SD Card Health Check Windows: 6 Best Methods Use

SD cards are a popular and cost-effective solution for expanding storage on devices such as smartphones, cameras, tablets, and media players. Like all storage media, SD cards are susceptible to wear and tear, which can lead to sudden data loss.

It’s important to check your SD cards often to prevent problems. If you don’t know how to check your SD card’s health on a Windows computer. This article will guide you through the process of checking your SD card’s health using Windows tools.

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Why You Should Check Your SD Card’s Health?

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Monitoring the health of your SD card is crucial, particularly when it holds valuable files. SD cards save your files using something called “flash memory.” This type of memory is great because it works without any moving parts and doesn’t need much power. But, it doesn’t last forever.

After a while, your SD card might start having problems, like not opening files or messing them up. Even though these problems happen slowly, checking your SD card regularly helps you avoid sudden troubles. That way, you can keep your important files safe.

Method to SD Card Health Check Windows

Following are different methods to SD Card Health Check Windows:

Method 1: Use Windows Error Reporting to Check SD Card Issues

Windows keeps logs of system issues, including problems with SD cards, through Windows Error Reporting. Here’s a straightforward way to check these logs:

Open Problem Reports: You can access the Problem Reports by going to the Control Panel through the Start menu. Navigate to Security and Maintenance > Problem Reports. Alternatively, you can simply search for “problem reports” in the Start menu or search bar to get there directly.
Check for Reports: Look through the Problem Reports section. If there are no entries related to your SD card, it means there haven’t been any recorded issues or Windows hasn’t been able to log them.
Verify Windows Error Reporting Service: To make sure this service is active:

Open the Start menu and search for “Services,” or press the Windows Key + R and type “services.msc” to open the Services application.
Find the Windows Error Reporting Service and double-click it to see its settings.
Ensure the Startup type is set to Manual.

Reset the Service: If you want to refresh the service settings:

Change the Startup type to Disabled, reboot your computer, then change it back to Manual and restart your computer again. This ensures the service is re-enabled and ready to log any new events.

Method 2: Monitor Your SD Card Using Windows Performance Monitor

The Performance Monitor tool on Windows helps you check the health of your computer’s parts, including SD cards. Here’s a quick guide for using it:

Open the Tool: Enter “Performance Monitor” in the search field of your Start menu. Press Enter or click to open it.
Initial Overview: When you start, you’ll see a summary of your computer. Search for “PhysicalDisk” to locate your SD card in the list. If it’s not visible, remove and reconnect your SD card or try another card reader.
Access Detailed Views: Go to “Performance” then “Monitoring Tools” to open the detailed Performance Monitor page. Click the plus icon on the toolbar to add new data points.
Choose What to Monitor: Make sure the drop-down menu says “Local computer.” Find and click on “PhysicalDisk,” then select your SD card’s letter under “Instances of selected object.”
Add Data Points: Click “Add” to track all the performance points for your SD card. If you need particular data, click the arrow beside “PhysicalDisk” and choose the specific items you require. Click OK when done.
Watch the Performance: You’ll see a list of what you’re tracking at the bottom of the window and graphs of their activity above. If the graphs are too cluttered, you can hide some by unchecking them under the Show column.

Method 3: Using CrystalDiskMark

CrystalDiskMark is a great tool to test the read and write speeds of storage devices, including SD cards. Unlike its sibling CrystalDiskInfo, which doesn’t support memory storage devices, CrystalDiskMark can effectively analyze the performance of SD cards.

Here’s how to check your SD card’s performance with CrystalDiskMark:

Download and install CrystalDiskMark from its official website. Open the app once installed.
At the top of the application window, you’ll find three drop-down menus. Use option three to find and pick your SD card from the list of storage devices.
With the first drop-down menu, decide how many times you want the app to run the test. Running the test multiple times, like three times, can give you more accurate results.
The second drop-down menu lets you choose the size of the test file that CrystalDiskMark will use to assess your SD card. For the most detailed analysis, it’s best to use a test file that fills up as much of your SD card’s free space as possible. This approach ensures the test covers all parts of the SD card, including potentially slow-performing sections.
To start the test, click the green buttons located on the left side of the app’s window. It’s recommended to click the first button to perform all available tests. The app will create some files on your SD card and then measure how fast your card can read and write data.
After the tests are done, CrystalDiskMark will display the results, showing how well your SD card managed sequential and random data operations.

Method 3: Using Hard Disk Sentinel

Hard Disk Sentinel is a comprehensive app for checking the health of storage devices, though it’s important to note that SD cards don’t have the S.M.A.R.T. feature this app usually monitors.

However, it can still provide useful information about your SD card’s performance. Here’s how to use Hard Disk Sentinel to check your SD card:

Step 1: First, download and install the app from the official Hard Disk Sentinel website. Open the app, and you’ll see your SD card listed among other storage devices on the left side of the screen. Select your SD card and the app will indicate that it cannot show the S.M.A.R.T. status because SD cards do not support this feature.

Step 2: Click on the ‘Disk Performance’ tab. Here, you’ll see detailed data about how much data has been read from or written to the SD card and how quickly these operations were performed.

