Often, many novice users ask questions about what “formatting a memory card” is, because the operating system offers to perform this process for some reason, or this procedure is required when working with some specialized programs when unusual information is written to the media , and, let's say, a bootable drive is created like a flash drive. By and large, there is nothing particularly complicated in understanding this term, however, when performing such operations, some nuances must be taken into account, which are proposed to be discussed in more detail.
What is “format memory card” in general terms?
So, for starters, let's define the main term. What is “format memory card”, in the general case, almost all users understand. Roughly speaking, this term refers to cleaning the media of the information available on it, possibly with replacing the file system, resizing the cluster, reassigning the volume label, deleting existing partitions, etc. In principle, the formatting process itself is no different from all those actions that you apply to the same flash drives or hard drives of any type.
But in order to perform formatting, the medium must be somehow connected to the system and its contents recognized. To do this, use special devices called card readers or card readers (from the English card reader). And if for the same flash drives or removable external hard drives on any computer device you can always find a couple of USB ports, then not all stationary PCs are equipped with card readers. Most often, the presence of such devices is provided in laptops and mobile devices. In stationary terminals, external card readers are used.
Media Formatting Options
What is “format the memory card” in a general sense, a little understood. Now you should pay attention to the options (methods) of formatting. Speaking specifically about the means of Windows, there are only two methods - quick and full formatting.
In the first case, as indicated even in the description of the process, only the table of contents is cleared, that is, the data is zeroed out or becomes invisible to the user's eyes, but physically is still present on the medium. And to recover information using special programs can be completely elementary (we will dwell on these issues separately).
With full formatting, the entire existing file structure is overwritten, and with complete deletion of information. It is considered behind the scenes that after formatting using a method like this, it is impossible to recover data on a memory card. This is the deepest mistake, because when using some powerful applications, you can also extract everything that was on the media before formatting, without too much effort.
But what is not available on Windows is low-level formatting, which is a kind of reset to factory settings and is used when the drive becomes unreadable, for example, due to damage to the firmware responsible for the operation of the controllers (firmware).
Can I use Windows tools to format?
As for the tools of Windows-systems, you can apply standard methods for formatting memory cards. Such processes are absolutely no different from all those operations that are used for the most common flash drives. Using RMB on the media, select the formatting item in the menu, and then specify the type and, if additional parameters are required, as mentioned above.
Please note that some cards support exFAT file structures, which can be used when working with other operating systems or with mobile devices. Changing the default cluster size is usually not required, so most users are content with standard options.
What to do if the memory card is not recognized?
But the biggest problem of all media of this type is that quite often they are not recognized by the operating system, due to a change in the same file system to an unreadable RAW structure, damage to the firmware, lack of reader drivers, etc.
But this is not limited only to this, since it also happens that the system cannot complete the process that has already begun.
Another problem is that in fact the card may be in working condition, but the system does not see it, which makes formatting impossible.
In such a situation, experts recommend simply inserting the media into a mobile device (for example, into any Android device) and performing the necessary operations on it. In this regard, Android is not as cranky as Windows.
Nuances of installing specific card reader drivers
But back to Windows. Suppose a card is detected on a mobile device, and Windows stubbornly reports that the media is not formatted when you insert the drive into the card reader. Most likely, the problem here is in the reader. Despite the fact that in the “Device Manager” there are no hints of problems with the driver, in fact, everything turns out differently. Very often, such situations can be observed when installing universal O2Micro drivers. But there is a way out. Suppose you install the driver from an EXE file, and in the directory where the main applet is located, there are several more components, including INF format files. The installer independently selects the final folder for installing the driver (most often it is Program Files (x86), and then gives an error message stating that it does not contain the same INF installers.
Just copy the objects indicated in the message to the destination directory and repeat the process of installing the main driver.
Formatting a damaged memory card
As for the malfunctions of such drives, if it is not possible to perform any formatting methods, the very low-level formatting that allows you to restore the factory firmware will be the output. Among all the well-known applications of this type, one can especially single out the SDFormatter utility and the most powerful HDD LLFT program. Both applications show excellent results.
But it is especially worth noting the program for formatting memory cards (and not only) HDD LLFT. It is attractive in that it recognizes even those hopelessly damaged media that neither Windows nor other OS tools want to work with. In this application, you can also choose a formatting method (for example, by deleting all existing virtual and physical partitions). At the end of the process, in most cases, the card immediately becomes readable.
Restoring media using highly targeted utilities
It is clear that low-level formatting destroys information completely and completely, and it cannot be restored. Therefore, in order to save important data, it is sometimes advisable to use utilities specifically to restore the operation of controllers. Usually they can be found freely available on the official resources of card manufacturers.
You can also use universal utilities like D-Soft Flash Doctor or determine the PID and VID device identifiers in the ChipGenius program, and then use them to search for the most suitable firmware. This is somewhat similar to searching for a device driver by VEN and DEV identifiers.
Information Recovery Summary
Finally, a few words about data recovery that could be lost due to damage to the card or after formatting it using Windows tools. Whoever says whatever, data can be restored. You just should not use such widely praised programs like Recuva for these purposes. Anyway, even if the files are found, the application will report that it is impossible to restore them.
Professional and semi-professional utilities like R-Studio and R.Saver look much more powerful and interesting. But they just know how to extract information from the media, even after full formatting. The effect is so amazing that many users are simply surprised that the program could find information that was deleted so long ago that no one remembers it. In addition, some PC cleaning programs have tools for finding deleted files in their arsenal, so in the simplest case, you can use such applications.