Fix Your SD Card After Using It As a Raspberry Pi or Linux Boot Disk
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- Опубліковано 23 лип 2024
- Once you use an SD card or USB drive as a Raspberry Pi or Linux boot drive it is formatted in a way that Windows can't use. If you try to format the card Windows can't make it work. But the card is still perfectly usable, you just need to know how to fix the format.
In this video I'll show you how to use your Windows computer to clean, partition and format the SD card or USB drive so that you can re use it for normal file storage.
Make sure you check out the project page on my website for full details and a list of commands you need to use.
bytesnbits.co.uk/reformat-ras...
Saved me a ton of headache! Thank you for making this video!
Glad it helped!
Thanks! your instructions were spot on!!! I was able to repair 3, 32 GB micro SD cards that were used with various RPi OS's. now I can use them again.
Great to hear!
Thank you for doing this video! Knowledge is power, and you really blessed many of us.
Glad it was helpful!
Easiest tutorial ever. Thank you so much. Use my raspberry pi for the steamdeck and upgraded to the Legion Go. Used your guide and it was flawless
Glad it helped!
Excellent work and explanations,Sir. Thank you for taking the time to share with the ones who are in need. Be Blessed and Salutations from France.
Thanks. I hope it was useful.
Thank you so much, I've been struggling with this a few times already. You explain it so well, so now I also know what I'm doing. And it worked for me! Thanks again.
Glad it helped!
Thanks so much, successfully recovered 3 sd cards with this video.
Glad it helped
THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!! I was super stressed when I couldn't format my SD card after trying to use it to bypass the activation lock on an iPhone.
glad it helped
Thank's so much, you are an absolute legend for posting this!.
Glad it helped!
OMG, that was so amazing and so well explained, thanks!!
Glad it was helpful!
Thank you so much! Very simple and easy to follow
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks. I was wondering how my flashdrives had shrunk. Nice Video.
Glad I could help!
Thank you so so much for making this I was shaking earlier now I am happy and still shaking a little, also saved me a trip of going to best buy and losing money!
Glad I could help!
Thanks for this. have gotten away from things and had forgotten some of the steps.
Glad it helped
Damn, thanks. I was going down the rabbit hole of worrying which part of my process was broken.
Glad it helped.
Thank you I've been messing around with Linux and had my SD card have this issue now you saved it with very easy to follow steps! Idk why I didn't think of this even though I've used this in the past lol.😁
Glad to hear you've got your SD card back and working
Thanks... appreciate the clear steps... great job.
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks! This was super helpful.
Glad it was helpful!
Really helpful video. Thank you.
You're welcome!
Thank you so much!!
Very helpful!
You're welcome!
Superb my mate👍 Big help to me Thanks🤗
Happy to help
you saved my SD card. thank you. still works
Glad it helped
Very good explanation. 👍
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks you help me a lot!!
No problem!
Thank you soo much it really helped me a lot
Glad it helped!
Thank you so much, but I have a problem it says that the disk to too large for the final command.
Can I also use it to boot another Raspberry pi?
That's a strange one. Once you've got the partitions installed you should be able to try formatting it in Windows.
I have used my SanDisk SD card on Raspberry Pi with home assistant on
After that I am unable to format the SD card . tried many way .please help me how to fix
you're a life saver, thank you so much
Glad it helped!
Thank you so much help save many sd cards i had that were unusable 👍
Glad I could help
It worked.. love you
Glad I could help
Muchas gracias. Funciono perfecto
Thank u sir...
Hello! I’m having an issue where when I type in “create partition primary” it says “No usable free extent could be found.” What should I do? I think the file system is corrupted because it shows up as RAW file system.
Hi. If your PC can't fix the card try putting it in a digital camera (if you have one) and using the format on that. These tend to be lower level formatting that ignores anything on the sd card. If that fails try using a Linux system (e.g. the Raspberry Pi). The gparted command does much the same as diskpart.
Thanks for the information, but this is also possible with the disk management.
I deleted both partition, created a new primary with the disk management and afterwards quickformat.
Now I'm confused
I think I had the same problem when I tried disk management. The diskpart seems to do it at a lower level. Have you tried the Raspberry Pi installer. It has an option to clean the SD card now.
@@BytesNBits I'll try it. Thanks
Hi, great video! I've come back to it a few times as I couldn't remember it haha.
