- Updated on 2019-09-16 to Data Recovery
I use a 64GB SD Card and it is full. I need to use it to store my new vacation photos but I have no idea how to erase that storage device. So, how do I do it?
Well, wiping an SD Card is very simple, especially on Windows computers. There are several methods available, you can try them and see which you are most comfortable with. But Mac users don’t worry as there is a way to do the same on Mac devices as well. So, if you want to erase SD Card; you will find further details on the article below.
Part 1. What is SD Card? Why Erase An SD Card?
Secure Digital Card or more commonly known as SD Cards are designed for high-capacity memory storage for numerous digital devices. This storage Card is available in 3 different sizes; SD Card, miniSD Card and microSD Card. These storage devices are very small in size and capable of storing up to 2GB of data.
There can several reasons for wiping an SD Card. It may have been an educated decision or accidental. It could also be a decision for repairing the storage device or due to an error all the files got wiped.
- The file system defaults to FAT32 which is fine for smaller SD cards but for larger cards (64 gigabytes and up) you should choose exFAT. You can give the formatted drive a name by entering it into the Volume Label. Finally, click on the Start button. A warning will appear notifying you that all of the data on the drive will be erased.
- On older devices you'll need to first select All Files and then select the SD Card option. 3 The files and folders on the SD card will be displayed To delete files or folders, long press on the item you wish to remove, and select the Delete option in the top right of the screen.
On Windows 7, open the Start menu and search for “cmd.” Right-click the “Command Prompt” shortcut that appears and then choose “Run as Administrator.” Step Two: Use “diskpart” to Clean a Disk We’ll be using the diskpart command to clean the disk.
Part 2. How to Wipe An SD Card on Windows
There are several ways to erase an SD Card on Windows computers. The methods mentioned below are effective and you can select any one of them to clean the SD Card, completely.
But surely such procedures are designed to wipe all the data on the selected storage device; so, makes sure to back up the said storage device before you try any of the following methods.
Method 1: Erase SD Card by Fully Formatting SD Card
Formatting can erase SD Card easily, this is one of the most common ways to clean any sort of storage devices. Let’s have a look how to clear an SD card by formatting.
- Step 1. Open your computer and start the “File Explorer”.
- Step 2. After that, locate the SD Card and make a right-click on it.
Step 3. Choose the “Format” option from the drop-menu.
- Step 4. You can choose the file system and then click “Quick Format”.
- Step 5. Lastly, click “Start” and Windows will format the SD card immediately.
There is to a time limit for the completion of this procedure, it can take a second to format the SD Card or it can take 2-3 minutes, just wait patiently, it will happen. Slackapi.
Method 2: Erase SD Card Using DiskPart in Command Prompt
Generally, users directly format the SD Cards, as it is a much simpler way to erase such storage devices. But you can also use DiskPart in Command Prompt to do the same.
Although, this is a complex method and you have to be skilled to execute it properly. So, here’s how to erase SD Card with DiskPart:
- Step 1. Open your computer and run “Disk Management”. You must remember the disk number for the SD card you want to clear.
- Step 2. Then, run Command Prompt with Administrator access. Then, type “DiskPart” and hit “Enter” to execute.
- Step 3. After that, you have to type command list disk and hit “Enter” and all the disks on your computer will be listed.
Step 4. Ozone 7 for mac. : Then, type the number of the SD Card. After that, type “Clean” and hit “Enter” to execute.
- Step 5. Now, just close Command Prompt after “DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk” message is visible on the screen.
As you can see, this is completely a text-based execution. If you are not careful, you will not be able to erase the SD card properly.
Method 3: How to Clear An SD Card in Disk Management
Disk Management is a partitioning tool that has been included with the Windows OS since the launch of Windows 2000.
But this tool can also be used for clearing an SD Card. The procedure is simple; let’s have a look at how to wipe an SD Card using Disk management:
- Step 1. Open your computer and run “Disk Management”.
Step 2. Choose the partition for SD Card and make a right-click on it and choose “Format”.
Step 3. Now, you have to specify the file system and allocate the unit size. After that, uncheck “Perform a quick format” and lastly click “OK”.
Step 4. After that, you have to click “OK” again to confirm that you want to format the SD Card.
The moment you click OK, Disk Management will immediately format your SD Card.
Part 3. How to Clear SD Card on Mac
It is possible that you don’t use a computer that runs on Windows OS; still, you will be able to wipe the data on your SD Card. The procedure is still pretty easy even if you are using a Mac. So, here’s how to clear SD Card on Mac:
- Step 1. Run disk utility on your Mac.
Step 2. Then, locate the SD Card within disk utility and click on the “Erase” option.
- Step 3. As soon as you click on it, a drop-menu will appear with several options, choose the regular delete option. But this will not delete the files permanently.
- Step 4. But you can choose to “Format” and then click on “FAT” or eFAT”. Then, click delete to completely erase the SD Card.
Additional Part: How to Recover Deleted Data from SD Card
Although, it is really easy to delete files permanently from an SD Card using the mentioned procedures it is significantly difficult to restore them if the erasure was accidental.
