2.- Find the drive letter for your SD card. 3.- Right-click, and when the menu appears click Format. The Format screen will now appear. The file system defaults to FAT32 which is fine for smaller SD cards but for larger cards (64 gigabytes and up) you should choose exFAT. You can give the formatted drive a name by entering it into the Volume Label. Deleting images from your card while the card is on your camera can actually shorten the life of your memory card. The rule is that the fewer times you add or remove data on your card the better. Erasing all your images at once after uploading them to your computer means one erase cycle rather than lots of them if you delete them one at a time. The camera might then use all of page 342 and then some of 355 for the next shot. This is the classic definition of fragmentation and it can slow performance over time (although less so with solid state media like memory cards than it can with moving hard drives).

Dec 21, 2020 • Filed to: SD Card Solutions • Proven solutions

In today's world, the SD card certainly carries weight. We give so much importance to that mini chip-like device. Once you realize that your SD card is on write protection, you may feel a little annoyed as you become unable to do any modifications to the files inside your SD card. Putting it differently, you will no longer be able to use your SD card normally like usually, you do. When you try to carry out any functioning, you fail to go ahead. Therefore, removing write protection from the SD card becomes a topic of great concern. And if you can relate to this situation, we are here to your rescue. You need to do away with the write protection on the SD card to make it useful. This is what we have collated in this article. Let us scroll down and discover some ways on how to format a write-protected SD card.

Part 1: Why does SD Card Need Write Protection?

From the above introduction and not being able to use the SD card properly because of write protection, you must be having a slight idea now that a write protection SD card rejects any operation and doesn't let you use it.

On the other hand, you should know that there is a little need to write protection as well. If your SD card is write-protected, your files will be protected and anyone will not be able to do any erroneous operation. Also, having such protection will avoid any virus attack on your SD card. And what can be a better thing than not being able to get attacked by a virus? That is why an SD card at times, needs to write protection.

Part 2: 5 Ways to Remove Write Protection from SD Card

We have learned why to write protection on the SD card is important and what the need for it is. However, as you know this too that having such protection will not let you enjoy the SD card operations like transferring, adding, or deleting files. Therefore, in this section, we will make you enlightened on how to remove write protection from SD cards in 5 different ways. Therefore, without any further ado, let us begin with the tips one by one.

Tip 1: Toggle the Physical Switch

The first tip to remove write protection from a memory card is to do some trick with the physical switch of the SD card. Nearly every SD card contains a lock switch – a slider on the left side. This switch is working as a locking technique. Check your SD card and see if the switch is at the bottom position. If yes, that means the card is locked and write-protected. This will restrain you from making any modifications to the SD card. What you need to do is simply take out the SD card from the device/system and pull the slider to the other side i.e. at the top. This will hopefully remove write protection from the memory card and you will get what you wanted.

Tip 2: Check the Card's Properties and Space

There is a provision in Windows PC with the help of which, you can remove the write protection on the SD card. This is possible that this particular setting is turned on unknowingly. So, to solve the problem with this, you need to check it. Here is how:

Step by Step Tutorial to Check SD Card's Properties and Space:

Step 1: Simply double click on 'This PC' to open it.

Step 2: Go to your SD card and right-click on it. Select 'Properties' from the options.

Step 3:Check the space of the SD card and ensure it is not full. Write protection errors usually occur due to a lack of free space.

Tip 3: Modify Registry Information to Remove Write Protection from SD Card

Here is the next tip to help you. In this method, we are going to modify the registry information. See how to remove write protection on the SD card with the help of this method.

Step by Step Tutorial to Modify Registry Information

Step 1: Firstly, launch the run box with the help of Windows and R key pressed simultaneously. Or, click the Start button and input Run in the search box.

Step 2: Now, key in 'Regedit' and hit on the 'OK' button. The Registry Editor window will open now.

Step 3: When the window gets launched, you simply to follow the path given below:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/StorageDevicePolicies

In case you were not able to locate StorageDevicePolicies, you can create this folder. To do this, give a right-click on 'Control' and hit on 'New'. Followed by this, choose 'Key' and give it the name as StorageDevicePolicies. Right-click on this folder now and choose 'New'. After this, go to 'DWORD Value'. Now, name it 'WriteProtect'.

