How to Format Corrupt USB or SD Card using Chromebook Recovery Utility

Corrupt USB and SD cards are quite a trouble for everyone. You can try to use the Diskpart utility to format them but that might also fail with “Diskpart has encountered an error: the system cannot find the file specified.” error. Well, if it’s a hardware error, you can’t do much about it. But if it is not a hardware error, you can also try Chromebook Recovery Utility to format your corrupt SD card or USB drive.

This utility is used for creating Recovery media for Chromebooks and it can also be used to erase the recovery media. You can erase your corrupt SD card/USB drive using this Chromebook Recovery Utility. After that, you will have to manually format the USB drive.

SEE ALSO: How to Fix the “USB Freezes Computer” issue in Windows 10 after plugging in USB?

Erase or Format Corrupt SD Card or USB disk Using Chromebook Recovery Utility

This tutorial shows you, how to erase or clean a corrupt SD card or USB drive using Chromebook Recovery Utility. Please note that your Memory Card or USB drive must be detected in your computer otherwise this utility won’t work.

Step 1: Install Chromebook Recovery Utility Extension in Google Chrome

First of all, we will have to install Chromebook Recovery Utility in the Google Chrome browser. If you don’t have Chrome, you can also add Chrome extensions in the Microsoft Edge browser.

So, go to the Chromebook Recovery Utility extension page and click on the ADD TO CHROME button to continue.

Add Chromebook Recovery Utility Extension To Chrome Browser
Add Chromebook Recovery Utility Extension to Chrome Browser

After that, you will see a pop-up message, just click on the Add Extension button to add this utility to Google Chrome.

Click Add To Add Recovery Utility Extension To Chrome
Click Add Extension to add the extension to Chrome

Step 2: Launch Chromebook Recovery Utility Extension to Format Corrupt USB

Now, click on the extensions icon at the end of Google Chrome’s address bar and select Chromebook Recovery Utility.

Launch Chromebook Recovery Utility From Extension In Chrome
Launch Chromebook Recovery Utility from Extension in Chrome

This will launch Chromebook Recovery Utility. Here, click on the gear (settings) icon at the top-right corner and select Erase recovery media to format your corrupt USB or SD card using Chromebook Recovery Utility.

Click Gear Settings Icon On The Top Right Corner And Select Erase Recovery Media To Format Your Corrupt Sd Card Or Usb
Click the Gear icon on the top-right corner and select Erase Recovery Media

Step 3: Select your USB disk to Erase

After that, the Erase recovery media setup will start. Here, select your USB/SD card from the drop-down as shown below and click Continue.

Select Your Usb Drive And Click Continue
Select your USB disk and click Continue

Step 4: Erase your Corrupt USB disk or SD card

It’s time to finally erase your corrupt USB disk or SD card. So, click on Erase Now to continue. You may also see UAC Prompt, click on Yes to continue.

NOTE: Please note that all the data on your SD card or USB drive will be erased. So, we recommend you to take backup of your data before proceeding further.

Click Erase Now To Format Your Corrupt Sd Card Or Usb Using Chromebook Recovery Utility
Click Erase Now to erase your corrupt SD Card or USB

Chromebook Recovery Utility will start erasing your selected USB disk or SD card. After successfully erasing your SD card or USB disk, you will see a message saying “Your recovery media has been erased”. Simply click Done to exit the utility.

Click Done To Close Chromebook Recovery Utility After Erasing The Media
Click Done to close Chromebook Recovery Utility

SEE ALSO: Recover Permanently Deleted Files using the WinfrGUI Utility.

Step 5: Format your USB or SD Card using File Explorer

Chromebook Recovery Utility has successfully erased your USB/SD card but it has not formatted it. So, you will have to format the USB/SD card manually.

Now, open This PC on your Windows 11 or Windows 10 PC. After that, right-click on your USB/SD card and select Format… to format your corrupt USB or SD card.

Right Click On Usb Drive And Select Format
Right-click on the USB disk and select Format

Format window will open, click on Start to start formatting. Here, you will see a warning message about erasing ALL data on your USB disk, simply click the OK button to continue formatting.

Click Start And Ok To Format The Usb Drive
Click Start and OK to format the USB disk

After formatting is complete, you will see the “Format Complete.” message. So, click OK to dismiss the message and your SD card or USB drive is ready to use.

Click Ok And Close After Succesful Format Of Usb Drive
Click OK

SEE ALSO: How to Factory Reset Chromebook (4 Methods Explained)?


Erase and Format your Corrupt USB Disk or SD Card using Chromebook Recovery Utility

Now, you have successfully erased and formatted your corrupt USB disk or SD card using Chromebook Recovery Utility. This process may not work for you on every USB disk or SD card, especially with hardware errors.

However, this process usually works for DISKPART Utility error “Diskpart has encountered an error: the system cannot find the file specified. See the system event log for more information“.

Hope it works for you. Share your thoughts and suggestions in the comment section below. You may also like to subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest tutorials directly into your inbox.

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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