How to fix a memory card (or TomTom Home hangs on the 'updates screen')

I've had a TomTom satnav for years, with a map of Europe on an internal memory card. And its always just worked. Once in a while, like every 6 months, I've updated it using my PC and the TomTom Home program. Recently, it started to hang / freeze on the updated screen.

The solution was to fix the corrupted internal memory card. Note this solution works for any SD or other memory card.

1. Plug the memory card in to your Windows PC (or attach your TomTom with the USB cable)

2. Use File Explorer (not Internet Explorer) to see which drive letter it is, e.g. F: (do not actually go in to it)

3. Use search to locate cmd (old windows) or powershell (new windows)

4. Right-Hand-Click it, and choose 'run as administrator'

5. Enter this command chkdsk J: /F /X /R Replace J: with the letter for your memory card

What does this mean?

chkdsk is the windows "check and repair disk drives" program.

chkdsk /?

Checks a disk and displays a status report.

CHKDSK [volume[[path]filename]]] [/F] [/V] [/R] [/X] [/I] [/C] [/L[:size]] [/B] [/scan] [/spotfix]

volume              Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon), mount point, or volume name.

/F                  Fixes errors on the disk.

/V                  On FAT/FAT32: Displays the full path and name of every file on the disk.

/R                  Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information 

/X                  Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary. All opened handles to the volume would then be invalid

[shortened - NTFS options not displayed]