SD Card not showing 4 GB

[engr_joni_ee]

Hi,

I have connected 4 GB Micro SD card to Windows based PC but it is showing 196 MB after Quick Format FAT 32. How to get 4 GB ?

 

[betwixt]

Looks like you have a small partition on the SD card. I think Windows only allows formatting in the default partition.

Look for the Windows partition tool (I can't remember what it is called, I last used Windows many years ago). It will probably show the space is split into two or more partitions. Use to the tool to remove them so you only have one partition then try formatting again.

Brian.

 

[FvM]

The partition tool is called Disk Managment.

 

[Nik_2213]

There is also possibility that a 'budget' SD card is a fake, with much less capacity than advertised.
Due care, please ??

 

[BradtheRad]

Your screenshot shows the Capacity selector having a pop-down arrow to the right. What options do you see when you click the Capacity selector?

If you did a Quick format then it probably repeated the previous format of 196 MB. Try a low-level format of your card. You may access greater capacity. This could require a disk utility program. One which is more versatile than the basic formatting routine in Windows.

And there are formatting options such as EXFat32, which may allow your setup to acquire greater capacity. I doubt you wish to try the NTFS format since it is more difficult to work with than ordinary FAT system.

 

[engr_joni_ee]

In Disk Management tool it shows 3.6 GB Un-allocated. But upon right click the options are disable to create new volumes etc ..

- - - Updated - - -

Disk Management options are attached.

 

[betwixt]

Click in the box on the left where it says "SD CARD (G" and see if it highlights or shades it, this will indicate which partition you are currently working with. That should give you an option to delete the partition, do so. You should be left with all the space un-partitioned. Then create a single partition the size of the SD card. From there you should be able to format it as normal to full size.

Brian.

 

[engr_joni_ee]

No option is there to delete partition.

 

[KlausST]

Hi,

the disk management software comes with a "help". It is free to use. And it even comes when you right click on the partition.

If there are no important data on your SD card you may play around.
If there are important data on your SD card, then copy them to the HDD before playing around.

Klaus

 

[engr_joni_ee]

There is no important data in SD card. I guess windows 7 blocking something when it comes to delete partition and make new volume and shrink for SD cards etc.

Is there any free software to partition SD card ?

 

[KlausST]

Hi,

Just in case it is not clear: You can not delete an unallocated part of a memory.

Unallocated means: It is available, but not defined yet.

It´s not clear what you really want.
If you want one big partition, then you first have to delete the 196MB part. Then all memory is undefined (unallocated). Now you are able to define one big partition.

All this should be written in the "help".

Klaus

 

[ads-ee]

Use option 3 from the following link:
https://www.eassos.com/blog/how-to-remove-delete-partition-from-sd-card-on-windows-10/

i.e. use diskpart in a command prompt window and select the volume you want to delete (be very careful about what you select as you don't want to delete your C drive)

 

[engr_joni_ee]

Hi,

Yes diskpart works. It delete the small allocated potion (192 MB) and combine it with 3.5 GB un-allocated. Now the un-allocated portion is 3.69 GB. But there is still problem. Upon right click "New Simple Volume" option is there but when I click "New Simple Volume" nothing comes to assign the new partition.

 

[betwixt]

As a drive letter is allocated, maybe it is already seeing a single partition.
Try formatting it, if it works the partition must be there.

Brian.

 

[engr_joni_ee]

Formatting does not work. Nothing comes when I right click on SD Card icon in My Computer and click Quick Format. Is there any way to reset the SD card to factory setting.

 

[betwixt]

Yes, re-partition it. The problem is Windows is stopping you do it. Microsoft's assumption that all users are incompetent is the reason I switched to Linux years ago.

Try this:
1. open a 'command' (terminal) window so you have a black background with a text prompt in it, probably ending in something like c:>
2. type in 'diskpart'. It should start the manual partitioner program and the prompt will change to 'DISKPART>'.
3. find out which volume number Windows has given the SD card by typing 'list volume'. Use the 4GB size to determine the volume number.
4. type 'select volume' then the number from step 3. BE CAREFUL TO ENTER THE CORRECT NUMBER!
5. type 'delete volume' to remove the partition table.
6. type 'create partition primary' to make a new partition table.
7. close the program and try formatting it again.

I'm working from memory so please verify the steps I stated.
This is so much easier in Linux!

Brian.

 

[engr_joni_ee]

Thanks. It works now.

diskpart
list disk
select disk <disk number>
create partition primary

or

diskpart
list volume
select volume <disk number>
create partition primary

 

[betwixt]

I'm glad it's sorted. It would be worthwhile you learning about how partitioning works, it is useful to know for the future.
Devices are the whole storage device, Partitions are just that, they are part of the whole device but divided so the OS can treat them as though they were different devices. For example, your 4GB device could be partitioned as 1GB and 3GB, still on one physical device but the OS could call them drive G: and H:

In Windows, it was originally done because the largest drive the older versions of Windows could use was 32Gb and as physically bigger drives became available it was necessary to treat them as several 32Gb (or smaller) drives. Other operating systems use it as a way to map drives to other machines so they appear to be local but are actually remotely linked by a network or sometimes they use them as an aid to backing up data so all critical things can be held in one easily copied drive.

Brian.

 

[theskyishigh]

Use any partition manager to destroy all the partitions and then format with FAT32. BTW, you need to remember that SD Cards use the K, M, and G conventions, not the IEEE Ki, Mi and Gi. So a 4GB card will be 4,000,000,000 bytes, not 4,294,967,296 bytes (4GiB). If the partition manager doesn't show memory space remotely close to what is written on the card, then you are stuck with a cheap Chinese rip-off. I have seen a lot these in the market in recent years.

Good luck!