Defragment SD card - is that possible?
If you want to defragment your SD card under Windows, you will not find a suitable function. We will explain why.
Defragment SD card - does that help?
- The defragmentation process on hard drives is used to organize certain files. This means that the read and write head has to move less back and forth. This not only makes the hard drive faster, it also increases its lifespan.
- Defragmenting USB sticks and SD cards is completely useless. With these flash memories there is no read head, so it doesn't matter where the files are located.
- The process is not only senseless for an SD card, but unfortunately also harmful. Defragmentation involves so many unnecessary write accesses that the lifespan would decrease significantly if defragmentation were carried out frequently.
Format SD card - how it works
Current operating systems and programs do not offer a function for defragmenting SD cards for good reasons. If you want to speed up your SD card a little, formatting the card can help with a lot of data.
- First open the SD card on your computer and save all data on the desktop.
- Then right-click on the SD card and select the "Format" option.
- With the button "Start" all data on the SD card is deleted. You can achieve a more efficient formatting by deactivating the "quick formatting". However, this process takes a few minutes.
- You can then transfer the data back to the SD card. This can increase the speed a little, especially with slightly older devices with large and large files.
In the next practical tip, we will show you how to repair an SD card in an emergency.