7 Ways to Check SD Card Health on Mac🔥

Learn to check SD card health Mac via seven efficient ways, including EaseUS Partition Master for Mac, three built-in macOS features, AJA System Test, Blackmagic Disk Speed Test, and F3Swift. You can select a suitable one based on your needs.

Keeping your SD card in good condition is critical for avoiding data loss and maintaining performance since regular checks can detect issues early on and prevent you from losing key files. "How to check health of SD card on Mac?" Please don't worry. In this guide from EaseUS Software, we'll show you seven feasible ways to check SD card health Mac.

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#1. Use EaseUS Partition Master for Mac🔥

As the title suggests, the first recommended way is to use EaseUS Partition Master for Mac, a free and powerful SD card tester software. With the help of this versatile third-party tool, you can quickly check the health of your SD cards on Macs, check disks' read and write speed on Macs, check total hard disk size, remove BitLocker encryption, manage partitions or disks on your Mac, etc.

Step 1. Run EaseUS Partition Master for Mac, select your target disk, and you'll see a few options.

Step 2. Locate the option related to Disk health.

• If it shows "Disk health is Unknown (Request to install extension)," click on "Learn more" and move to Step 3.
• If it shows "Disk health is valid," click on "S.M.A.R.T" and move to Step 5.

Step 3. In the new window, you'll be prompted to enable the EaseUS extension. Click the "Follow Guide" buttons below to get the detailed steps of each.

• 1: Restart Mac to Recovery Mode and allow user management kernel extension in Recovery mode.
• 2: Install the extension and click "Allow" in your Privacy & Security.

Step 4. Once you've completed the installation, the option will presented as "Disk health is valid." Then, click "S.M.A.R.T" to check your disk health.

Step 5. Then, the health condition of your disk will be presented on the new window.

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#2. Use Disk Utility

How do you check if a Mac's hard drive is failing? Like Windows, Mac also has a Disk Utility to manage your internal and external storage devices. In this case, you can use it to check if there is a failing hard drive on your Mac. Disk Utility can help you repair errors on disks and volumes if there are. Let's show it works.

Step 1. Insert your SD card into your Mac's SD card slot or card reader.

Step 2. Open Disk Utility on your Mac using one of the following three ways.

• Open Launchpad > click in the Dock > type Disk Utility in the search bar > click the matched outcome to open it.
• Open Finder on your Mac > select Go > double-click the Utilities icon.
• Start your Mac in macOS Recovery > in the Recovery app window, select Disk Utility > click Continue. Please note that this option requires you to restart the Mac after the check and repair process.

Step 3. Choose View > Show All Devices to check each available disk or drive.

Step 4. Select your connected SD card > click First Aid > select Run. Similarly, you can use it to check the health of SanDisk SD cards or USB sticks.

• If the First Aid button is dark and you can not click, please skip this step for the disk, container, or volume you selected. Enter your administrator password if prompted to unlock the disk.

Step 5. After checking volumes and fixing errors on your SD card > choose the next item in the sidebar above it > Run First Aid again. Then, continue running First Aid for each volume on the device > each container > the device itself.

Step 6. Quit Disk Utility after the whole process. Please note that some of you may need to choose Apple menu > Restart your Mac if you open Disk Utility from macOS Recovery.

#3. Use Terminal

For a more thorough examination of the condition of your SD card, you can run error checks in the Terminal. Nevertheless, Terminal is not for everyone because this app only enables advanced users and developers to communicate with the macOS through a command line interface (CLI). Please refer to the following steps to check SD card health Mac via Terminal.

Step 1. Connect the SD to your Mac > press Command + Space > type Terminal to launch the Terminal application.

Step 2. To show all the connected drives to your Mac, type diskutil list in the command line interface > press Enter.

Step 3. Find your SD card's drive identifier (/dev/disk2, /dev/disk3, etc.) > remember it.

Step 4. Type diskutil verifyVolume > and press Enter. This command checks the entire SD card for faulty blocks. However, this command will not function if the SD card contains an MBR partition table.

Step 5. Execute the following command in Terminal: /bin/bash -c “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh) to install Homebrew. If you've installed Homebrew, type brew install smartmontools > press Enter.

Step 6. Type smartctl -a > hit Enter. This command will generate a full S.M.A.R.T. report if your SD card supports it. Here is a list of S.M.A.R.T. parameters and their meanings. If the S.M.A.R.T. numbers are incorrect, it indicates a failed SD card.

#4. Use S.M.A.R.T.

Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology (S.M.A.R.T.) status indicates the disk's overall functioning. Thus, you can use it to check the health status of your SD card on macOS. SMART status reports if the SD card is failing and can alert you to a serious issue with the disk hardware, allowing the Mac user to back up your essential data and replace the failing drive.

Step 1. Insert the SD card into your macOS > open the Apple menu > select About This Mac > Applications > Utilities > System Information.

Step 2. In the sidebar, choose Storage under the Hardware section. Then, locate your SD card in the list.

Step 3. Check the S.M.A.R.T. Status at the bottom of the right panel. If it shows as Verified, your SSD is healthy. In contrast, if it says Failing or Failed, your SSD will fail soon, and you'd better immediately make a file backup.

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#5. Use F3XSwift

Is there another way to check the health of your SD memory card on a Mac? Yes, F3XSwift is. This free and open-source tool is designed to check the SD card's speed, memory capacity, and integrity and identify bad sectors.

