In many cases, you should clear or reformat an SD card, USB flash drive, pen drive, or hard drive for certain reasons. Both of the operations will wipe all your data on the device but they are usually done for the different purpose.
I just used Disk Utility to secure erase (2 pass) a 16GB SanDisk SD card in the built-in card reader on my MacBook Pro, formatting as ExFAT. No problems at all. I just tried again with a 4GB Sandisk SD card, as I wasn't sure whether I had selected Ex-FAT previously, but no joy. How to Erase Sd Card on MAC Insert the SD card in your Mac If your computer doesn’t have a SD card slot, then you have to use an SD-to-USB adapter. Now, open the Finder (A face-shaped blue icon in the Dock). Click on the Go menu item. From the Go drop down menu, Click on Utilities.
You may clear or wipe an SD card/USB flash drive to:
You may reformat an SD card/USB flash drive to:
After learning the differences between erasing and formatting an SD card/USB drive, you can choose the right method that works best to fix your issue. Here EaseUS free partition software that fully is compatible with Windows 10/8/7/XP/Vista can help you wipe SD card in the easiest and most efficient way. Now, you can connect the SD card or USB drive to PC and try the step-by-step tutorial to format/clear a SD card with ease.
Here list three ways to clear SD card/USB flash drive. Now, you can try the detailed steps based on your needs. We put the most straightforward way in the first position.
Step 1: Insert your SD card into your computer or connect your USB flash drive to your computer, run EaseUS Partition Master, right-click the SD card/USB partition you intend to format and choose 'Format'.
Step 2: In the new window, set the Partition label, File system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3), and Cluster size for your SD card/USB, then click 'OK'.
Step 3: Then you will see a warning window, click 'OK' in it to continue.
Step 4: Click the 'Execute Operation' button in the top-left corner to review the changes, then click 'Apply' to start formatting your SD card/USB flash drive.
For users who choose to erase SD card with Diskpart, you must use this method carefully. If you pick the wrong disk, your data will go permanently.
Step 1. Press Windows + R, input Diskpart, and press Enter. (Run Diskpart as administrator.)
Step 2. Use the Clean All function to erase SD card.
1. Input list disk > Enter. (Your SD card will listed on it.)
2. Run select disk* > Enter. (* represents the disk number the SD card.)
3. Run Clean All >Enter
For users who do not want to use the SD card/USB eraser or the Diskpart, you can try the Windows built-in tool - Disk Management.
Step 1. Press Windows + X and choose Disk Management.
Step 2. Format SD card.
1. Choose partition on the SD card.
2. Right-click the partition and select Format.
3. Set the Volume label, File System, Allocation unit size.
4. Click OK to wipe/erase SD card.
Step 1: Launch EaseUS Partition Master, right-click the partition on your external hard drive/USB/SD card which you want to format and choose the 'Format' option.
Step 2: Assign a new partition label, file system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3), and cluster size to the selected partition, then click 'OK'.
Step 3: In the Warning window, click 'OK' to continue.
Step 4: Click the 'Execute Operation' button in the top-left corner to review the changes, then click 'Apply' to start formatting your external hard drive/USB/SD card.
You can read this post to completely format SD card/USB flash drive: How to format SD card on Windows 10.
Here is a video guide that you may follow to delete pictures from your sd card if it is used on your camera, you may connnect your camera to computer Windows 10 for example with your SD in the slot or you may delete images or videos on the camera Canon Eos for instance with its buttons on the camera.
Here is a brief video that guides how exactly you may erase and delete sd card on an Android mobile and Samsung galaxy is used in this video as an example.
The erasing/deleting on the SD memory card in the above two videos are not permanently removal and images/videos could be restored with the help of some free memory card recovery software.
Erasing/Formatting memory card: There are many chances that you may want to fully erase all files on your memory card sdhc/sdxc or even micro sd card used on your Android mobile or digital camera Canon Nikon Fujifilm.
For instance, as the demand for memory card capacity increased, users need to upgrade their memory card for their mobile phone or camera when it cannot hold more and more photos videos, or when their phone is running slowly and they need a faster performance by using a new sd card. Then upgrading to a new better sd card would be a nice choice.
Erasing data on memory card permanently would be vital if it contains some privacy photos, videos that you will never want to share with another one and delete files from sd card permanently without even a single chance of recovery.
To erase SD card and delete files permanently
Here comes the main parts of this article that you may be interested in erasing memory card forever that means no chance of recovery. Firefox 68 download for mac.
How do I permanently clear data on memory card?
Here are some frequently sd card data erasing methods that you need to know the truth whether the files were removed forever or not.
Why no permanent erasing? The reasons comes in the later contents as following
Delete all files on SD card - is it kind of permanent removal?
Files WERE DELETED on Android mobile phone SD card - not permanently removal, can be restored (If you removed all the files on the sd card, and then saved new files onto the same SD card over and over again, then the deleted files could be mostly removed and can not be recovered.
-> solution: remove all the files by free sd card eraser on Windows.
Delete a few images/photos on memory card - too difficult for permanent removal
If there are just a few videos or photos that you deleted among thousands of files, and then continue using the memory card for taking more files, then the removed files remains some chances of being recovered.) -> solution: remove all the files by free sd card eraser on Windows.
https://habsranama1979.mystrikingly.com/blog/film-crazy-little-thing-called-love-bluray-720p. Delete images videos from camera - this is not permanently deleting, can be restored by image recovery software
The reformatting or erasing memory card SD remains the same chance of recovery that can be performed easily by free sd data recovery tools even if you pressed the button 'Delete All' inside of your digital camera. So do not trust the formatting/erasing function built by the camera if you need a privacy for the data inside of the digital devices.
