How do I repartition an SDHC card in Windows?

Posted by Peter Mortensen on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Peter Mortensen
Published on 2012-10-10T08:49:34Z Indexed on 2012/10/10 9:41 UTC
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partitioning

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sd-card

How do I repartition an SDHC card (4 GB or more)? Do I need third-part tools or Linux (a live CD solution would be OK)?

In Windows' Disk Management the option Delete Partition is dimmed out:

Enter image description here

I can reformat the card as FAT32, copy files to and from the card and even change the file system to NTFS using the command line command CONVERT, but not repartition it.

The article How to Partition an SD Card in Windows XP talks about using "a Windows enabler program" which sound rather dubious to me.

I have tried to change from “Optimize for quick removal” to “Optimize for performance”. The option to format as NTFS appeared, but the Delete Partition option is still dimmed out.

Platform:

Windows XP 64-bit
SD card reader: USB 2.0 device, LogiLink® CR0005C Cardreader 3,5' USB 2.0 intern 54-in-1 mit USB Front
Kingston 16 GB SDHC card, speed class 4. (It could be formatted as FAT32 and successfully used in a 4 GB ReadyBoost setup (Windows 7).)

I have also tried on different versions of Windows and with different cards with the same result:

Kingston 4 GB SDHC card, speed class 4 (the one shown in the screenshot)
Transcend 2 GB (not marked as SDHC, but SD)
Windows 7 32-bit (albeit with a somewhat an older card reader) and Windows XP 32-bit on an EliteBook 8730w

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