"Solutions to Fix 'Windows Unable to Format SD Card or USB Drive'"

Updated by

Linda 

Written by

Linda 

Last updated on April 22, 2024

Overview of the "Windows was unable to complete the format" Error

When you connect an SD card, USB flash drive, or another memory card to your computer and attempt to open it, you receive a message stating that You need to format disk in drive X: before you can use it. Do you want to format it?

Need to format the disk

There, if you click on “Cancel”, you will be shown “X:\ is not accessible”.

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And if you choose to format the USB flash drive, you may come across the issue we are going to talk about today – “Windows was unable to complete the format”, as shown in the picture below.

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There are times when we wish to format a hard drive to fix bad sectors, remove most viruses, or clear disk space, among other reasons. However, while formatting an SD card, USB flash drive, or any other storage card, your computer may throw the error “Windows was unable to complete the format.” To resolve this issue, try the verified methods in this article.

To solve the problem quickly and efficiently, you can trust in a tool - Partition Manager. Its formatting feature is always there to help you out with formatting errors.

3 Helpful Solutions: Fix “Windows Was Unable to Complete the Format SD Card”

It can be frustrating when you get the “Windows was unable to complete the format” error while formatting an SD card, USB drive, or external hard disk. Don't worry, though. Start by removing viruses from the storage device. If the formatting error persists, try these tested methods efficiently to resolve the issue.

Solution 1: Use a third-party formatting tool - Partition Master (easiest and most effective)

When encountering the “Windows was unable to complete the format SD card” issue, downloading and using a dedicated hard drive formatting tool is a good option.

AOMEI Partition Assistant is one of the best partition managers for Windows users. With just a few clicks, it can help you format a hard drive partition. You can format an SD card or USB drive to NTFS, FAT32, EXT2, or EXT3 as needed.

Step 1: Right-click on the partition you want to format and select “Format.”

<Step 2> In the new window, assign a "Volume Label," "File System," and "Cluster Size" to the partition, then click "OK."

Step 3: You'll see a warning; click “Yes” to proceed.

Step 4: Click on "Perform 1 Task," and then click "Apply" to begin formatting the hard drive partition.

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Smaller cluster sizes reduce waste, but they also result in a larger File Allocation Table (FAT). The larger the FAT, the slower the operating system can work with the disk.

In addition to disk formatting, Partition Master also provides you with other one-stop partition and disk management solutions for your Windows computer, such as:

• Resize/move partitions (the Pro version allows you to move space from D drive to C drive), create, delete, and merge partitions
• Copy and clone an entire disk to another, even if the target partition is smaller than the source
• Convert logical partition to primary or vice versa, convert FAT to NTFS partition, convert MBR disk to GPT, or convert GPT disk to MBR
• Migrate OS to SSD to speed up Windows performance

Fix 2: Use the Windows Disk Management tool

If you don't want to use third-party formatting software, you can run the built-in Disk Management tool in Windows. It allows you to perform basic disk management operations, including formatting, creating, deleting, shrinking, and expanding volumes.

Step 1. Right-click the "Computer" icon on Windows 7 or "This PC" on Windows 8/10/11, and select "Manage." In the window that opens, navigate to "Storage" > "Disk Management" in the right pane.

Step 2. Now, locate the SD card or USB drive that's showing the format not completed error. If there are any partitions present on the drive, delete them all so that you'll have a single volume.

Step 3: Right-click on the drive and select "Format." If your device is over 4 GB, choose NTFS as the file system. Otherwise, choose FAT32.

Solution 3: Use Diskpart in Command Prompt

If the "Windows was unable to complete the format SD card" issue still persists after using the Windows Disk Management, the Diskpart formatting command can also help you format it following the steps below. Click the button to let your friends know how to use CMD.

This method is best if you're comfortable using the command line. If you're new to computers, you should use the graphical hard drive formatting tool instead, to avoid accidentally damaging your data.

Step 1: Right-click the Windows icon, and type Command Prompt in the search box. Right-click Command Prompt, and select Run as administrator.

Step 2: Type diskpart at the command prompt, and then press Enter.

Step 3: Type the following commands in DiskPart, pressing Enter after each one to quickly format the drive:

```
• List disks
• Select disk 2 (replace 2 with your disk number)
• List volumes
• Select volume 10 (replace 10 with the volume number of the device you want to format)
• Format fs=ntfs quick (if you need to format the storage device to FAT32 or another file system, replace NTFS with FAT32, exFAT, etc.)
```

4. Type exit and press Enter to close the program. DiskPart will confirm that the volume has been formatted successfully.

In short

To solve the “Windows was unable to complete the format SD card” issue, you have three methods to fix it, using a formatting tool, Windows Disk Management, or Command Prompt.

If Windows Disk Management doesn't allow you to format a 32GB or larger SD card to FAT32, or you don't know how to use the command prompt, we highly recommend using a simple formatting tool - AOMEI Partition Assistant. It can do more work in disk partition management to get the most out of your computer.

Reasons for Unable to Format SD Card in Windows with utf-8 Encoding

The reasons for "Windows was unable to complete the format SD card" are as follows.

• The disk is write-protected, and Windows 10 won't let you format the SD card;
• The SD card is infected with unknown viruses;
• The SD card is damaged or corrupted;
• The SD card has bad sectors.

"Frequently Asked Questions about 'Windows Was Unable to Complete the Format SD Card'"

Below are four common issues regarding "Windows was unable to complete the format SD card." If you encounter any of these, you can find the solutions here.

1. How to fix the "Windows was unable to complete the format SD card" issue?

If you're running into the “Windows was unable to complete the format SD card” issue, try one of three other methods: use a disk management tool, the built-in Windows Disk Management, or the Command Prompt.

How to Format a Memory Card That Won't Format?

When unable to format the memory card through Windows Explorer, you can use professional disk management or formatting software tools to do the job.

Run Partition Assistant, right-click on the partition of the SD card you want to format, and choose "Format".

2. In the window that pops up, set the "Volume label," "File system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3)," and "Cluster size," then click "OK."

Step 3: You'll see a warning; click "OK" to proceed.

Click the “Apply” button in the top-left corner to review your changes, then click “Format” to begin formatting your SD card or other memory card.

How do I format an SD card?

Step 1: Connect the SD card to your computer. Insert the memory card into the reader.

2. On your computer, locate the SD card under “Removable Storage Devices.” Right-click on it, and select “Format.”

Step 3: Click the drop-down menu next to "Format Type," then select "Quick." This will format the card without deleting any files from it. If you want to delete all of the files on your SD card during the formatting process, select "Full" instead.

Step 4. Click “OK” to begin formatting the SD card.

4. What does "Unable to complete formatting" mean?

What does "Windows was unable to complete the format" mean? How can you fix the "Windows was unable to format SD card" error when trying to format an SD card or USB flash drive on your computer? You can try formatting with the Windows Disk Management tool.

Step 1: Run Disk Management from the Windows menu.

Step 2. Select the drive that's giving you the “Windows was unable to complete the format” error. Right-click on it and choose Format.