How to Format Corrupt USB or SD Card using Diskpart

The biggest problem with USB drives and SD Cards is that they easily get corrupted. After that, every time you plug your memory card or USB drive into your PC, it asks you to format it. Even if you try to format, it gives an error saying, “Windows was unable to complete the format“. Now, you have to format this corrupt USB or SD card using Diskpart before you can start using it again.

Diskpart is a command-line disk management utility in Windows. It comes in handy when conventional methods fail to format a disk whether USB or SD card. So, if your PC is still detecting your corrupt SD card or USB drive, Diskpart can help you make it usable again.

SEE ALSO: How to Format your Corrupt SD Card or USB drive using Chromebook Recovery Utility?

Repair Corrupt Memory Card or USB Drive using Diskpart

So, in this tutorial, we will show you how to format a corrupt USB or SD card using Diskpart in Windows. We have used a Windows 11 PC in this tutorial. However, the steps are identical for Windows 10 or Windows 7 also. So, you won’t have any trouble following them.

Before we move to detailed steps, check the following video.


NOTE: This tutorial doesn’t work in case of hardware errors in your SD card or USB drive. This means, that if your PC doesn’t detect your USB or SD card, you can’t fix it using this method.

Step 1: Start the Command Prompt with Administrator Rights

First of all, insert the corrupt USB drive or SD Card into your PC. After that, start Command Prompt as administrator from the Start menu. Simply search for cmd on Start and click Run as Administrator under Command Prompt.

Launch Command Prompt As Administrator From Start
Launch Command Prompt as administrator from Start

Command prompt with Administrator privileges will start.

Open Command Prompt As Administrator
Command Prompt as Administrator

Besides Command Prompt, you can also use Windows Terminal in Windows 11.


Step 2: Start Diskpart and List your Disks

Now, we will use Diskpart to perform disk management tasks on your corrupt USB or SD card. So, type diskpart and press Enter in the Command Prompt to start the Diskpart utility.

Now type the following command and press Enter.

list disk

Diskpart will list all available disk drives in your PC including the USB drive or SD card plugged into your PC. Here, note down the disk number of your corrupt USB disk or SD card. In our case, the disk number is 1.

Launch Diskpart And Run List Disk Command
Launch Diskpart and run the list disk command

SEE ALSO: How to Check the RAM Details in Windows 11 and Windows 10?

Step 3: Select your Disk and Clean it using Diskpart

Now, after you have noted down the disk number of your corrupt USB or SD card, we will select it in CMD. After that, we will be able to format that corrupt USB or SD card. So, type the following commands and press Enter after each command.

select disk 1
clean
Select Disk And Run Clean Command To Format Your Corrupt Usb Or Sd Card
Select Disk and run clean command

Your USB drive or Memory Card has been cleaned completely. All the partitions and data on it have been destroyed. We will have to create partitions again.


SEE ALSO: 10 Cool Command Prompt Tricks for You.

Step 4: Create a Partition and Format the Corrupt USB or SD card using Diskpart

Now, it’s time to create the partition on your corrupt USB or SD card again. After creating the partition, we will format it and then assign a drive letter to it. So, type the following commands one by one and press Enter every time.

create partition primary
select partition 1
format fs=ntfs quick

Formatting may take some time depending on the size of the drive. In this tutorial, we have used the NTFS file system for formatting the corrupt USB drive or the SD card. If you wish to use the FAT32 file system, use format fs=fat32 quick command instead.

Format Selected Usb Disk Or Sd Card And Assign A Drive Letter
Format the selected disk and assign a drive letter

SEE ALSO: Recovery Partition Blocking C Drive Extension? Here is the Fix.


Step 5: Verify your USB or SD card in File Explorer

After formatting is done and you have assigned a drive letter to your corrupt USB drive or SD card, you can close Command Prompt.

After that, go to This PC and check your USB drive or SD card. As you can see, it has been successfully formatted. Now, you can start copying your files on it.

Corrupt Usb Or Sd Card Format Successful
Corrupt USB or SD Card formatted successfully

SEE ALSO: How to Disable Quick Access in File Explorer on Windows 11 and Windows 10?


Format your Corrupt USB or SD Card using Diskpart Utility in Windows

Now, your corrupt Memory Card (SD card) or USB drive is ready to be used. You can test it by copying some files on it. If copying works successfully, then your SD Card or USB has been repaired successfully. However, if Diskpart doesn’t work for you, you can also try the Chromebook Recovery utility to format your corrupt SD card or USB drive.

Hope you liked this tutorial. Feel free to share your thoughts and suggestions in the comment section below. We also suggest you subscribe to our newsletter to receive the latest updates via email.

Editorial Staff

Hi there, we are the editorial staff at WINDOSPC (former HELLPC). We are a team of funny and technical people. Feel free to get in touch with us via Contact-Us page.

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