Step 4: If you have found the StorageDevicePolicies, you will be directly navigated to the 'Write protection' option. Double click on the 'Write Protect'.

Step 5: Once done, make the value as '0' followed by hitting on 'OK'.

Congratulations! You have now removed the write protection on your SD card. You are free to do the operations on your memory card now.

Tip 4: Remove Write Protection on SD Card with Disk-part Utility

If you tried the above method to disable write protection on SD card but to no avail, you can try this one out. With the help of Diskpart utility, you can put some commands to fulfill the task. Diskpart utility is an inbuilt utility program in Windows that offers disk management options. Here is how to remove write protection from the SD card using this method.

Step by Step Tutorial to use Disk Part Utility for Write Protection Removal

Step 1: As the first step, you need to open a command prompt. And for this, you need to click the Start button and enter 'cmd'. Now, type 'diskpart' to begin the utility.

Step 2: Now, type 'list disk' and press Enter key. It will display all the available disks in the system.

Step 3: Look for your USB flash drive and type 'select disk #' (where # is the SD card with write protection enabled). Press the Enter key right after that.

Step 4: After this is done, you are required to type 'attributes disk clear readonly' followed by pressing the Enter key.

Step 5: When you can notice 'Disk attributes cleared successfully', type 'exit' and press the Enter key afterward.

This way, you have removed write protection from the memory card and you can now easily make modifications in it.

Tip 5: Try diskmgmt.msc utility

The last method that will help you remove write protection on your SD card is diskmgmt.msc utility. This process is completely helpful whether you have an SD card or USB. These are the steps that you need to follow for serving the purpose.

Step by Step Tutorial to use diskmgmt.msc utility

Step 1: To initiate the process, press the Windows key and the R key together to open the run box. When it is opened, input 'diskmgmt.msc' and press the Enter key.

Step 2: Now, you have to get to the context menu of the partition that needs to be formatted.

Step 3: Once done, go ahead with clicking on the 'Delete Volume' and making confirmation of your actions.

Step 4: From the context menu, make sure to click on the 'New Volume' option. Opt for primary partition and leave the default parameters.

Also learn about How to unlock an SD card or memory card.

Bonus Tip: How to get data back from write-protected SD card

What if you wish to have your data returned from a write-protected SD card? You just need a professional tool. Don't know which one to use? Take the help of Recoverit Data Recovery – a tool from Wondershare that allows recovering data from any storage media in no minutes. The tool gives you a privilege to preview your data before recovery. It shows great compatibility with Windows and Mac operating systems. Let us get to know more about this tool by putting light on the features. Later, we will learn the process of recovering data with Recoverit.

Key Features of Recoverit Data Recovery

• When it comes to data, the tool stretches the compatibility with a good variety. You can simply recover photos, videos, audios, and more.
• More than 1000 file-formats including NTFS, FAT, HFS+, and the like are supported via Recoverit Data Recovery.
• It comes with a really simple and user-friendly interface. So, it doesn't matter if you are a beginner, you can effortlessly use this tool.
• You don't have to worry about the reliability of the tool. It is one of the most trusted programs.
• It guarantees quality results when it comes to performance and is a professional tool.
• With the help of Recoverit, you can recover data from any kind of storage media device easily.

How to Recover Data from Write Protected SD Card Using Recoverit Data Recovery

Step 1: To start the process, make sure to visit the browser firstly. Go to the website of Recoverit and get it downloaded from there. Choose the Windows version to download. Now, wait for the downloading to get completed and then install the tool over your PC.

Step 2: When installation gets over successfully, get your external device which is SD card, and use a good quality card reader to connect it to the PC. Now, see if the SD card is recognized by the system. Then launch the tool to begin.

Step 3: On the main interface of Recoverit, you need to click the device as the target location. Do this and simply hit on the 'Start' button.

Step 4: As soon as you click the button in the above step, the SD card will start to scan by the software. Wait for some time as it will scan the whole card. During the process is on, make sure to search for your files to be recover. You can pause the process and stop it if you find it.

Step 5: After some time, the results will be shown. You can simply go for the file you need and preview it before recovering. When you are satisfied, click on the 'Recover' button. When the file is recovered, make sure that you save it in another location.

