The computer does not see the memory card: SD, miniSD, microSD. What to do? Lack of internal memory on a smartphone - step-by-step instructions on how to use an SD card as internal storage

A flash card is the most functional and popular storage medium in modern times. CDs have their own positive sides, but the amount of memory, ease of use and other factors are on the side of the flash drive.

You can also connect a flash drive to an Android smartphone, and even the cost today is on the side of the memory card, because cheap options will cost only a couple of times more than DVD-RW.

But it’s much easier to damage or lose a memory card

It happens that a person takes out this storage medium from his own smartphone or digital camera, but the computer does not open it. This occurs due to virus infection, software failures, and failure of the device itself. In such a situation, you need to restore the microSD flash drive by changing the partition letter or other methods.

VARIETIES OF DEVICES OF THIS TYPE

Before you restore a memory card, it is worth familiarizing yourself with the varieties of this small but useful detail. People are not very knowledgeable about this issue, which also brings problems. Today, three types of SD devices are produced: micro, mini, SD.

It would seem, why divide one type into three additional ones. But this is a logical decision, because SD is used in different techniques: video cameras, video recorders, smartphones, mp3 players, etc. Gadgets differ in size and requirements for power and device memory. Therefore, there are three subspecies that are worth familiarizing yourself with in more detail:

• MicroSD. Due to its format and storage capacity, the micro SD memory card is commonly used in smartphones, tablets and media players.

A small device allows you to increase the gadget's memory several times

• MiniSD is already slightly larger than microSD. They are used on players and phones that are already 5-10 years old.

Today they gave way to the previous version

• SD. This is the most close-up view, which is used in photo and video equipment, in particular, in car recorders.

This option is distinguished by a large amount of memory and good speed.

Interestingly, the first option, if necessary, can be turned into the third using an adapter. A micro card is inserted into this adapter, and then the design is inserted into devices that work with SD.

But this combination cannot fully replace the large option, because the operating speed will be too low

IMPORTANT NUANCES IN USING A MEMORY CARD

1. In addition to the memory capacity, the surface of the product also indicates the speed (class, to be precise). So, if a flash drive has this indicator of 10, then data can be transferred to the device at a speed of 10 MB per second. It is worth considering which class is needed for normal operation gadget.
2. A phone memory card can be used as an SD card using an adapter. But, as already mentioned, it is not recommended to do this due to the mismatch of the class of parts.
3. A USB card reader for flash drives must be selected taking into account compatibility. When a gadget that opens SDHC is used, it will be able to work with SD 1 or 1.1, but it will not be possible to read SDXC.

Before purchasing reading devices, you need to consider this characteristic

Laptops that are 7 years old or older may be equipped with standard card readers, but they cannot open SDHC. A card reader that connects via USB will help solve the problem. It costs a couple of hundred rubles. You can also use an otg cable (it will help you connect a micro sd card reader or a regular USB flash drive even to a smartphone).

SAME SECTION NAMES

Let's return to the problem of the unreadability of the device. The flash drive will not appear in the “My Computer” menu if it is given the name D, and the operating system section has the same name.

Fig.1. Unlocking a flash drive in such a situation is not difficult; to do this, open the “Disk Management” menu (the combination of the Win and R keys and the command diskmgmt.msc)

A menu will appear on the screen, displaying the folder of each disk and devices connected via the USB input. When a memory card appears in this menu, you need to resuscitate the flash drive in one of the following ways:

• In the name, put a unique letter under which there are no sections yet.

Fig.2. This is done by pressing RMB and then selecting the operation to change the letter

• Format the SD card using standard Windows tools or using special utilities. But it is worth considering that all files from the storage medium will disappear.

PROBLEM WITH DRIVERS

If you can connect the flash drive to the tablet, but not to the computer, then the necessary driver may be missing.

It happens that employees of hardware stores forget or have no desire to install the necessary components and sell computers that way. The equipment should include discs with drivers, the installation of which will not take much time. If the computer is not new, or the disk with the “firewood” is lost, then the almighty Internet will help. In such a situation, recovery of a micro sd flash drive is limited to only searching and installing components.

There are special utilities available on the Internet for analyzing the operating system and finding the necessary drivers; they will greatly simplify the task.