Step 3: Lastly, check the ‘Log’ tab to see if there are any recorded issues with data transfers or the connection between your computer and the SD card. If everything is functioning properly, you will see a message next to a green checkmark that says, “No problems logged.”

Method 4: Using CHKDSK

CHKDSK, short for “Check Disk,” is a long-standing tool from the DOS days that’s included in all versions of Microsoft’s operating systems. Although it operates from the command line, making you type commands in a terminal, don’t let its age fool you—CHKDSK is still very effective.

It checks the health of storage devices recognized by Windows and can also repair various issues. Here’s how to use CHKDSK to check and fix problems on your SD card, such as bad blocks:

Open an Administrator Command Prompt: Click on the Start menu and search for “command prompt,” “cmd,” “Powershell,” or “terminal.” Right-click on it and choose “Run as administrator.” In the terminal that opens, type chkdsk /f DRIVE_LETTER: replacing “DRIVE_LETTER” with the letter assigned to your SD card. For instance, if your SD card is under drive “E,” you would type chkdsk /f e: to check and repair file system errors.
For Bad Sectors: If you think the SD card might have bad sectors (parts of the disk that are damaged and can’t read or write data correctly), use the /r option instead of /f. This tells CHKDSK to locate bad sectors and try to fix them. For the SD card in drive “E,” the command would be chkdsk /r e:.
Wait for the Process to Complete: The duration of the CHKDSK scan can vary. A quick scan might only take a few minutes on a new 16GB SD card with minimal issues, but a heavily used 64GB card with lots of bad sectors might take hours to scan thoroughly.
Review the Results: Once CHKDSK finishes scanning, it will display a summary of what was checked, including the size of the SD card, the number of files scanned, and any issues it found and corrected.
The app will show you a visual representation of the status of the repair process and your SD card’s condition while scanning it. Thanks to its use of colour-coding; it’s easy to check it at a glance.
When the process is completed, DiskGenius will show a summary of its results. Click OK to return to the previous window. If DiskGenius didn’t find any problems, or if there were bad blocks but the app managed to fix them, your SD card should be usable again.

Method 5: Checking SD Card Health with the SD Card Test App

If you need to check the health of your SD card on your Android phone and don’t have access to a PC, you can use an app called SD Card Test. Here’s how to do it:

Download the App: Open the Play Store on your Android device, type “SD Card Test” in the search bar, and download the app.
Open the App: After installing, open the app. You’ll see options to test writing, reading, or both. You can choose to check your phone’s built-in storage or an external SD card.
Select and Allow Access: Choose the SD card option and navigate to the root folder of your SD card. Give the app permission to access the files.
Start the Test: Press the ‘Start’ button to begin the test. There is a ‘Visualization’ tab at the top where you can see a graph. This graph shows the speed of the SD card, which helps you understand its health.
Check the Results: When the test is done, go to the ‘Results’ tab to see the summary of the test.

Method 6: How to Recover Your SD Card Using TestDisk

If your SD card isn’t working and you can’t see any of your files! TestDisk is a tool that can help. It’s great for fixing problems like missing or broken parts of your SD card that store data. Here’s how to use it:

Download TestDisk: Visit the TestDisk website, find the download link for your computer (usually “Windows 64-bit”), and download it.
Set up TestDisk: Open the folder where you downloaded TestDisk, unzip it, and double-click on testdisk_win.exe to start.
Run TestDisk: TestDisk works in a command-line window (like where you type commands). Start by choosing “Create a new log file” to keep track of your steps
Choose Your SD Card: TestDisk will show a list of storage devices. Find and select your SD card.
Pick the Right Settings: You’ll be asked to choose the type of partition table—usually, it’s “Intel/PC partition.” TestDisk will suggest the correct type based on what it finds.
Start the Analysis: Choose “Analyse” to let TestDisk look at your SD card.
Search for Missing Parts: Click on “Quick Search” to start looking for missing parts of your SD card. If it can’t find anything, try “Deeper Search” for a more thorough scan.
Restore Your SD Card: Once TestDisk finds the missing parts, select “Write” to save these changes to your SD card, which should make it work again.
Confirm and Exit: Confirm that you want to save these changes. After it’s done, click “OK,” then “Quit” to close TestDisk.

Frequently Asked Questions

Will Checking the Health of my SD Card Delete any Data?

No, checking the health of your SD card using Windows Error Checking does not delete data. However, if you have to fix any errors, it’s a good idea to back up your data first, just in case.

Is My SD Card Damaged?

Your SD card appears to be possibly damaged. Here is a way to tell: If the card is not visible to your camera or other devices or if it is not displayed as a folder on your computer that is a warning. Additionally, your SD card may be corrupted if the files on it appear strange or if accessing them causes an error.

How Do I Check my MicroSD Card for Bad Sectors?

To find bad sectors on microSD cards or other types of memory cards, you can use tools like the chkdsk command with the “r” parameter or DiskGenius Free Edition on Windows 11/10/8/7. Remember, if you find any bad sectors, it’s important to back up or recover your data immediately to avoid losing it.