A guide to formatting a memory card without deleting files

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A memory card is a storage device used in devices like phone, computers, MP3 players, camcorders and tablets. Mostly, this is used to store MP3 songs and other kinds of audio files. Memory cards are an easy and effective method of storing audio files, since they offer sufficient storage capacity, and are extremely affordable as well. These can also be easily upgraded and formatted in case there are any errors or bugs that need to be fixed.

There may be a number of reasons why you would need to format your memory card- such as viruses, usage beyond capacity, slowdown or due to your device being unable to read the card, and so on. Whatever the reason may be, it is important to ensure that the important files in your card do not get lost. This can actually be done quite easily even by people who are not very well-versed with using technology.

The easiest method to ensure that you do not lose any file after formatting your memory card can be explained in the following steps:

• Connect your memory card to your computer. This can usually be done by connecting it with a card reader, which can connect with your computer’s USB port. You can also connect your memory card to another device on which you want to store the files and then connect to your computer.
• The next step is to access the files that are present in the card. This can be done by going to ‘My Computer’ and selecting the external drive.
• You should then make a note of all the files you want to retain, select them and copy them securely to your computer. It is always a good idea to make more than one backup. You can press CTRL+C to copy your files, and CTRL+V to paste them.
• Once you have safely backed up the files you wanted to retain, you can go ahead and format your memory card. For this, you would need to right click on the drive option of the external device, and select ‘Format’ among the pop up choices that appear.
• This will format your memory card, and might take a while, depending on the reason why you formatted your memory card in the first place.
• Once the format is completed, you can copy the files you had retained securely in your backup folder or device, and copy then to the memory card once again. Press CTRL+C to copy the files and CTRL+V to paste them on your memory card.
• You can open the files and/ or play your audios to make sure that they are alright.

This is the easiest method to actually format a SD card on your own. However, there may be certain complex errors with your card that might make it unreadable by your computer, in which case you will not be able to access the files you want to retain, in the first place. For more complex problems, if you feel that your data is at risk of being lost, you can contact a SD card data recovery service and follow their instructions to recover your files and format your memory card.

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