CONNECTING WITH OTHER GADGETS

If the flash drive connects to the phone without problems, but it is not visible on the PC, then why not use this smartphone as a conductor and connect it directly to the computer (you can use a USB otg cable)

Most users rarely take out a memory card to work with files via a computer.

The only question that concerns me is whether special software is needed for this purpose. In new versions of the operating system, you do not need to install anything additional; Windows 7 and 8 automatically install drivers for devices. If you wish, you can also use a program from the manufacturer (for example, NokiaPCSuite).

As you can see, restoring the card microsd memory– it’s not a difficult matter, sometimes you need to install drivers, change the partition letter or use third-party devices.

Quite often, owners of Android devices encounter an unpleasant problem when the phone has a MicroSD. What to do in this case, what methods to solve the problem to apply? First you need to determine the root cause and analyze possible situations.

Why doesn't my phone see the MicroSD flash drive?

It goes without saying that there can be any number of reasons for such failures. Here there are software failures of the system itself, and a banal lack of contact between the memory card and the card reader, and violations in the file system of the USB drive, and even physical damage.

However, the situation can look two ways. On the one hand, this may concern a new card that you just purchased, but on the other hand, the problem may be that over time the phone has stopped seeing the MicroSD flash drive. What to do in this case will now be considered.

By the way, the issue of compatibility between the card and the phone itself will not be discussed here. This is worth paying attention to separately, since outdated gadgets are not able to detect SD cards latest generation. Moreover, it may be that the card’s memory is larger than what is stated in the device’s support. So in this case the card will not be detected.

The phone does not see the MicroSD flash drive: what to do first?

If problems arise with an already installed memory card, no matter how it sounds, the cause may be ordinary contamination of the device, say, dust. Agree, not every user constantly cleans their phone.

Here the solution is the simplest: remove the card from the phone, wipe the contacts on the flash drive itself and on the card reader, and then reinsert it. By the way, this option is also suitable for new cards. Well, you never know, the contacts simply didn’t work. So don't rush to run away service center or throw away the card you just purchased.

Using Recovery Mode

If simple manipulations with contacts do not help, you can use the special Recovery mode provided in any Android device, although you can first perform a normal reboot.

To access the mode we need, we use the simultaneous holding of the power and volume down buttons. This is the most common option. But, in principle, each manufacturer can prescribe a different combination. That's not the point. After the device starts, a special service menu will appear, where you need to select the Wipe cache partition item, after which you simply reboot the device. If even after this the phone does not see MicroSD, we move on to more effective measures. They will be radically different from the previous steps.

Problems with the MicroSD card on the computer: what can you do?

Well, firstly, it is worth noting a generally exceptional situation when both the computer and the phone do not see the MicroSD flash drive. This is already worse. This problem is almost never fixed on a phone.

First, you should insert the card into another device or computer and make sure it works. If it is detected, the problem is only with the phone or the drive names on the computer. If the card is not detected, the problem is either with the file system or with the memory card itself.

So, first you should use which is called quickly enough in Windows. You can use the Win + X combination and then select Disk Management, or enter the diskmgmt.msc command in the Run menu bar field.

This method is good because absolutely all connected disk devices, even unformatted ones, will be displayed in the main window. It is quite possible that the letter of the removable card, for example “F”, matches the designation of the optical drive. Right-click on the map and select the command to change the letter.

However, after such an operation, a situation may also arise when the phone does not see the MicroSD flash drive. What to do, since it is already recognized on the computer? The most simple option The solution to the situation will be partial or complete formatting of the media. However, complete formatting with deleting all data and re-creating the file system still looks preferable.

It can be produced either here or from the standard “Explorer”. In both cases, right-click calls up where and selects the formatting line. In the new window, you need to uncheck quick formatting, and then specify creation. But, in principle, FAT32 is installed by the system by default. Now all that remains is to confirm the start of the process and wait for it to finish. After this, you can safely insert the card into your phone.

Restoring the MicroSD card

Now a few words about another situation when the phone does not see the MicroSD flash drive. What to do if it is detected on the computer, but not on the mobile gadget?

