[GUIDE] Using chkdsk to fix a corrupted SD card

[Michael Sharp1]

I just bought a 32 GB micro SD and it says blank SD card or unsupported file system on my Kyocera hydro life. I've had the SD card for going on 2 weeks now and just today it started saying this I have not a clue as what to do to get it working again. I'm not to concerned about data lost as I am about my card working for the external storage for my phone please help

 

[Renee N Paul Jackson]

While Google has removed support for SD cards since the release of ICS, some OEMs (namely Samsung) have gone against that and continue to include an SD slot for expandable storage. This is a good thing for many reasons; users can store pictures, movies, music, contacts and/or documents on here and not have to worry about their internal storage being taken up.

Unfortunately, this also leaves room for problems with the SD card, most notably with corruption of the content stored on the cards. Many apps and programs claim to be able to retrieve corrupted information but for the most part, don't help much and require that you have the program set up before any corruption happens.
While I don't guarantee that this guide will help you retrieve any personal information, you might be lucky and at least save some of what was lost, and prevent any more corruption from happening. I have used chkdsk before and was able to retrieve several pictures and a couple hundred songs

Now before we get started, you'll need a couple of things; the corrupted SD card, and a computer running Windows. (I'm using Windows 7 for this demonstration)

Ok, ready? Let's start
First off, you'll need to go to the start menu on the bottom left of your computer screen
Click on that and there will be a search bar. Type in the word "cmd" and hit enter
You should see something named "cmd. exe" under a list of programs
Right click that and hit "Run as Administrator" as is shown below
View attachment 103570

This will open a command windows that will allow you to do a plethora of things, but most importantly, fix our SD card
The window will look something like this:
View attachment 103571

Now before you insert the SD card, make sure the card isn't write protected as this will prevent the program from having access to the card
[NOTE] This is only if you are using an SD card adapter for your micro SD. If your desktop/laptop have a microSD slot, you do not need to do this [/NOTE]

Look at your SD card, on the side there will be a "switch." Make sure it is as far up as it can go (The letters on the card should be readable, not upside down)
Once you have checked for this, you can insert the card into your PC's card slot
Doing this will open a window on your PC, showing the name of the card and asking if you want to open it or transfer any files to and from the card. Close out of the window
Now go back to the start menu and open "My Computer." There will be a list labeled "Devices with removable storage" under which you will find your SD card and the drive letter. You'll need the letter for when we use the chkdsk command.
View attachment 103575

In my case, the SD card has the driver letter "H:"
Your letter may be different, so make sure that you type in your specific one.

Now you will go back to the command window and type in "chkdsk" then your card's drive letter, followed by a colon and /f
It should now look something like this:
View attachment 103576

After this is typed in, hit enter and wait for the program to go to work and find then fix any corruption on the card. This can take a few minutes, depending on the amount of corruption and on the storage size of the card
When it is done, you should see this in your command window:
View attachment 103577

In this example I have no corruption, so the wait time was very short and I didn't get any reports of data being retrieved or fixed.
Cards with corrupted data will get any recovered data stored in the directory lost.dir in the SD card's list of folders
Now we're all done
Hopefully this helped out some of you with the recovery of any info and/or with preventing any further corruption.
I also recommend reformatting the SD card once you use it again as it will do so in the appropriate format for your specific device.

I have done all the step you have suggested and it come up with .. Unrecoverable error in folder convert folder to file y/n .... so I answered y .. and now it said it is on 78 Percent complete .. with C:/user under it!!

Hi .. I had y/n questions as well .. Unrecoverable error in folder convert folder to file (y/n ) I put y then it said 80 percent but is just still sitting there please help!!

 

[UJ95x]

I just bought a 32 GB micro SD and it says blank SD card or unsupported file system on my Kyocera hydro life. I've had the SD card for going on 2 weeks now and just today it started saying this I have not a clue as what to do to get it working again. I'm not to concerned about data lost as I am about my card working for the external storage for my phone please help

Sorry for the late reply...but have you tried following the steps in the guide?

Hi .. I had y/n questions as well .. Unrecoverable error in folder convert folder to file (y/n ) I put y then it said 80 percent but is just still sitting there please help!!

Has it still not moved from 80 percent?

 

[Double Eff]

I followed the instructions above and it told me:

The type of the filesystem is RAW.
CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives.

What can I do?

 

[Golfdriver97]

I followed the instructions above and it told me:

The type of the filesystem is RAW.
CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives.

What can I do?

If you are running a Windows PC, if you right click the disk, you can select Tools and in there is a method to check for errors as well. That might work in this case.

