How to Format an SD Card

This is an article that shows you how to format an SD card – a type of removable memory commonly used in cameras, tablets, and phones. Formatting any drive will delete the files stored on it; so remember to back up the files in the SD card (such as photos or videos) before formatting.

Table of Contents

On Android OS

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Make sure the SD card is mounted in the Android device. If you need to insert an SD card, you must remove the back cover of the device.

Tablets and phones typically use microSD cards, which are small versions of the SD cards used in cameras.
In some cases, you need to remove the battery of your Android device to see the SD card slot.

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Open Settings

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(Settings) on Android with a gear icon in your device’s App Drawer.

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Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and select Storage . You’ll see this option in the middle of the Settings page.

On Samsung devices, select Device maintenance .

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Tap the name of the microSD card below the “Portable storage” heading.

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Tap the ⋮ icon in the upper right corner of the screen.

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Tap Storage settings below the drop-down list.

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Select Format or Format as internal . If you want to set up the SD card as internal storage, select Format as internal . If you only want to delete data on the SD card, select Format .

You may have to select Storage at the bottom of the page on Samsung devices first.

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Select ERASE & FORMAT (Erase and Format) at the bottom of the page to start formatting SD memory cards for Android devices.

This process only takes a few seconds. Once done, your SD card has been successfully formatted.

On Windows operating system

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Insert the SD card into the computer. Your computer usually has a thin, wide external slot for an SD card.

Be sure to insert the slanted end of the SD card in front and the side with the sticker facing up.
If your computer doesn’t have an SD card slot, you can buy a USB-type card reader to connect the SD card via the USB port.

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Open Start

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by clicking the Windows icon in the lower left corner of the screen.

You can also press the ⊞ Win key.

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Click the . icon

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on the left side of the Start window to open File Explorer.

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Click My Computer with the desktop icon on the left side of the File Explorer window.

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Click the name of the SD card. You’ll see the name of the tab under the “Devices and drives” heading in the middle of the This PC window. The name of an SD card is usually accompanied by the characters “SDHC”.

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Click the Manage tab in the menu at the top left of the This PC window.

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Click Format in the upper left of the window, with the flash drive icon and red circle arrow above it. This will open the Format window.

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Click the “File System” box below the “File System” heading near the top of the page. The screen will display a list with the following options:

NTFS – The default format of the Windows operating system and is only suitable for Windows.
FAT32 – Wide compatible format. Suitable for Windows and Mac, but has a memory limit of 2 terabytes with a maximum file size of 4 gigabytes.
exFAT (Recommended) – Suitable for Windows and Mac, no memory limit.

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Click to select a format type that you want.

If you have formatted the memory before, check the Quick Format box.

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Click Start , then select OK to let Windows start formatting the SD card.

Photos in your SD card will be deleted during processing.

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Click OK when prompted. This indicates that the SD card has been changed to support the selected format.

On Mac OS

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Insert the SD card into the computer. Your computer usually has a thin, wide external slot for an SD card.

Be sure to insert the slanted end of the SD card in front and the side with the sticker facing up.
Many newer Mac computers do not have an SD card slot, you need to buy a USB type card reader to connect the SD card via the USB port.

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Open Finder with the blue face icon in the Dock.

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Click Go at the top of the screen, to the left of your Mac’s menu bar.

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Click Utilities in the Go selection list.

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Double-click Disk Utility in the middle of the Utilities page.

The widgets on this page are usually arranged in alphabetical order.

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Click the name of the memory card in the window at the far left of the Disk Utility page.

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Click the Erase tab at the top of the Disk Utility window.

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Click the box below the “Format” heading in the middle of the page. This will display a list with the following options:

Mac OS Extended (Journaled) – The default format on Macs, Mac only.
Mac OS Extended (Journaled, Encrypted) – Encrypted version of the default Mac format.
Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) – Version of the default format on Macs, with different treatment for files of the same name but with upper and lower case differences (such as ” file.txt” and “File.txt”).
Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled, Encrypted) – A combination of the three formatting options above for Mac formatting.
MS-DOS (FAT) – Suitable for Windows and Mac computers, but has a file limit of 4 gigabytes.
ExFAT (Recommended) – Suitable for Windows and Mac computers, no memory limit.

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Click the format that you want to use as the SD card settings.

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Click Erase , then click Erase when asked. This allows the Mac to begin erasing and reformatting the SD card. Once the process is complete, your SD card should support the selected format.

Advice

SD card readers usually cost less than 200,000 VND.

Warning

If you do not back up your SD card before formatting, you will not be able to recover deleted files.

Steps

On Android OS

On Windows operating system

On Mac OS

Advice

Warning

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