Step 1. Get F3XSwift on the official GitHub page > install it appropriately on your macOS.

Step 2. Connect the SD card to your Mac> launch F3XSwift > select your SD card > click Test.

Step 3. F3XSwift will automatically start thorough tests by writing data to all available storage space on the card and then reading them back. Please wait patiently. This test can check the speed, memory capacity, and integrity of the SD card and the presence of bad sectors.

Step 4. After checking the SD card health status, you'll see the details about speed performance, disk usage, etc. If there's nothing wrong with your SD memory capacity or bad sectors, click OK to exit it.

#6. Use AJA System Test

AJA System Test is included in retail software downloads for KONA, Io, and T-TAP Pro products, and it is widely used in the industry to give precise and extensive evaluations of drive performance data. So, you can check SD card health Mac using it. It can measure both read and write speeds.

Step 1. Get AJA System Test in the Mac App Store > install and launch it on your Mac.

Step 2. In the main interface of the AJA System Test app, click Target Disk to view all your drives on Mac > select the SD card.

Step 3. Click the big green Start button > wait for a detailed report on your SD card's read and write speeds.

#7. Use Blackmagic Disk Speed Test

Blackmagic Disk Speed Test measures and verifies disk performance using standard methods. As a recommended free SD card test tool, it fills the SD card's vacant space with data samples before evaluating and testing its read and write speeds. If the speed on your SD card is significantly slower than claimed, it means the SD card is failing.

Step 1. Download the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test from the Mac App Store > connect the SD card to your macOS via the correct adapter.

Step 2. After opening the Blackmagic Disk Speed Test, click Settings > choose Select Target Drive.

Step 3. In the Finder window, select your SD card > click Open > click Speed Test Start to begin the SD card health test.

Major Health Indicators of SD Cards

How to tell if an SD card is bad? The following symptoms/signs usually imply your SD card is about to fail.

• 🐌Performance issues: Significant slowdowns in read and write speeds typically indicate impending failure.
• 🔍Missing files and folders: A logically damaged SD card often leads to files and folders missing.
• 👁️Cannot access files saved in the SD card: If your SD card has files but it's not showing up in Finder, it might be responsible for logical corruption. Press the Command + Shift +.(dot) shortcut to rule out hidden files and validate your guess.
• 🗂️Files became read-only: In theory, you can access and modify the content of your SD card without enabling the write-protection feature. Thus, it might be corrupted if you cannot delete or write data to the SD card.
• ⏏️Your SD or Micro SD card won't mount: An SD card that is invisible in Finder and does not appear mounted on the desktop may be on the approach of failure. However, the problem may be with the SD card adaptor rather than the card itself.
• 💻Your SD card is not detected on Mac or camera: This issue often occurs when you connect an SD card to the Mac computer via an SD card reader. Then, your Mac cannot read or recognize SD cards.

How to Recover Lost Data from SD Cards Efficiently

Sometimes, it's inevitable to avoid data loss during the Mac's SD card health check process because of a lack of backups, improper operations, etc. If it happens to your case, you can adopt this leading data recovery software, EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac to recover lost data from SD cards.

Step 1. Select the SD card

• Correctly connect your memory card to your Mac. Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard for Mac.
• Go to "SD Card Recovery", find your Canon/Nikon/Go Pro/DJI/Sony SD card, and click "Search for lost files".

Step 2. Filter lost SD card data

After the scan, all files will be presented in the left panel in the scan results. Find wanted photos, videos, and other files.

Step 3. Preview and recover data

Preview the SD card data and select the wanted files. Then, click the "Recover" button. Don't save the recoverable files to the SD card itself in case of data overwriting.

Conclusion

How to check SD card health Mac? This article shows you seven efficient ways, including built-in features of macOS and third-party tools. You can select a suitable method based on your needs. If you want to check the SD card health of your Mac safely and manage the SD card more efficiently, EaseUS Partition Master for Mac might be your second-to-none choice.

Moreover, you may realize the potential harm of the SD card's warning indicators after reading this post. Once recognized, it's time to take preventative measures against future data loss. On the other hand, users who've suffered data loss can seek help from professional data recovery tools or data recovery services.

FAQs about the SD Card Health Check

This section lists several relevant topics about the SD card health check. Please have a closer look at them below.

1. Is there a free SD card tester for Mac?

Yes, there is. various free SD card testing tools for Mac will allow you to verify your SD card's health, speed, and integrity. Here are some popular choices: Disk utility. This built-in macOS application lets you do simple tests and repairs on your SD card.

2. How to check SD card health on Windows?

Windows Performance Monitor is a powerful system monitoring tool included with Windows that can offer real-time data on a variety of system performance parameters, making it suitable for assessing SD card health. 

Step 1. Ensure your Windows has recognized your connected SD card > Type Performance Monitor in the search bar > click Open.

Step 2. Under the Monitoring Tools tab, click Performance Monitor.

Step 2. Click on the green plus icon to add new counters. From the list of available counters, select Physical Disk to monitor storage devices.

Step 3. In the Instance of selected object box, select the disk that contains your SD card > click OK to start tracking specific metrics of your SD card.

3. How to make an SD card last longer?

Here are some tips to help you maximize the card's health and extend its lifespan. You can check them out below.

• Properly eject and remove the SD card after use.
• Download the data and remove the card before altering it.
• Reformat the card when data is downloaded to another device.
• Never remove the card while data is being written or read from it.

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