Solution -> format it with free sd card eraser on Windows
Memory Card Eraser #1 - Partition Resizer Free
Partition Resizer Free, the 100% free eraser, is delveoped by IM-Magic as a useful tool not only works for all types of memory cards but also applied to wiping sensitive information on all disks, usb flash drives.
Clear SD Card Permanently
Step 1: connect your sd to Windows 10/8.1/8/7 and then open Partition Resizer, right click your memory card inside of the software -> Wipe Partition (This is a function that provides non recoverable clear for digital devices)
Clear SD Card Permanently
Step 2: select an erasing technology for wiping your memory card, and then confirm the operation.
How to install excel on mac. Pros: It is totally free of charge, no adware bundled with it too and another attractive feature is that it provides other functions such as repairing damaged sd card, format sd card that you may use it in the future.
Cons: no much to complain for an easy to use freeware.
Memory Card Eraser #2 - HDD LLF Low Level Format
HDDGURU.com provides such low level format tool for memory card that has been infected with virus and cannot be erased/formatted.
Here is the link that you may download this low level format tool
https://hddguru.com/software/HDD-LLF-Low-Level-Format-Tool/HDDLLF.4.40.exe
Clear SD Card Permanently
Memory Card Eraser #3 - USB Disk Storage Format Tool
USB Disk Storage Format Tool, the freeware for erasing memory card, is offered by Authorsoft as a complete free tool that works with all types of digital devices including most often used memory cards used for phone/camera.
You may download it here
http://www.authorsoft.com/USBFormatToolSetup.exe
Format/erase SD
Easeus Partiton Master does provide a wiping for memory cards. You may download it here:
http://down.easeus.com/product/epm_free
Kingston Format Utility is developed by Kingston and it can also be used for erasing or formatting SD card if nessessary.
You may download it here:
ftp://supportdownload:supportdownload@ftp.kingston.com/kingston_format_utility.exe
Preparations: connect your SD to Mac and sometimes a card reader is required if your memory card does not show up in Mac if it is directly connected to it.
Confirmation message would show up: “Are you sure you want to erase the partition “[YOUR SD CARD NAME]?” Click Erase. And your computer would start to delete the contents of your SD card and clean it.
Video - how to erase memory card on MACBOOK PRO
Here are the steps if you want to try using command prompt diskpart to clear SD, microSD, cf etc. It is a function provided by Windows starting from earlier platforms such as Windows 98 and it is still in use for many skilled professionals when it comes to a necessary.
Note: this function shall be used as administrator.
Preparations: Type cmd in the search box in Windows 10/8/7 or you may press 'Win+R' to get it started. Here is a photo that shows all the steps. (WIN+R keys are faster to launch cmd)
Format/erase SD with diskpart
Step 1: Type diskpart and press 'Enter'.
Step 2: Type list disk to list all the available drives and press 'Enter'. (You need to get your memory card connected to computer in advance of all the steps.) Boot up mac from usb.
Step 3: Type select disk + disk number ( for example, select disk 0) to select the SD card you want to erase and press Enter.
Apple magic board. Step 4: Type clean to clean the SD card and press 'Enter'. (This is to clean everything on the memory card.)
Step 5: Type create partition primary and press 'Enter'. (This is to make a new volume for the SD)
Step 6: Type format fs=ntfs (or format fs=exfat, or format fs=fat32) and press 'Enter'. (ntfs, fat32, or exfat are most commonly used file systems for sd card, cf, tf, microSD, MINIsd. AND IF you do not know which one to choose, just go ahead with fat32 for less than 32GB, and exfat for over 64GB.)
As we stated previously on this page that some formatting/erasing SD card are not truely clearing files which could still be restored with the help of specialized programs, as we called, the memory card data recovery software, which are even offered as free tools.
Here are some truths that list the erasing or not
Note: If we mention data can be restored, it is under the condition that it needs a special utility called data recovery software, such as iCare Data Recovery Free, a complete freeware for recovering data from sd card.
What's the life expectancy of an SD card? How many times can you overwrite an sd card? Or simply how many times can you format an sd card?
Usually we do not recommend users to perform low level format since it would short the lifespan, so does formatting, no matter regular format, quick format, or low level format.
When we try to look answers from the internet, Google showed a suggested website saying that the memory card like sd ormicrosd could last for 10 years of lifespan.
sd card lifespan
Actually the lifespan would be determined by how many times you write/format the memory card.
Industry insiders often refer to this as the number of “Program/Erase Cycles” or “P&E Cycles.” Almost all modern memory cards can withstand at least 100,000 Program/Erase Cycles, and some cards can withstand as many as 10 times more cycles than standard cards.
According to data on the following page, memory cards can hold at least 100,000 times of erasing/writing cycles on https://improvephotography.com/749/memory-cards-sd-cf-replaced-old-reliability/
So it is safe to format/erase data over and over gain but just try to avoid do the low level formatting. In fact if you deleted data and then save new data onto the memory card, it is a new writing/overwritting for the deleted old data.
SDSC card is erased by bytes (0~2G, including 2G);
ERASE_WR_BLK_START and ERASE_WR_BLK_END is physical address based on byte;
Addresses: [ERASE_WR_BLK_START,ERASE_WR_BLK_END] [0,0x001FFFFF]
SDHC card is erased by blocks (512 bytes) (2-32G, including 32G);
ERASE_WR_BLK_START and ERASE_WR_BLK_END is physical address based on bytes;
Addresses: ERASE_WR_BLK_START,ERASE_WR_BLK_END] [0,0x01FF FFFF];(16G);
4G: [0,0xFFFF FFFF]
8G: [0,0x00FF FFFF]
32G: [0,0x03FF FFFF]
See how the address is stated on SD card for erasing
sd card erase addresses
Before any erasing/formatting the memory card, you need to backup your sd card data onto some other places.
Solution update on Dec 6, 2019