SD card always wants to be formatted - what to do?

There are several reasons why your SD card should always be formatted. We will show you why and how you can solve the problem.

Why does the SD card want to be formatted all the time?

If Windows repeatedly requests the formatting of an SD card, it is either defective or is not only used with a Windows PC.
If you use the SD card with a camera, for example, it will be formatted again so that it can be used. This formatting usually happens unnoticed and makes the card unusable under Windows.
The same thing happens on Linux. The common USB file systems FAT and FAT32 are not supported here. The USB stick is formatted in such a way that it works under Linux; under Windows this no longer works and must be formatted again.

This can be remedied, for example, by directly connecting a camera to the PC. If you connect the computer and the camera with a USB cable, you can transfer the images directly, inserting and formatting the SD card is no longer necessary.
If you want to save your data from the SD card before it is formatted, use the free tools TestDisk & PhotoRec.
If you cannot prevent the formatting process, the data can usually also be read out under Linux. The Linux variant Knoppix can be burned to a CD and then started from there. So you can use Linux on your PC and save the photos with it.

In the next practical tip, we will show you how to format your SD card.