How to Format SD Card using Diskpart and its Alternative?

Need to format SD card using Diskpart

SD card is widely used by many users to store pictures, videos, files, etc, but sometimes you need to format an SD card using Diskpart. Here we have summarized some situations for you.

• Format SD card and use it to store data.  
• Specify a file system for your SD card and make it compatible with your device, such as a digital camera, game console, etc.
• Repair SD card when it’s inaccessible, corrupted, etc.
• Delete data on the SD card to get full capacity.

After getting the situation you may want to format an SD card, then you can learn how to make it in the next part.

Format SD card using Diskpart

Diskpart is a built-in command-line utility, which helps users create and partition a hard drive in Windows 7/8/10/11 and previous XP/Vista. And it supports all kinds of commands, such as, create partition, format partition, converting basic disk to dynamic dis, etc. Thus, you can use it to format an SD card as long as you follow the steps below carefully.

Note: The process of formatting will delete all the data on the SD card and specify a new file system for it. Thus, to avoid data loss, it’s suggested to create a file backup in advance.

Step #1

Connect the SD card to your computer and be sure you can see it in the File Explorer.

Step #2 

Type cmd in the search box. Then, select it and run it as administrator.

Step #3 

In the command prompt window, type diskpart to launch this tool.

Step #4

Then, type the following commands one by one and hit Enter in order.

• list disk
• select disk 1 (1 is the disk number of SD card you want to format)
• list partition
• select partition 1
• format fs=ntfs quick (you can replace NTFS with other file systems you want to use, fat32, for example.)
  

Step #5 

Type exit and hit Enter to leave the diskpart tool.

Now, you may already format an SD card using DiskPart successfully. But you will fail to format SD to FAT32 if the card is larger than 32GB. In addition, if the SD card has two or more partitions, you are only allowed to format the first partition.

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And it may leave the risk of data leakage if there is some sensitive data on it. Because the Diskpart format tool only deletes data on the partition and makes it invisible, you still can recover it using data recovery software or ask the professional for help.

If you happen to be in these situations or don’t want to suffer data leakage, you can choose to format an SD card with a powerful format tool.

Format SD card with Diskpart Alternative

If the Diskpart does not format an SD card, you can use AOMEI Backupper Standard. It allows you to format SD cards in a more thorough way, it’s to fill sectors with zeros. The entire process is to delete all partitions and data on it and then replace the path of your original data with Zero. This can greatly avoid data leakage if there are some sensitive data. Then, learn this way in the following.

Step #1

Download and install this tool. Then, launch it, go to Tools and then choose Disk Wipe.

Step #2

Select the wiping type you want to use, you have two options, namely,   Wipe partition(s) or unallocated space on the disk, and Wipe disk. To wipe the entire SD card, select Wipe Disk.

Note: 

The first option allows you to select one or more partitions you want to wipe while the second one will wipe all the partitions on the selected disk. You don’t need to format partitions on the SD card one by one anymore.

Step #3 

Select the SD card to wipe and click Next. 

Step #4 

Select the wiping method - Fill sectors with Zero and click Start to format SD card safely and quickly.

If you want to format SD card safer, you can pick up Fill sectors with random data, DoD 52220.22-M, Gutmann.

Fill sectors with random data: This method fills all the sectors with random data instead of only zero, which greatly increases the difficulty of data recovery.

DoD 52220.22-M: This method is more flexible and comes along with more passes and slower wiping speed. You can specify the time rewrite by preferences, from one time rewrite to seven times rewrite.

Gutmann: This is the safest way. It will rewrite the SD card 35 times, leaving almost no chance for data recovery.

Pick your choice

You can easily format SD card with Diskpart and its alternative - AOMEI Backupper. Also, you need to pay attention to data on the SD card, because the disk wiping process will wipe the SD card and data on it completely.

If you may use it later, it’s suggested to backup files to an external hard drive with a free backup software. If you don’t have any storage in hand, you can use a cloud backup service to save your data. By using it, you just need to create an account and make sure you have a network connection.