First, you should again connect the card to your computer or laptop and perform a standard check of the device for errors. We use the same “Explorer” and then go to the properties menu. There we select the service section and with the obligatory indication of automatic error correction. Also, although not required, you can use a surface test with automatic recovery of bad sectors.

Another option involves correcting access to the memory card specifically on computer terminals, as well as normalizing parameters and system registry keys in the HKLM branch. You should find the SYSTEM folder in the directory tree, in which the StorageDevicePolicies directory is located. On the right side, the defining parameter must be assigned null value(usually this is 0x00000000(0)). After this, the problem should disappear.

Finally, if the card has minor physical damage, which is usually associated with malfunctions of the microcontroller, you will have to look for special utilities for formatting, having first learned the VID and PID parameters. This can also be done using special programs, such as USBIDCheck, or by disassembling the card (where the data is indicated on the internal chip).

Then, for each card of a certain manufacturer, a program is downloaded from the Internet in accordance with known parameters, after which formatting is performed.

Conclusion

If for some reason the removable device is not detected, there is no need to panic. First you need to determine the root cause of the failure. As practice shows, any of the proposed methods helps solve the problem. If we talk specifically about phones, it’s more likely that cleaning the device from dirt, formatting the card, or restoring functionality, as described in the last version, is more suitable.

By the way, the issue of compatibility between the card and the phone itself was not considered here. This is worth paying attention to separately, since outdated gadgets are not able to detect the latest generation SD cards.

Starting with version Android 6.0, it became possible to use a flash card as internal storage device data. Now the device, after certain actions, can use the memory available on the SD as freely as the internal one. The article will tell you how to connect an SD card in this quality and what restrictions are imposed on it.

How to connect a flash drive as internal memory

Before connecting the drive, you must transfer from it all important information. During the setup process, it will be completely cleared and the data will not be returned.

First of all, you need to go to Settings, and then go to the section " Storage and Drive", where you should click on the SD card.

Next you need to select “ Tune" and click " Inner memory" Immediately after this, the device will warn the user that all information will be deleted and it will become impossible to read it on other devices without full formatting.

Here you need to select “ Clear and Format" and wait for the memory clearing process to complete. You may then receive a message indicating that the media is running slowly. As a rule, this means that the flash drive used is not very good quality and its use as device storage may also affect the performance of the smartphone itself. For good and fast work recommended to use UHS Speed ​​Class 3 (U3) drives.

After formatting is completed, the smartphone will ask you to transfer information, you should agree with this and wait until the work is completed. After the transfer, the work of turning the flash drive into internal memory will be almost complete; all that remains is to reboot the device.

Features and limitations of using an SD card

There are a few things you should be aware of before you start using a flash drive in this way.

1. After conversion, all data, except for some applications and system updates, will be placed on the SD drive.
2. When connected to a computer, only this part of the memory will be available for interaction.

In fact, all actions are performed only with a flash drive, the real internal storage of the phone not available for interaction and is practically not used at all. Firstly, this means that when you remove the drive, almost all your data, photos and applications will be lost. Secondly, if the volume of the flash drive is less than the actual storage capacity of the smartphone, then the amount of available memory will decrease, not increase.

Format the card using ADB for use as internal storage

The function is not available on some devices, but it is possible to connect a flash drive as storage in another way. However, it is worth noting that this method is very labor-intensive and can cause damage to the device Therefore, if you are not confident in your abilities, then it is better not to do this on your own.

To use this method, you will need to perform many steps. You need to download from the site and install Android SDK, then download and install from the official website device drivers, and also, you need to enable " debug modeUSB» on the device.

• adb shell
• sm list-disks (after execution, an id will be issued in the form disk:ХХХ,ХХ should be written down and entered in the next line)
• sm partition disk:ХХХ,ХХ private

Then you will need turn off the phone, go to settings and click on sd, select menu and click “ Transfer data" That's it, the actions are finished.

How to set a memory card to standard mode

To return the flash drive to standard mode, you just need to go to its settings, as in the first option, and select “ Portable media" Before doing this, all important information should be transferred to another location, because the drive will be formatted during the process.

Today, the method of storing data on portable flash drives has gained quite a lot of popularity. And now all flash drive manufacturers are fighting to create the smallest in size and largest in memory capacity flash drives, leading positions in minimum sizes occupy Micro SD cards.

