Any modern drive needs maintenance, including an SD card for a mobile gadget. One of the most common procedures, besides deleting and writing information, is formatting. Drives leave the conveyor, as a rule, already ready for use, and there is no need to do any unnecessary manipulations before use.
The need to format the SD card on Android may arise in a number of other cases, which we will discuss below. There can be many scenarios, and some experience serious problems when performing this seemingly simple procedure. Therefore, we will provide detailed instructions on how to properly format an SD card on Android and do it as painlessly as possible.
Need for procedure
Almost all external SD drives with a capacity of less than 64 GB come with the FAT32 file system. The last "understands"the vast majority of other devices: video players, set-top boxes, players, etc. But there are also other formats - NTFS, exFAT, etc.
Therefore, if a third-party device does not see the drive, you will have to format the SD card on Android for this file system. It also happens that the flash drive refuses to work: it does not open files, does not delete them or does not copy them. If you format the SD card on Android, it will help.
Problems due to memory space
Another specific problem that is common with older smartphones and tablets is the large storage capacity. Some gadgets refuse to work with 64 GB of memory, and perceive, for example, only 32 or even 16. In this case, you can format the SD card for an "Android" tablet or smartphone for a smaller amount.
Formatting
The simplest and most reliable way to organize this procedure is the regular platform tools. There will definitely not be any problems and conflicts between the drive and the internal memory of the device. Let's figure out how to format an SD card on Android 7.0.
Format procedure:
- Go to "Settings" through the menu or curtain.
- Click on the "Storage and USB drives" section.
- Find the item "Format" (sometimes "Clear").
- In the pop-up window, click on "OK", thereby agreeing with the warning about the complete cleaning of the drive.
- Waiting for the end of the process.
Before formatting, be sure to backup your data, if possible, because recovering lost information after this procedure is very difficult, and sometimes even impossible.
Third Party Tools
Regular tools, although they are good because there are never problems with them, but they are very limited in functionality. Here you cannot select the type of file system or designate the required total amount of drive.
Another proven and most secure option is to format the card using the Windows OS with its standard tools. To do this, you need to connect your mobile gadget to your computer using a USB cable. In some cases, you will need to enable USB debugging mode in the settings.
Formatting a memory card in Windows:
- Open My Computer.
- Select your drive from the list below and right-click.
- In the context menu, click on "Format".
- In the window that appears, select the required options and click "Start".
- At the end of the process, the system will notify you with a message about the successful completion of the procedure.
There are already many more settings for flexible formatting of the memory card. In the preparation window, you can select the required drive size, file system, cluster size, cleaning method, and designate the name of the flash drive. It is also worth noting that standard Windows tools perform deepformatting if quick was not previously specified. This allows you to get rid of many of the serious problems that are inherent in drives of this kind.