 

[UJ95x]

If you are running a Windows PC, if you right click the disk, you can select Tools and in there is a method to check for errors as well. That might work in this case.

I am not 100% sure, but I think that does the same thing. It just bypasses the command window making it easier for people to do.

I followed the instructions above and it told me:

The type of the filesystem is RAW.
CHKDSK is not available for RAW drives.

What can I do?

CHKDSK does not support the RAW format. I believe Recuva, however, does support it.
https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...ttps://www.piriform.com/recuva&token=GY5c0ddR

 

[George Eduard]

Hi, i have the same problem with "corrupted sd card" , but when i use chkdsk /x /f on my I: drive, it will take a looong time to reach tu the Volumes part and then it shows me this error: The wrong volume is in the drive. Please insert volume into drive I:.
For the first few tries or without using the /x part, it will reach the "0 percent completed" and then just finishes without doing anything else.
Any ideas as to why any of this is happening?

 

[Phrie]

Thank you so much! This worked on my Samsung Galaxy S4.

It was saying "SD card is damaged. Try reformatting it." All my photos and music were gone. Now, after running this chkdsk, it "uncorrupted" the SD card! Again, thank you!

[Also, I can confirm that this works on Windows 8 as well!]

 

[Davidvan]

Thanks for your information, i'll try it

 

[Sk Muntazir]

when i was try to using any thing on card that are be hanged

 

[B. Diddy]

Hi, i have the same problem with "corrupted sd card" , but when i use chkdsk /x /f on my I: drive, it will take a looong time to reach tu the Volumes part and then it shows me this error: The wrong volume is in the drive. Please insert volume into drive I:.
For the first few tries or without using the /x part, it will reach the "0 percent completed" and then just finishes without doing anything else.
Any ideas as to why any of this is happening?

Sorry, but my guess would be that the card is corrupted beyond recovery.

when i was try to using any thing on card that are be hanged

Welcome to Android Central! Sorry, but can you elaborate on that? What are you experiencing and what have you tried?

 

[Kommandant Litz]

Thanks much OP. It worked all good.

 

[jsjacksgirl]

If the PC reads it, does it see the files that were there before. If so copy those files to a sub directory and format the disk, then copy them back.

Windows does this sometimes on cards formatted for phones. There is not much you can do but use parted to look at the disk. Sometimes after parted mounts the drive, errors clear up. Anyway, you can see what format, what flags are on it, etc. I have had this a lot reading sad cards for my phone in windows but somehow manage to fix problem. Good luck

 

[ajagumbe]

thanks a ton for this information

 

[sotuttom]

Thank you!!! This worked and I was able to recover my pictures I thought were lost forever!!!

 

[Guaps]

Thanks so much for this guide. It has given me a bunch of things to try, but I think my issue is a little different from what I am seeing here. The ChkDsk says 0 Percent Completed then gives me the prompt again and does nothing.
The phone won't see the card anymore, so I have it in my card reader on my computer. When I first put the card in, I can see all the folders and files but once I try to navigate through the folders or copy a file, it tries for a while then gives me an error. Usually it says "Please insert a disk into drive v:". Because the card basically disappears, none of the other programs I have tried (Recuva, etc) have worked either.
I am desperate to get this working. I changed jobs a while ago and switched google accounts and never bothered to set up the picture backup to Google + on my new google account. So I have a lot of pictures of my kids on that card I would really like to save.
Thanks for any help you all can provide!

 

[Sm29]

I have tried the steps and it seems that it could work but then I get the error "The root volume is full. To perform a disk check, Windows requires space in the root folder. Remove some files from this folder, then run disk check again." Please help! I haven't been able to find how this can be accomplished on a card that is corrupted and cannot be opened. The card was not full when it became corrupted or anywhere close. The computer also said it was not full at first.

 

[mire1]

Thank you SO MUCH !

Just saves around 1000 pics, worked like a dream. XXX !

 

[Stefan Petkovic]

Guys i am looking to fix my problem for whole damn day am getting angry i don't have warranty i will eat it if i dont fix it in like a day or so,i have SanDisk 64gb class sdHC and lg f70 can't do s*** help me xD

Okay cmd finish his job,i was happy for a split second and then this...

 

[UJ95x]

Okay cmd finish his job,i was happy for a split second and then this... View attachment 175714View attachment 175715

Have you tried any other programs on your desktop, like Recuva? CHKDSK shouldn't have changed the format on the card, but it might not have been able to recovery anything. Try another desktop recovery program (mobile ones aren't very good), and let me know if that works