Micro SD flash cards are currently the smallest data storage devices that have been put into mass production.

Due to their very fragile structure, these drives quite often become unusable due to physical damage or incorrect completion of work with such flash drives.

There are often cases when, after a short period of working with a card, it becomes unreadable or is not detected by devices at all, so you cannot rely on the long-term operation of such a drive. I advise you to use a Micro SD card as a space for work, and not for permanent storage of information. Although every day manufacturers of such SD cards are improving their durability, and are bringing them closer to the possibility of using them for permanent and long-term storage of information.

Reasons why the computer may not detect the Micro SD card:

· Hardware problem.

· Flash drive failure.

· Assigning an already assigned partition letter.

· File system conflict.

· Malicious programs in the operating system.

If your Micro SD card is no longer detected by your phone, camera or other device, then you need to remove it and insert it into your computer to diagnose, identify and fix the problem.

Let's move on to considering and eliminating the most common reasons malfunction of such a flash drive.

How to check if the Micro SD card is detected on the computer?

In order to understand whether your computer has detected your Micro SD card, you can use 2 methods.

First way. Open my computer and check the connection of the new partition. If you have a new disk, then the flash drive has been identified.

Second way. If nothing appears in Explorer, then it’s worth checking whether the computer has even detected that an SD card is connected to it. To do this, go to my computer, right-click on the computer and select “Manage” from the drop-down menu.

After which the Computer Management window will open, there is a menu on the left side. We need to select the “Disk Management” section.

In the displayed statistics, we can see all connected drives to the computer, determine their volume, or set the partition letter.

If you did not see your SD card in this list, then read the following reasons and their solutions.

Hardware problem

If you are trying to connect your SD card to your computer through an adapter or through a card reader, and nothing happens, you should first check that these pairing devices are working.

If you use a card reader to connect the card, then try inserting a known working Micro SD card into it, if a known working card is also not detected, in this case, check and reinstall the card reader drivers. If after all the attempts nothing has changed, then most likely the problem is in the card reader.

If you are using a laptop, then most likely you are trying to insert an SD card through an adapter, directly into the laptop's built-in card reader. If nothing happens when using this connection method, then I recommend checking the drivers for the built-in card reader first, and then checking the functionality of the adapter.

Drivers for card readers can be downloaded and installed from the manufacturers’ official websites; if you have a portable card reader that connects via a USB port, then download the drivers from the manufacturer’s website. If you use a laptop's built-in card reader, then you can download drivers from the official website of your laptop manufacturer.

In order to check whether the driver of your card reader is detected by the system, you need to open the “Device Manager”, to do this, press the key combination Win + R and in the “Run” line that opens, enter the command “devmgmt.msc”.

The Device Manager window will open in which you can see devices that do not have a driver installed. Such devices will be marked with a yellow triangle with exclamation mark. If there are no such devices, then expand the “Portable Devices” section and make sure that the computer has detected the card reader itself in order to discard the option of a non-working device.

Flash drive failure

If you have checked the functionality of the above devices and are convinced that they are working properly, then it is worth checking the Micro SD card for physical damage, cracks, chips, deformation or damage to the outer layer, since such a flash drive consists of many small tracks, which are easy to scratch and tear.

Try connecting it to some device: smartphone, camera, etc. If the flash drive is not detected in any device, then most likely it is physically damaged and cannot be repaired. The only thing that can motivate you to contact the service center is the presence of important information on the card.

Assigning an already assigned partition letter

This type of problem occurs quite often. This happens when an SD card is connected to a computer, the system assigns it the same letter as the existing partition, because of this a conflict occurs and we do not see our flash drive in the list of computer disks.

In order to resolve this type of problem, open the “Computer Management” section described above.

After getting into the “Disk Management” section, we need to find our flash drive, focus on its volume, select a disk that matches the capacity of our Micro SD card. Right-click on it and select “Change drive letter or drive path...” from the drop-down menu.

A window will open in which we need to click the “Add” button.

In the window that opens, select the letter for this section and click “OK”.

Done, we have assigned a letter to our partition, now we check its presence in Explorer.

