How to Fix SD Card Corrupted in Simple Steps – A broken SD card or pen drive requires painstaking repair work. You spend hours putting the storage back in working order, but nothing changes.
The same thing might have appeared in an internet forum where people were asking things like, “My pen drive is broken,” or “My SD card isn’t working.”
I’ll discuss several techniques in this article that can be used to fix an SD card or pen drive that has been damaged.
Every time a corrupted storage device causes this issue, we may resolve it by running a number of CMD instructions. If you prefer Windows Explorer to the command prompt, you can attempt fixing a USB drive that way instead.
You can refer to our hard drive repair guide if you’re looking for ways to fix a damaged hard disk as well.
How do you quickly fix a broken SD card or Flash Drive?
- Modify the drive letter
- Change your USB port.
- Try utilizing it on a different PC.
- Repair the SD card or USB device by reinstalling the driver without formatting
- Using Windows Explorer, fix the SD card or USB disk.
- Windows CMD, repair the USB drive or SD card.
- Fix damaged sectors
- To fix a broken SD card or flash drive, use a third-party tool.
- What to do if harmed permanently
You must use an external card reader or the slot on your computer that is supplied for SD cards to use them. If you have a microSD card, use an adapter.
If you attach it using a phone, camera, or other gadget with an SD card slot, it won’t function. You don’t require such a tool to attempt to fix a pen drive. Look at these different approaches.
1. Modify the drive letter
Sometimes your computer is unable to assign drive letters to your storage media, such as C, D, or E. The file inside is therefore inaccessible as a result. You can manually assign drive letters to your storage device to remedy this issue.
The straightforward procedures for fixing a broken pen drive or memory card by selecting the appropriate drive letter are as follows:
- Connect your computer to your storage device.
- Right-click on This PC or My Computer. From the drop-down option, select Manage.
- Wait a few seconds for Windows to launch the Virtual disk service before clicking Disk Management on the left side of the screen.
- Change Drive Letters and Paths by performing a right-click on your storage device.
- Click Change after selecting the drive letter (which will turn blue).
- From the drop-down list, choose the drive letter. Select OK.
2. Test a different USB port
Even though it may sound unusual, attempting to attach an SD card or flash drive to a USB connection on your computer repeatedly is a waste of time. It’s possible that the issue is with the port itself or a software glitch. Therefore, if your USB drive or SD card is not detected, try another USB port.
3. Try using it on a different PC.
You might be having trouble operating a USB flash drive because the issue is unique to your PC. Try connecting your SD card or USB drive to different laptops or computers. I’m hoping it works and you can access the information that’s saved there.
4. Install the driver once more
When the driver for your pen drive is destroyed, your computer might not be able to recognize the storage device. By doing the following, you can reinstall the driver and fix the broken SD card:
- Update the driver
- Right-click on This PC or My Computer. Choose Manage.
- The Device Manager button is on the left.
- On the list, double-click Disk Drive Options. Right-click the name of your SD card or pen drive.
To uninstall, click. Select OK. - Restart your computer after disconnecting any storage devices.
- Reconnect the pen drive. Your computer will find the driver and reinstall it.
5. Fix the SD card or USB disk without formatting.
Utilizing the Check Disk tool that came pre-installed with Windows 10 is one of the tried and true methods for fixing faulty storage media (and earlier versions). In this manner, you can fix your damaged SD card or flash drive without having to format it.
What you must do is as follows:
- Your computer and the storage device connected.
- Write down the drive letter.
- Activate Administrator mode on CMD.
- Enter the command as follows:
- /f chkdsk E: (In this instance, drive letter E)
- Enter the key. The disk check utility will inspect your SD card or USB device and correct any issues it finds. In many instances, this works.
6. Using Windows Explorer, fix a broken SD card or Pen Drive
A built-in SD card repair tool is included in Windows 10 (and earlier versions), and it may be accessed through Windows Explorer. I’ll therefore describe how to format a corrupt SD card or pen drive in the steps that follow:
- Open This PC or My Computer.
- Right-click the corrupted USB drive or SD card.
- From the drop-down menu, select Format.
- Inside the pop-up window, click Restore Default Device.
- To start the formatting procedure, click Start. If you want the computer to thoroughly search the disk or card for faults, you may uncheck the Quick format option, but this will take time. Therefore, just uncheck if your first try is unsuccessful.
