MicroSD cards are designed for use in small devices such as phones and tablets. Given that the device must be a certain size while still packing a lot of hardware, these devices usually don’t have room for an SD card. There aren’t many devices that can read and write directly to a MicroSD card aside from phones, tablets, and cameras. The reason for this is that they do not have a slot that is small enough to accommodate it. There is rarely an option to format a MicroSD card on devices that do have one.

How to format a MicroSD card on Windows 10

Format MicroSD Card on Windows 10

If you want to format a MicroSD card on Windows 10, you can do so; however, you may need to buy additional hardware, such as an adapter to connect the card to your computer.

However, if your Windows 10 system has an SD card slot, you can purchase a MicroSD card adapter. It’s inexpensive, and it frequently comes with MicroSD cards.

You can format a MicroSD card using the Disk Management tool in Windows 10, which has a simple GUI, File Explorer, or the Diskpart command-line tool.

NOTE: Formatting the card will ERASE ALL DATA on it.

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1. Format MicroSD card via Disk Management

  1. Connect the MicroSD card to your system via an adapter.
  2. Tap the Win+R keyboard shortcut to open the run box.
  3. In the run box enter diskmgmt.msc and tap Enter.
  4. The MicroSD card will be listed in the bottom half of the app.
  5. Right-click a volume/drive or the entire disk, and select Format.
  6. Select a file system, and make other changes as necessary.

How to format a MicroSD card on Windows 10

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2. Format MicroSD Card via File Explorer

  1. Connect the MicroSD card to your system via an adapter.
  2. Open File Explorer.
  3. Go to This PC.
  4. The MicroSD card will be listed under Devices and drives.
  5. Right-click the MicroSD card, and select Format from the context menu.
  6. Choose between full format and quick format, select a file system, and click Start.

How to format a MicroSD card on Windows 10

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3. Format MicroSD card via Diskpart

  1. Connect the MicroSD card to your system via an adapter.
  2. Open Command Prompt with admin rights.
  3. Enter diskpart and tap Enter.
  4. A new Command Prompt window will open. Switch over to it.
  5. Run this command to list all connected disks: list disk
  6. Take note of the disk number of the MicroSD card.
  7. Run this command to select the MicroSD card: select disk no. Replace ‘no’ with the number given to the MicroSD card.

  1. Run this command to list volumes: list volume.
  2. Take note of the volume number of the MicroSD card.
  3. Select the volume with this command: select volume no. Replace ‘no’ with the number of the MicroSD card’s volume.
  4. Run the following command to format the volume/card;
    • To format on FAT32 file system: format fs=fat32
    • To format on the NTFS file system: format fs=NTFS
    • To format on the exFAT file system: format fs=exFAT
  5. To perform a quick format, add ‘quick’ at the end of the previous command. For example: format fs=fat32 quick.