacts that leave, the microcircuit itself remains intact (if a hammer or brick has not fallen on the flash drive).

After resoldering, the flash drive began to work normally, and not even a single file was lost! This method, however, is only suitable for those who know how to solder a little (well, if there is no very necessary data on the flash drive, otherwise, it is better to give it to a service center).

By the way, you can open the flash drive with a knife and a screwdriver. For some models, the case is not collapsible - therefore, its further use will not be very convenient (although you can put it on a shelf and use it, say, for "rare" tasks...).

That's all for me, good luck!