But we are presenting you with the best way to restore those files on your SD Card and it is called Windows Data Recovery. This is a proper data recovery software that can effectively restore lost/deleted data without any hassles. Let’s look at the procedure below:
Step 1. First, download and install the said program from its official website.
- Step 2. Then, run the program and connect the SD Card to the said computer. You must use a card reader.
Step 3. After that, choose the SD Card option, available under “External Drives” and immediately click on the button called “Scan” to proceed.
Step 4. Now, the software will start scanning the SD Card. The procedure will take a few minutes to complete but it also depends on the size of the files.
Step 5. After completing the scan, the SD Card data recovery tool will display the results categorically. But you will get the preview of the files if you click on the “Preview” option.
Step 6. Lastly, select the files you want to recover and click on the “Recover” button below to get them back. Cisco systems vpn client 5. You must recover deleted files from SD Card again.
Summary
Hence, there are several effective ways to erase an SD Card on a Windows computer and even on Mac devices. But if you ever lost files from the said storage device your only effective option is to use Any Data Recovery to recover those files such as recover corrupted SD Card immediately.
Before the days whenever a computer on the planet was connected to the internet, the most common way to spread a virus was to infect removable storage media like a floppy disk. Those disks may have long since gone, but there’s one type of removable storage that is still prone to malware — flash storage, most commonly the SD card. Mostly used in digital cameras and for additional storage on smartphones, SD cards are also connected to Mac and PCs to download photos or share other types of files. Sadly, it’s possible to share viruses this way too. And if you find a virus on an SD card that has precious photos on it, the last thing you want to have to do is reformat it and lose your photos. So, here’s how to remove a virus from an SD card without formatting it.
Symptoms of a virus on an SD card
There are several ways to tell whether your SD card is infected with a virus. Some of the most common are:
• Files may turn into Windows shortcut links
• Files may become hidden
• Files may be corrupted or have been erased
• The SD card may start to become slow, and it will take longer to copy files to and from the card, or your camera or phone may seem to slow down
• Files are missing
• You get an error message when you try to use the card
• You can’t access the card at all
• You see a pop-up prompt asking you to reformat the card when you plug it into your computer
All of the above are signs that your card may have a virus. So, before you use it again, you should remove it.
How to manually remove virus from an SD card
If you’re a Mac user, you’ll need to persuade someone who has access to a Windows PC to help you or let you use their computer since this method relies on using the Windows “cmd” command to launch the command-line interface.
1. Put the SD card in the SD slot on the PC or, if it doesn’t have one, use a USB card reader
2. Note the drive letter for the SD card – in this example, we’re going to assume it’s “F,” so wherever you see “F” below, replace it with the drive letter for your SD card
3. Click on Start
4. Choose Run, then type “cmd” and press Enter
5. You should see a new command interface window open
6. Type the following, remembering to replace “F” with the drive letter for your SD card: attrib -h -r -s /s /d f:*.*
7. Press Enter
Once the command has run, it should have removed the virus from the SD card. However, it doesn’t work in all cases. Fortunately, there is one more thing you can try before resorting to reformatting the card.
Another option for removing a virus from an SD card
If the manual method described doesn’t work, there are a couple of other options. The first is to manually copy as many of your photos and other files from the SD card as you can. Once you’ve done that, you can reformat the card. Here’s how to do that on a Mac:
1. Go to Applications, then Utilities, and double-click Disk Utility to launch it
2. Click on the SD card (not the volume underneath) in the sidebar
3. Choose the Erase tab
4. Type in a name for the card
5. Choose “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” as the format
6. Choose GUID Partition Map as the scheme
7. Press Erase
How To Clear An Sd Card
To reformat an SD card on a Windows PC, do the following:
1. Click on the Start menu and then choose the folder icon (above the cog on the left side of the screen) to open File Explorer
2. Choose This PC
3. Click on the name of your SD card
4. Select the Manage tab at the top of the window
5. Press Format
6. Click on the menu under “File System” and choose exFAT
7. Type a name into the “Volume label” box
8. Press Start and then Ok
How To Clean Up A Sd Card
The SD card will now be erased and re-formatted. The virus will be gone, but so will all your data. So if there’s anything you weren’t able to copy to your computer before you reformatted, you’ll need to try and recover it.
The best way to recover data from an SD card is to use specialist recovery software. There are many tools available, including some that are specifically designed to recover photos from an SD card. Research which is the best one for your needs and find out whether you can try it for free to see if it finds any recoverable data before you pay for the software so you can recover it.
If you think the virus on your SD card may have been transferred to your computer, you should scan the computer using antivirus software. Several antivirus tools are available for Mac and PC, some of which will allow you to both scan and remove malware for free. An alternative, if you’re using a Mac, is to use the malware utility in CleanMyMac X. This tool scans your Mac at the click of a button and either returns a clean bill of health or allows you to remove any malware it finds at the click of a button. You can download CleanMyMac X for free here.
Finding a virus on an SD card doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to reformat it — though you should copy your most precious photos from it as a precaution. It is possible to remove the virus without reformatting it. However, if you do have to wipe the SD card completely to get rid of the virus, running a data recovery tool specially designed for flash storage media might allow you to recover your data.