File system conflict

There are often cases when a flash drive is detected, but it cannot be opened. The reason for this may be a file system conflict or a damaged file system of the Micro SD card itself. If the data on the flash drive does not play any role for you, then you can try to format it into the NTFS file system.

To do this, right-click on the flash drive and select “Format” from the drop-down menu.

In the formatting window that opens, in the “File system” section, select NTFS, set the Volume Label and click the “Start” button.

Thus, we formatted the Micro SD card into NTFS format, after which you can open it.

Malware in the operating system

When faced with the problem of identifying a Micro SD drive, you may not even suspect that the culprit for all this may be malware, so-called viruses, which can block USB ports and prevent the computer from working with your memory card.

In this case, it would be best to conduct a full system scan with your antivirus program, or resort to free antivirus programs that can help you with this.

I will recommend one of these to you - Dr.Web CureIt!

The program is absolutely free and is intended only for scanning and finding virus programs and removing them.

To download this program, go to the official Dr.Web website at https://free.drweb.ru/cureit/

Download the program and start scanning.

When finished, remove all malware found and after restarting the computer, try connecting the Micro SD card again.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are many reasons why your computer does not see the Micro SD card, so it is impossible to unambiguously answer the question “Why does my computer not see the memory card?”, since this can be caused by problems of various kinds. To avoid making mistakes and solve the problem, you should take turns following all the steps described in this article.

Also, do not forget that when formatting, all information from the flash drive will be deleted.

And I still advise you not to store important information on drives of this type, as they most often fail due to their very fragile structure. Use this type of drive for direct work with files, saving them to more secure places.

The available memory sizes of modern Android smartphones allow you to store great amount data.

But when the initial volume for everyday needs is not enough, they come to the rescue microSD cards. Unfortunately, embedded equipment does not always work as expected for various reasons. Let's try to figure out why the memory card refuses to work on the phone and how it can be fixed.

Problem with contact

If the removable drive recently worked properly, first of all you need to check that it is connected correctly to the smartphone. Even a slight misalignment of the SD card can lead to a data reading error. In addition, during operation, the contacts of a mobile device may become clogged, which becomes a common cause of failures and errors.

To solve this problem, you need to remove the memory card from the device and carefully clean the slot paths, removing any dust particles that have gotten inside. When reconnecting the microSD to the phone, you need to make sure that the memory card is inserted right side and securely fastened.

Device incompatibility

Before purchasing a new memory card, you should check its compatibility with mobile phone. Modern smartphones use the microSD media type. This format, in turn, has four generations (SD 1.0, SD 1.1, SDHC and SDXC), the main difference between which is the amount of available memory and data reading speed. For example, SD 1.0 can hold from 8 MB to 2 GB, while SDXC can hold up to 2 TB.

Regarding outside support mobile devices, backward compatibility applies here. Smartphones that work with a certain microSD format will also function with older versions.

Smartphone malfunction

In some cases, errors in displaying SD card data may be caused by the Android system. Incorrect operation of applications and the action of virus files can block reading information from external media. This may cause the memory card to appear to be faulty.

The simplest and most obvious way out of this situation is to remove the malware and then reboot the device. To do this you need to download a good antivirus program. If the SD card is in working condition, but the smartphone refuses to recognize it, you can try doing a factory reset. You need to understand that all data from the phone will be deleted.

Incorrect formatting

Software glitches that occur during the microSD cleaning procedure may cause it to not work. In this case, you will need to re-format via a computer.

First, you need to insert the removable storage medium into the card reader and wait until the system recognizes it automatically. After that, you need to right-click on the microSD in Explorer and select “Format”. In the “File system” section, you must specify “FAT32”, since Android does not support other formats.

Memory card failure

When none of the above methods help, the cause may be an internal problem with the memory card. This happens when, after prolonged use, the contacts wear out and the signal does not reach the board. Sometimes a breakdown occurs due to mechanical damage to the SD card or a manufacturing defect.

You can check the performance of the media using another smartphone or computer. If none of the devices sees it, you just need to buy new map memory. If the data stored on it is important, you can contact a service center for help. There is a chance that the data can be recovered.

We talked about the main types of SD card faults and how to fix them. Most problems can be solved on your own, but if the equipment fails, you will have to replace it.