#Extra Bonus

If you are a video lover and loves to keep videos on your SD card, this bonus is just for you. A video is likely to get corrupted when the SD card is not handled properly. And therefore, Wondershare brings you the functionality of repairing corrupted videos. With just one click, you will be able to add your video to the program's interface and can leave the rest on the program. It will do the task and in no minutes, your video will be repaired.

Conclusion

The write protection errors on the SD card are no less than a pain. It is disheartening when you try to add some important files to the SD card but your efforts go in vain. When you need the SD card to work with, you need to remove write protection from it. And this is what we have provided you in this post. No denying that this is needed in some scenario as well, but when the time comes to use the SD card, formatting write protected card becomes the need of the hour. In the end, we have also added a bonus for you. If at any time you struggle with lost data from SD card, you can simply opt for Recoverit Data Recovery. We hope that you liked our efforts. If yes, drop us a comment to let your views reach us. Thank you for reading!

SD Card Troubleshooting

Recover Data from SD Card

Card Repair Solutions

SD Card Is Not Showing Full Capacity

'I bought a SanDisk micro SD card a year ago, and it's 8GB. This morning when I transferred some photos from the SD card to the other on my Windows 10 computer, to free up some space, later I check its property, it shows around ~500MB capacity. That's not true. What happened? It should be as the original 8GB I think.'

Typical reasons:

As far as we concerned, the issue of SD card showing the wrong size mainly owes to three aspects.

1. 1. Cheap and faulty SD card bought from dishonest vendors
2. 2. Incompatible with card readers or host devices
3. 3. Infected by computer viruses

How to Restore SD Card to Full Size

When you exclude the causes of the mentioned incompatibility, to restore the SD card to its full size for a normal working state, you need to perform a quick format.

There are some good SD card formatting tools that are free to use on Windows 10/8.1/8/7. Pick up a handy one you prefer.

Method 1. Disk Management

Step 1: Right-click This PC/My Computer > Manage.

Step 2: Select Disk Management under Device Manager, find and right-click on SD card and select Format...

Step 3: Rename and reset the file system of SD card to NTFS or FAT32 as your need, follow the onscreen guidelines to complete the format process.

After this, you'll regain all the storage size of your SD card and you can use it for storing and saving files and data again then.

Method 2. EaseUS disk formatting software

This is third-party free partition software, so it requires you to download and install on your computer, and then follow the guide to format the SD card.

Step 1: Open EaseUS Partition Master. Find your SD card and right-click the partition you want to format and choose 'Format'.

Step 2: Set a new partition label, file system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3), and cluster size to the selected partition, then click 'OK'.

Step 3: Click 'OK' on the pop-up window to continue.

Step 4: Click the 'Execute Operation' button on the toolbar, then click 'Apply' to start formatting your SD card.

Method 3. DiskPart command line

Step 1: Type cmd in the search box in Windows 10 and then you'll get the best match Command Prompt. Right-click on it and choose 'Run as administrator'.

Step 2: In the command prompt, type diskpart and press 'Enter'.

Step 3: Type list disk to list all the available drives and press 'Enter'.

How To Clean Sd Card Contacts

Step 4: Type select disk + disk number ( for example, select disk 0) to select the SD card you want to format and press Enter.

Step 5: Type clean to clean the SD card you have selected and press 'Enter'.

Step 6: Type create partition primary to create a partition on the cleaned SD card and press 'Enter':

How To Clean Sd Card Slot On Phone

Step 7: Type format fs=ntfs (or format fs=exfat) and press 'Enter' to format the drive with NTFS or exFAT.

Step 8: Type assign letter=drive letter (for example, assign letter=E) to assign a drive letter and press 'Enter'.

How to Recover Data from Formatted SD Card

Disk formatting should be taken very carefully as we addressed many times, it's going to wipe all data out, leaving you a blank SD card in the end.

With no backup at hand, at the same time, lost data after formatting. Calm down for a second. Now try to download EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard and follow the guide to perform SD card formatted data recovery.

Step 1. Run SD card recovery software and scan the card.

How To Wipe An Sd Card

Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard on your PC and select your SD card. Then click 'Scan' to start finding lost data on your SD card.

Step 2. Check found SD card data.

After the scanning process, you can click 'Filter' to quickly find wanted files.

Step 3. Restore SD card data.

You can check and preview found files by double-clicking each one of them. Then click Recover to save found SD card files to a secure location on your PC or external storage.