External SD card not being recognised; data intact on card I have a HTC One M8 running Android KitKat 4.4.2, and I recently got a Sandisk 64GB MicroSD. Today a few of my apps have greyed out icons and when I click them, it says app isn't installed.

When I go to Settings &gt; Storage, External SD shows as Unavailable. Mount SD card shows, but clicking it just shows a message saying Preparing SD card and it does nothing else.

It also keeps popping up with Preparing SD card at random.

Putting the memory card in my PC, the data is intact. I've tried restarting my phone a couple of times; no joy. Is there anything I can do to make this work again?

Failing that, am I safe to backup the data to my PC, format the SD card, and restore the files; and everything will work as it did?
The card was confirmed as a counterfeit by the manufacturer over the phone.