# Windows cannot complete format



## WOLFMAN1966 (Sep 2, 2006)

I had a tablet that quit working, took it apart to see if I could fix it, and it was unrepairable(at least by me), so I trashed it. Anyway, it had a 32Gb micro SD card in it. 

I have a Lenovo Ideapad 100S, which I mainly use for surfing around the internet, watching youtube videos,facebooking, and even playing World of Warcraft(lowest settings, 20fps, playing off 64GB usb stick..lol)

anyway,I put the SD card into the reader on the computer, it pops up as D drive and says "You need to format the disk in drive D: before you can use it."
with the options to Format Disk or Cancel. 

When I try to format, it says "Windows was unable to complete the format"

Then when I close the formatter, a window pops up "Windows cannot format D", along with a bunch of stuff about checking to make sure everything is working right, and to make sure the disk isn't read-only.

I've tried everything I can think of, including a couple of programs that are supposed to help(partitionguru is one, i forget the other, but neither helped)

I'd really like to be able to use this SD Card, because it would effectively double the memory of my netbook. 
any ideas anyone?
thanks in advance for any help


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

Sounds like the SD is damaged and needs to be replaced. 
If it is recognized as a D: drive then try DiskPart. 
Go to Start/Search and type *CMD*, Right click the *CMD* results and Run As Administrator. In the* command prompt* type following commands pressing Enter after each bold command:
i)* diskpart*
ii) *list disk*
iii) *select disk* <disk number>
_disk number_ = as listed in previous command, normally *disk* *1
*iv) *clean *(this erases all data on the Disk, so be sure you choose the correct one)
now for verification of disk status and free space type
v) *list disk*
the status should be "*online*" and free space should be "*disk size*"
‘vi)*exit
*Now go to Start/Search and type *diskmgmt.msc*, right click the *diskmgmt* results and *Run As Administrator.* In the Elevated _Disk Management_ window, in the lower pane. The *D: *drive should be listed as being *Unallocated Space*. Right click this and choose Create New_ Simple Volume_, Format it NTFS. 
If the Clean command fails, the SD card is un-usable.


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## WOLFMAN1966 (Sep 2, 2006)

Spunk, I tried doing what you said, but once I got to disk management, D: showed up as RAW, not unallocated space. And no option for Create New Simple Volume. Tried formatting, failed...guessing the card is unuseable.

btw, no problem with cleaning it


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## spunk.funk (May 13, 2010)

Run Diskpart again this time create a partition and Format it in Diskpart
ii) *list disk*
iii) *select disk* <disk number>
vi) *create partition primary *
vii) *format fs=ntfs quick*
now for verification of disk status and free space type
v) *list disk
*If it doesn't list the proper free space or it says it is *Invalid* then the card is bad.


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## djaburg (May 15, 2008)

In disk management do you have the option to initialize the disk?


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## WOLFMAN1966 (Sep 2, 2006)

spunk, once I get to Create Partition Primary, it won't do it....guessing its a bad card....oh well, memory cards r cheap
djaburg, nope...
also,just noticed in disk management, though it shows the card as being 31GB, If I click on the disc, it says that used space, free space, and capacity are all 0


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## jenae (Jun 17, 2008)

Hi, if the card is not damaged you should be able to format it, diskpart has some advanced features, this fix was written some time ago for a problem similar to yours:-

1. Insert SD card 
2. Run command prompt shell as Administrator (just in case the keyboard shortcut for “Run as Administrator” is Ctrl+Alt+Shift) 
3. Type “diskpart” to run Microsoft DiskPart utility.

C:\Windows\system32>diskpart
Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7600 
Copyright (C) 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation. 
On computer: VistaTest\Paul

4. List your disks by typing in “list disk” or for those who like it shorter “list dis”
DISKPART> lis dis
Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt 
——– ————- ——- ——- — — 
Disk 0 Online 149 GB 1024 KB 
Disk 1 Online 75 GB 2 GB 
Disk 2 Online 3814 MB 0 B 
Disk 3 No Media 0 B 0 B 
Disk 4 No Media 0 B 0 B 
Disk 5 Online 14 GB 0 B

5. Identify your SD Card (in my case it is Disk 5) 

6. Select this drive to mark it for work by using “select disk 5” or “sel dis 5” command
DISKPART> sel dis 5
Disk 5 is now the selected disk.

7. Clean it (this will delete everything on your disk drive, so be careful) by using “clean” or “cle” command.
DISKPART> cle
DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk.

8. Create primary partition – “create partition primary” or “cre par pri”
DISKPART> cre par pri
DiskPart succeeded in creating the specified partition.

9. Select new partition – “select partition 1” or “sel par 1”
DISKPART> sel par 1
Partition 1 is now the selected partition.

10. Mark it as Active partition – “active” or “act”
DISKPART> act
DiskPart marked the current partition as active.

11. Format – “format fs=ntfs quick” or “for fs=ntfs quick”
DISKPART> for fs=ntfs quick
100 percent completed
DiskPart successfully formatted the volume.

12. And finally “assign” or “***” to mark it ready and create mount point
DISKPART> ***
DiskPart successfully assigned the drive letter or mount point.

13. Exit – “exit” or “exi” to return to command shell
DISKPART> exi
Leaving DiskPart…

Let us know how you get on.


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## WOLFMAN1966 (Sep 2, 2006)

good up untile Create Partition Primary

then I get 
No usable free extent could be found. It may be that there is insufficient free space to create a partition at the specified size and offset. Specify different size and offset values or don't specify either to create the maximum sized partition. It may be that the disk is partitioned using the MBR disk partitioning format and the disk containss either 4 primary partitions, (no more partitions may be created), or 3 primary partitions and o0ne extended partition, (only logical drives may be created).


then it's back on DISKPART>


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## WOLFMAN1966 (Sep 2, 2006)

And one more thing,

when i list disks, it shows Disk 0, which is the SSD/hard drive for the netbook, size 29GB
Disk 1, the SD card..size 30MB???(just noticed that...weird..its a 32GB card), and the USB stick size 58GB

now besides the SD card showing the wrong size, it also shows that ALL of them have 0B free....
hmmm


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