Windows was unable to complete format” while formatting SD Card

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http://www.techgeekandmore.com/tag/unable-to-format-sd-card/

Hi Mike,

When formatting, only two options should be available NTFS and Fat32.

·         Are there any other options for formatting that are out of the ordinary?

I would suggest you to format the Card from the Disk Management

Steps to format SD card from Disk Management

a.    Click Start and go to Control Panel.

b.    Click Administrative Tools and then click Computer Management

c.    When that window opens you can click on Disk Management and find the device in the drive viewer.

d.    Then you can right click on the drive and select Format and see if using this utility from the Disk Management helps resolve your issue.

You might also try going back to the manufacturer to see if they have a support document or utility that will reformat the drive to original specifications.

Hope this information is helpful and let me know if this worked.

Mouneshwar R – Microsoft Support

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SD card greater than 2GB are in reality SDHC cards.  Even though they have the same physical size as SD cards, the internal "structure" is completely different.  You need a SDHC reader to read SDHC card and these can also read SD cards. 

SD Readers can not read SDHC card no matter what you try.

Hello Mike,

Check to make sure that your card reader can recognize SD cards over 2gb.  If it's an old one or a really cheap one, it may not be able to see more than 2gb.  If that isn't the case, do the next step.

Do the steps Mouneshwar suggests but for the file system, choose NTFS.  Let it format the SD card then go and format it again but this time using FAT32.

Let me know if that resolves the issue or not.

THanks,

Mike C.