Data Logging with SD Cards - Exploring Arduino: Tools and Techniques for Engineering Wizardry - page 280

Most new SD cards will already be properly formatted and ready to use with
an Arduino. If your card is not new, or already has things on it, first format
the card in either FAT16 (sometimes just called FAT) or FAT32 format. Cards
less than or equal 2GB should be formatted as FAT16, and larger cards should
be formatted as FAT32. In this chapter, the examples use a 2GB micro SD card
formatted as FAT16. Note that formatting the card removes everything on it,
but doing so ensures that it is ready for use with your Arduino. If your SD card
is new, you can skip these steps and come back to complete them only if you
have issues accessing the card from the Arduino when you run the sketch later
in this chapter.
Formatting your SD card from Windows is easy:
1. Insert the SD card into your card reader; it should then appear in My
Computer (see Figure 13-1).
Figure 13-1: SD card shown in My Computer
2. Right-click the card (it will probably have a different name), and select
the Format option (see Figure 13-2). A window will appear with options
for formatting the card.