The most recent times I've used it with 2 cards, I have got to the "create partition primary" part and it just seems to sit and do nothing for a while, before giving the error "Virtual Disk Service error: The operation timed out. DiskPart has referenced an object that is not up-to-date. Refresh the object by using the RESCAN command. If the problem persists exit DiskPart, then reset DiskPart or restart the computer."
When I run the RESCAN command it says "DiskPart has finished scanning your configuration." Then when I run the partition command again, the same thing happens. I have tried restarting diskpart and the computer and it seems to persist with these errors. Any idea what's up?
I've had a couple of SD cards that seemed to get corrupted and failed to clean. I have an older digital camera which is very good at ignoring any card errors and just blindly formats things. You could also try the Raspberry Pi imager app. This now has a clean function which works well.
@@BytesNBits thank you!
When I checking dispart all disk it showing full size also 32 gb
Great video!
Thanks!
Great video. I boot my sd with the RaspberryPi Os but in the middle of the installation It didn't respond so I disconnect the power from my Raspberry Zero 2w and when I plugged again it didn't recognize the card and the light didn't blink.
I guess it's a matter of personal taste. They all end up using the same emulators.
Finally a video that cam through
Great.
Hi, thank you it works great and I got most of my space back. I'm using a 64GB sd card but using this process ive only managed to recover 59.9. When I go the raspberry pi imager it shows the sd card total storage to be 64 GB. Im wondering how can i get the sd card back up to full storage
Windows is not the best at fully cleaning the cards. If you've got a Linux PC or raspberry pi try using gparted.
I think I have a rare case on hands because I tried every single method known on the internet including your suggestions and the MicroSD card cannot be cleaned. Even with a tool like MiniTool Partition Wizard. Nothing works. Any idea what's happening & how things can be resolved?
I've found this a few times as well. It seems as if the card has somehow been physically corrupted. There may be a route to recover it but I'm not aware of it. I just bin the card and get another.
Thank you!!
You're welcome!
I have tried doing this procedure but I can't. Windows doesn't even see my SD card, it's not even visible to run Diskmgmt.msc tool. Any suggestion? I need to make a back-up SD card (clone it) that which is an IMG file written on the SD card. Unfortunately, even WIN32 diskimage writer can't even read the SD card (not visible).
Thanks
Hi. Try the Raspberry Pi Imager App. This has a card cleaning utility on it now. If that doesn't work try an SD card to USB adapter and plug the card into a working Raspberry Pi to see if it sees it. Then delete the partitions from there. Last chance is to plug it into a digital camera and try formatting from there. These tend to have a simpler file manager that might just force a re format. Good luck.
thanks a lot. i only have three sd cards and the 32 gig one was out from being used for a raspberry pi
Glad I could help
Man so close... this is the error I got after hitting "clean"
"DiskPart has encountered an error: The request could not be performed because of an I/O device error. See the System Event Log for more information"
Any thoughts? Or is the SD card really fried and it's time to throw away?
Have a go with Minitools Partition Wizard. If that fails as well to read the disk it looks like it's dead.
I feel like this could've been a 2 minute video instead of 12 minutes, but you did help me perfectly so thanks for that!
Glad it helped!
I have try to delete existing partition .not able to delete .and there is more unlocated space also .but not able to create new artition also
Hi. When you list disks can you see the sd card as a single entry? Are you able to select it? Does the clean function work - don't forget to list disks again to check the right one is selected?
I was stuck after commanded " create partition primary" , got message " time out , DiskPart not the newsiest object.... how to update it?
Hi. Diskpart is part of Windows. It should update with your Windows updates. I don't know if you can force it to update.
Thanks a lot!
You're welcome!
Thank you so much
No problem
Nice vid my guy
Thanks. Good to hear from you again :)
@@BytesNBits
I have a raspberry pi 8gb 'noobs' disk which I thought I couldn't re-use for exactly this reason. I did try! Can this same process be carried out on a Linux computer i.e. my raspberry pi?
Hi. Yes. The Linux equivalent to diskpart is fdisk. It works slightly differently within Linux as you have to mount and unmount drives but the process is the same - clear existing partitions, create new partition, format.
This is probably worth a second video - thanks for the idea!
@@BytesNBitsthanks for the prompt response! I'm sure I could Google it but it is helpful when someone shows you which is the great advantage of youtube.
'At the final step it says, "Virtual disk service error" "The volume size is too big". I am using a 128 GB card. Please help
Hi. If you've managed to clean the card and create the primary partition, try quitting diskpart at that point and see if Windows will then format it for you.
but in mine it's not showing unallocated it shows raw format with 30mb of capacity the sd card is of 64gb and in the diskpart it says healthy but doesn't format :(
can you help ?
