Thanks.
Although my PC no longer seems to be able to read SD cards via the SD card slot, it can do so when they’re inserted within a portable device, such as the tablet, smartphone, or mp3 player. In other words, via the standard USB ports. However, when I right click on the “Card” icon for the particular portable device in My Computer, no options for formating appear. It seems the card can only be fully ulilized when inserted into the SD slot. I thought about purchasing a USB-based SD card reader/adapter. But since the card apparently is not fully accessible via a USB connection, it probably yield the same failed results as the USB portable devices.
I have a Kingston external “multi-card” reader - SD, microSD, several others... It works just fine for reading/writing/formatting media. Now, I am using Linux Mint on that machine, but I have no doubt it would work with Windows too.