What Happens When You Format an SD Card?

January 19, 2024

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Table of Contents

What is Formatting, and What Does it Do?

It’s nothing but formatting of storage devices such as SD cards, USB flash drives, SSDs, or Hard Drives. It is the process of preparing the device for initial use, formatting the SD card, creating a file system, and setting up the structure of the data storage space.

This process is crucial and necessary before you start storing the data. When you format your SD Card, the stored data will get deleted. As mentioned earlier, formatting creates a new file system.

Another thing formatting does is fix minor and significant issues, such as corruption.

Does Formatting an SD Card Delete Everything?

The answer is, unfortunately, Yes. Formatting an SD Card or any other storage device deletes the data saved earlier. It also deletes the file system and directory structure that organizes your data.

The formatting of the SD card deletes the directory structure, which is created to define and determine how and where your data should be saved.

When this directory gets deleted, the data stored will be inaccessible to the user.

One of the most common questions users ask is how to format an SD card without losing data— the next section talks about how to perform a quick format without worrying about data loss.

How To Ensure Your Data is Safe During While Formatting Your SD Card?

The easiest way to ensure your data is safe when preparing to format your SD card is by taking a comprehensive backup of all the data stored in the device and saving the backup on a different drive or the cloud.

This way, you can be sure that your data is safe.

How To Format an SD Card on Windows?

Suppose you want to know how to format an SD card on Windows. You can follow the steps mentioned below.

First of all, All you need to do is connect the SD card you want to format to your computer using an SD card reader.
Then, You can Open File Explorer on your Windows PC/Laptop, and click “This PC ” in the left pane.”
From next you can right-click on the SD card in the right pane and select “Format.”
In the “Format” window, select the file system you want to use, the Allocation unit, and the preferred format.
So after all is done click on the “OK” button.
A warning message will appear telling you that formatting will erase all data on the card. So you can click on the “OK” button to confirm.

The formatting process will take a few minutes to complete. Once the formatting process is complete, the SD card will be ready to use.

How To Format an SD Card on a Mac?

Firstly, You can connect the SD card you want to format to your MAC using an SD card reader.
Go to the Disk Utility application. You can follow the following path: Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility.
From then a list of all storage devices and volumes will appear on your screen. Afterward, You can select the SD Card that you want to format. Then, Click on the Erase button located on top of the screen.
A dialog box will appear on your screen. You are now required to select a file system and give your SD card a descriptive name.
Finally, click on the Erase button.

Depending upon various factors such as the size of your SD card, selected file format, etc. The formatting process might take a few minutes to complete.

Can You Recover Data Lost After Formatting an SD Card?

The formatted data will be available on the SD card; it’s just that you cannot manually access it. You need specialized data recovery software to help you recover data from a formatted SD card.

How To Recover Data From a Formatted SD Card?

A specialized data recovery tool is the ultimate answer. Yodot Hard Drive recovery software is a professional tool that is tried and tested to help users recover any type of file saved on any SD card.

Conclusion

Formatting an SD card always leads to the loss of your data. Therefore, it is essential to take a complete and updated backup of your most important data and files and save it on various external drives or locations.

However, if you have lost your data after formatting, you can use a specialized tool like Yodot Hard Drive Recovery software.