Try using Minitools Partition Wizard. This gives a graphical interface and much deeper control. Use the Home - free version.
Thank You!
You're welcome!
Is it possible to resize the disk after Raspberry PI 4 Also if I have a 128 GB SD Card but it only shows MB after I flash a img file can I get it back to its full size without losing any data?
This method works for most sd card setups. It does delete ALL data on the card though.
@@BytesNBits for on Linux with gparted is possible to resize it without delete the data
@@RoseQuartz692 Thanks for the tip. Diskpart also lets you resize partitions but only in certain situations - must be NTFS and not a system disk. This video is really about cleaning a disk for the next job.
I did exactly what you did on the video, but for some unknown reason I can't set up the Raspberry pi ios on my SD card. I need help to fix my problem.
I've released a new video to recover badly corrupted cards. Please have a look at ua-cam.com/video/sLi_wd0UoX8/v-deo.html
Mine says there is no volume selected? Any help please? This happens after I try and format it
Did you manage to clean the partitions off the disk? Did you create the primary partition? Sometimes the SD cards are past saving.
What if clean disk doesn't work on MicroSD card ? ( Things remain unchanged )
Windows isn't great at cleaning some SD cards. Try a Linux computer if you have one. Gparted is the Linux version of Diskpart.
And not able to create partition primary as per your video
Thanks!
No problem!
Thank you, Buddy. You just saved me $12 lol.
Glad I could help
Thanks
No problem
So I attempted this and i got a notification saying volume size is too big after quick formatting
Did you manage to clean the drive and delete all the partitions? It sounds like something didn't get cleaned out.
I use my in my steam deck to format it. When I try your method it “ cleans it” but still shows 30mb? And it doesn’t let me create a partition
Sometimes Windows isn't able to fully clean the card. You could try using a Linux machine to go through the same process.
@@BytesNBits I don’t have one
@@enriquec.7057 Hi. I don't know how the Steam deck formats the card. I assume it's one of the standard formats that you should be able to clear with either a Windows or Mac / Linux machine. If all else fails and you've got a digital camera you could try formatting in that.
@@BytesNBits steamdeck formats it to ext4 with case. It cannot however be read in windows. I heard there is a program so you can partition the drives to be read in both windows and linux
@@enriquec.7057 Hi. You can get a plugin for Windows that allows it to work with ext4 disks but I've found it to be a bit unstable and I don't think it lets you format. www.ext2fsd.com/. Other than that you could try emulating a Linux machine and using that.
My sd card wont sow up at all any ideas on how to fix that?
Hi. If it's not showing up you'll have to try it in another device. Eg another computer, digital camera, etc. If that lets you format it you might be able to get control back.
I can clean the file succesfully and use the SD card as regular way but now on that sd card i am not able to upload the raspberry pi os.please tell me how i will solve this problem?
Hi. Are you using something like Etcher to burn the image to the SD card?
@@BytesNBits No iam using official raspberry pi imager
@@aatiqurrahman111 If the clean process worked and you're now using it as a normal SD card the imager should work OK. Have a go with the standard Etcher imager - www.balena.io/etcher/. You'll need to download the Pi disk image and then run it through this software. It's always been able to rewrite sd cards for me. Let me know how you get on.
I've tried this 20 times now but I'm not able to 'creat partition primary' ... My SD card got corrupted when my RP4 failed to update
You could try using a Linux machine. Gparted, etc. do a better better job that the windows versions.
many thanks saved me 3 64 gig sd cards
Great.
Excellent! I thought I destroyed two SD cards haha.
Glad it helped.
Didn't work.
My sdhc got formatted in Linux. When I brought it over to windows it showed a volume 1/4 the size. It's a 64gb SD card that now shows 16gb. I couldn't get the 64 gb back
Was diskpart able to see the partitions? Try a Windows app called Minitool Partition Wizard. It's free and will let you delve a lot deeper into the sd card. If that can't see and clean the partitions you may need to replace the card.
@@BytesNBits no. It only saw the 16gb partition.
My rasberry pi only shows the 3MB in disk management nothing else and in list disk the same thing happens
Have you gone as far as cleaning the card in diskpart? This should take it back to factory settings.
@@BytesNBits yes still only the 30mb drive is shown as a patrion
@@jaiden1279 I think I have the same problem, were you able to solve it?