- The following dialog box will alert you that data loss will occur; click Ok. You will have an error-free SD card or pen drive after a brief format operation is finished.
7. Use CMD to fix the broken SD card or Pen Drive.
The Windows command prompt, or CMD, is used in this process. If the earlier repair techniques don’t work, you can try this one.
You must enter a few CMD commands here, and Windows will forcibly format your damaged SD card or flash drive:
- Connect the SD card or broken pen drive to your computer.
- Right-click when your cursor is over the Starting button.
- the Command Prompt button (Admin). CMD window will start to appear.
- Enter the command diskpart.
- Enter the disk list after typing it. Your computer will show a list of all connected storage devices.
- Enter the command select disk. (For instance, choose disk 1). Be careful to enter the number accurately. You can format your internal hard drive if you don’t. You can type the disk list again to be sure you made the correct selection.
- The selected disk name will have a star (the asterisk symbol) before it.
- Clean, then hit Enter.
- Enter after entering the primary partition.
- Select active.
- Simply enter choose partition 1.
- Enter after typing “format fs = fat32”. In a few minutes, the formatting process will be finished. If you want to transport files more than 4 GB, you can write NTFS instead of FAT32. Wait till the job is complete before closing the CMD.
8. Remove faulty sectors to fix broken SD cards and USB drives.
Data is stored in a variety of sectors on our storage devices. These sectors eventually become unsuitable for a variety of causes, creating undesirable sectors. You may fix the USB drive by following a few simple steps and issuing a short command. Read on for more information.
9. Repair a broken SD card or Pen drive to recover your lost data.
If you accidently erased files or formatted your SD/Pen Drive, SanDisk Rescue Pro can help you restore your data. The SD card recovery procedure, however, only functions provided your storage medium is not physically destroyed.
Recuva by Piriform is yet another essential piece of data recovery software. See our list of the best data recovery software for more details on data recovery.
10. Use the device manufacturer’s SD card repair tool.
You might not be aware, but there are numerous companies that produce storage units, like SanDisk, Kingston, Samsung, Sony, and others. low-level utilities for formatting and other repair requirements are provided. The device may be used to fix and fully recover SD cards and flash drives.
You can locate this tool by going to the website of the device manufacturer or by getting in touch with their customer care. Alternative SD cards, like that one, and USB drive repair techniques are really helpful in my experience.
The SD Association, which creates official memory card specifications, also offers SDFormatter, an utility for fixing SD cards, including SD, SDHC, and SDXC. It works with both Windows and macOS.
Just a word of advice: find a replacement.
It’s possible that your damaged SD card or USB device still has a guarantee in place. So, if your storage device consistently causes you issues, it is advised to make a lot of effort and request a refund or replacement. The storage medium can be irreparably harmed.
This is what I advise because there is no point in putting your trust in an SD card or flash drive that repeatedly demonstrates its unreliability.
Additional SD card issues
Even though SD cards and flash drives use distinct types of hardware, their repair procedures may be identical. You can encounter issues with SD cards that prohibit you from accessing the data on your computer.
While SD card slots are present on the majority of contemporary laptops and 2-in-1 devices, they are absent from desktop computers. People seek assistance from inexpensive external card readers because they have additional issues.
An external card reader is not functional.
You can mistakenly blame your innocent PC when your card reader is corrupt. The USB port may not provide enough power to the memory card reader, or it may not provide any power at all if the USB cable is damaged.
Another possibility is that you are trying to access your card with an outdated card reader. It might not support newer UHS-I or UHS-II interfaces, greater capacity SDXC cards, or the most recent operating system.
Verify the functionality of your microSD adapter.
Make sure the MicroSD to SD adapter is in good working order before attempting to attach a microSD card. Additionally, the SD card connector has a little sliding bar that, when activated, makes the data on the card read-only. Verify that it is situated properly.
SD card is broken.
If you’re one of those people who abuses their memory cards, eventually it might be irreparably harmed. The gold connector may become damaged or even rendered useless if the SD card is installed and removed from the card reader improperly. Check the connector if your card is not being recognized.
Please take note that the above-mentioned SD card and USB repair techniques are typical ways to fix the gadget. In some situations, following methods might not be helpful because of issues with particular devices.
