SD Cards or commonly referred to as memory cards are commonly used by smartphone users to expand the memory limit of the device. Now a days we have memory cards up to 512 GB that can store HD photos, 4K videos, and work smoothly without any error. With all these features one limitation of SD card is storage. Even if we format the SD card, there is a chance that files are still present in it. So, before sharing, one should permanently delete data from the memory card.
Memory card used in smartphone often contains personal data like photos of an important event, messages, contacts, emails and if somehow the SD card goes out of your reach there are chances of identity theft, someone could use the photos for illegal purposes, and get contacts that may result in financial frauds. So, it is utmost necessary to completely wipe out the data from memory card, but how to do it?
There is a free method by which data stored in memory card can be deleted permanently, and that is SDelete command. Yes, so before giving your memory card to someone else make sure that files are completely deleted. There are chances of data recovery even after it is formatted, so use SDELETE and wipe out all the stored media.
Pre-requisites
- First Delete All the items from memory card
- Format SD card via PC or Phone
Delete Memory Card with SDelete Command
- Remove the Formatted Memory Card from the Phone
- Now, use a card/ reader or adapter to connect memory card with PC
- Download the SDelete.exe tool from Microsoft website or you can simply google it
- Remember, the memory card will be shown as drive volume in File Explorer
- Now go to Start and type CMD
- When command prompt icon appear, right click on it and select ‘Run As Administrator’
- Note down the drive letter of memory card assuming it as D:
- Type command in CMD window as sdelete –s –p 2 D:
- Press Enter and the process will start
- Here D: is the memory card letter 2 is the number of passes that tool will execute, it can be increased as required.
- Now the data is completely deleted and you can give it to another person without any worry.
So, this is the free method by which you can permanently delete the items from memory card.