@@Sebastian-el4uq Did you just randomly unplug your pi? If so it may be broken in the physical sense
I don't know where else to look to solve my problem, I tried everything, format from Windows safe mode with the steps in this video, from a pen drive with Windows recovery using "clean all" which should erase everything at low level, but no matter what I do, the raspberry pi operating system is always saved.
I downloaded an app that also erased it at "low level" in real time, and I saw how the micro SD went from being without format to having all the necessary files to turn it on.
Glad to hear you got it working
@@BytesNBits This comment was a bit to take out my frustration. As of today I already gave up the card, I couldn't make it work :(
It amazes me that even with things like WSL built into windows these days, it still can’t manage to mount linux file systems!
I guess there are a range of non technical reasons why Windows can't / won't do this.
@@BytesNBits Might be. WSL was supposedly to be beneficial to us developers and they have some Pi fans at Ms so maybe one day!
Can i reuse those SD cards for a raspberry pi again?
Yes. Once it's cleaned it's as good as new.
@@BytesNBits tysm for the reply. Also I keep hearing the formatting option provided by the imager is enough to erase everything, even partitions if any. Is that true or does it not work in all cases?
Saved me
Glad to help.
I from algeria thank you for halp me best man 💘
My pleasure.
what if my sd card turn into RAW?
You can try a partition tool like Minitools Partition Wizard.
champ!
thanks
No matter what I do I cant break the drive down... I have a 32g micro drive. all I can see is a 1.86g primary partition. No matter what I do it wont break down to its 32g.......
Sometimes you need to use a Linux machine and the gparted command - basically the same function as diskpart. The Linux system can sometimes break into the disk format better than on a PC.
my disk is write protected and it wort wwork
I'm sure you've checked but is it a physical lock (e.g. a small slider on the card) or a software lock? If it's a software lock you're best putting the card into a Linux Pc and using something like gparted.
My card is 64 gig and even after following the steps it is still 3 gig. Installed kodi previously.
Hi. Did you manage to delete all the partitions? Did the partitions add up to the 64 GB?
@@BytesNBits using the windows disk management as well as the one in command prompt and easeus partition master and all that is shown is one partition theb3 gig partition.
@@BytesNBits thanks for the reply.
@@toyin.dindoinlove9236 Hi. Strange!!! Try using the Raspberry Pi Imager - www.raspberrypi.com/software/. When you select the OS scroll down to the format as FAT32. This should clean the disk and set it back to a standard sd card.
@@BytesNBits did that also, no dice. My bp was sky high with my frustration I just threw the card out. The new installers seem like a frustration when reclaiming card space.
Anyway thanks again. Take care and Merry Christmas in advance.
SD Card formatter is free, been around for several years and does this in a few seconds.
Hi. I'll check that one out. Thanks.
got virtual disk error
If the PC is having problems reading the card or working with the partitions it might be corrupted. If that's the case it's easier to replace the card.
RIPPER RITA!
SATAFIRM S11 HOW TO REPAIR
Hi. I'm not sure what you mean. The tutorial goes through the generic process of reformatting the SD cards. It should work for most. If not your best bet is to try fixing the card on a Linux machine.
I've been doing this for 10 years and have never had an issue, I can't even believe I had to look this up, same steps I've done since 2010 and it's just not working after imaging Manjaro to my 128GB for my Pi 4. Do -NOT- use or download Manjaro for ARM. It -WILL- brick even a brand new 128GB SD card. I am very, very experienced in this, have done everything by the book. The Manjaro Devs are to blame for this issue, fair warning, Do not use it. Look for other distros that arent garbage.
Hi. Thanks for the heads up. Are you using a PC and diskpart? Have you got Ext2Fsd installed to read Linux disks? I found that got in the way when using some distros. If you uninstall it Windows starts to ignore the Linux partitions and lets you clean the disk. Otherwise try using a Linux machine like your Raspberry Pi and the fdisk command. Does the same job as diskpart. I hope this helps.
Doesn’t work. “Disk volume size is too big”
Try using a PC app called Minitool Partition Wizard - ua-cam.com/video/NnOgTywuTkw/v-deo.html
@@BytesNBitsthat worked great! Thank you! You have earned a subscriber!
CLEAN IS NOT WORKING FOR ME IM DOOMMMMMMMED
You can try using the raspberry pi imager app. It has a clean sd card option.
Be careful when doing this, i just almost bricked my SD card, you might have to goto computer management reformat there, thats how i fixed mine after it looked wiped from the system
You can also use a partition management tool to get deeper control of the process.