How can I factory reset my microSD card
I got a sandisk ultra 64gb microsdxc card for use in my Galaxy S3, worked fine.
One day I decided to plug it into a cheap camera. The camera said something to the tune of "memory card error" and it reformatted my card to only have 32GB space. (lost everything immediately! I would not recommend using that camera...)
Anyways, I've taken the card out of the camera and want to put it back into my phone, but it is now formatted to have 1 32GB partition and I cannot see any other partitions using the windows 7 disk manager.
What windows 7 (or android) program can I use to restore my micro SD card to it's former 64GB glory?
The SD Card Association actually does not recommend using just any formatting utility, including the one provided by the OS. Instead they have developed their own software called SD Formatter, which they recommend for the following reason:
This software formats all SD memory cards, SDHC memory cards and SDXC memory cards. SD Formatter provides quick and easy access to the full capabilities of your SD, SDHC and SDXC memory cards.
The SD Formatter was created specifically for memory cards using the SD/SDHC/SDXC standards. It is strongly recommended to use the SD Formatter instead of formatting utilities provided with operating systems that format various types of storage media. Using generic formatting utilities may result in less than optimal performance for your memory cards.
The SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards have a "Protected Area" on the card for the SD standard's security function. The SD Formatter does not format the "Protected Area". Please use appropriate application software or SD-compatible device that provides SD security function to format the "Protected Area" in the memory card.
Try the Full Erase or Full Overwrite options with your card.
Use Android's Format SD Card option.
Options -> Storage -> Format SD Card.
I don't know how my card got in such a rut, but putting it into the win7 / win8 computer with various combinations of MicroSD card reader, SD card reader + adaptor, or through my GoPro did not cause the card to appear at all (whereas it was a few days ago). Therefore both of the above answers were not an option (the card did not show up in windows, nor with the SD Formatter utility).
I put it back into my phone to give that another try, and it formatted straight into 59GB of space! I did actually try this a few days ago, but my phone was android version 4.0.4 back then, whereas is it 4.1.0 now, That might have something to do with it.
Thanks heaps for your answers though guys.
Sounds like the camera resized the SD card's partition. Windows has a built-in partition editor that you can use to fix this. With the card plugged into your computer, click Start, type partition, and choose "Create and Format Hard Disk Partitions." You should see a list of all the different volumes on your computer. One of them should be the 32GB SD card partition. Right click it, and choose "Extend Volume." There will be an item called "Maximum available space in MB." Type that value into "Select the amount of space in MB." Then follow the wizard to its completion.
You may need to reformat the card after you're done; I'm not terribly familiar with Windows, so I don't remember. At any rate, hope this helps!