Windows 10: I can read, but not write to or format SD memory cards, File Explorer keeps saying the...

I can read, but not write to or format SD memory cards, File Explorer keeps saying the cards are locked.

:)

 

Writing to SD Cards

You know, there is a forum for Alex Page's USB Image Tool, and this code has been reported before. Suggestions from Alex are that you may have inadvertently left a file open from the card, or that your AV may be blocking access. If you use no other AV besides Defender, then check if turning off Controlled Folder Access helps.

Enable or Disable Controlled Folder Access in Windows 10

I use USB Image Tool too, mostly for making images of USBs, but it works equally well for SD cards. The .img file it creates (and restores) is a sector for sector copy of the source, and when restored the USB/SD it makes should be identical to the original.

That does sound the most likely explanation in this case. Though a trivial possibility exists, SD cards have a write-lock slider that may have accidentally been moved.

Properly low-level formatting an SD card is not possible with the tools in Windows. The SD Association provides an SD Formatter that does it correctly.

SD Memory Card Formatter - SD Association

If that fails, then the SD card is almost certainly dead/dying.

 

formatting sd card f drive

Hi Richard,

You can format your SD card in File Explorer. To do this, follow these steps:

• Insert your SD card.
• Open File Explorer.
• On the left pane, right-click your SD card and choose Format.
• If you want to change the File system of your SD card, click the drop-down menu below it and choose one of the options there.
• Click Start, and then click OK on the prompt.
• After formatting your SD card, click OK again on the prompt.

If you have additional queries, kindly reply to this thread.

 

How to disable write-protection for SD-Card ?

I don't think you understand the problem. It doesn't make any difference if I use a cheap 2 or 4 gb sd-card or the one that I'm using now. If I format say an old 2gb IN THE camera as requested for the firmware upgrade, Win10 will not let me write on it. It's not the card. It's Win10 seeing it as "Read Only State:yes" in diskpart, no matter what I do. I will simply put the firmware file on a usb stick, and boot my old desktop machine with windows XP, that I don't use anymore, and then I will transfer the firmware file from the stick to the SD-Card. In XP there is no problem, reading and writing to these cards formatted in the camera. But I was wondering what exactly is going on with my Win10 laptop preventing me to write on some SD-cards like those formated in my Nikon D500.