Program for data recovery from sd card. The procedure for recovering data from a memory card. Is it possible to recover data on my own

Micro SD memory cards are quite popular due to their portability: you can use it in your phone, and if you insert it into an adapter, you can easily put it in a computer, digital camera and any other devices. Such memory cards have a low cost, but cases of their breakdown are not uncommon. Micro SD suddenly stops responding and does not show any data. In this case, do not rush to throw out the flash drive and buy another one, as you can restore it with basic Windows tools or third party programs. Bring your Micro SD flash drive back to life with this article.

How to restore Micro SD flash drive without third-party programs

The surest way and the first of those that you should immediately take is to format the USB flash drive in Windows via an external USB adapter. The thing is that the built-in adapters for Micro SD do not always cope with their task, it is best to buy USB adapter for memory cards and use it or ask friends for a while.

  • Insert the USB flash drive into the adapter, and then connect to the computer. Wait until the device is detected by the system. It's okay if the type of flash drive is displayed incorrectly, because it is broken.
  • Right-click on it and select "Format".


Select formatting options:

  • File system Fat32 must be selected.
  • The cluster size is 32 KB.
  • Check the box next to "Quick Format".

Click "OK" and wait for the procedure to finish. Remove the device when finished and insert again.
Of course, after formatting, all files from the flash drive will be deleted, but, nevertheless, its performance may return to normal.


How to recover Micro SD flash drive using the program

This option is suitable not only for restoring the performance of a flash drive, but also for recovering files from it. Try this procedure after formatting to restore all photos and files.

  • Download the Card Recovery program on the official website at the link https://www.cardrecovery.com. There are several options for one recovery program available here. different files and memory cards.


  • Please note that the program is distributed only in the trial version. You will have to pay for the full.
  • Installation is fairly simple and straightforward: agree to the license agreement and select the installation directory for the program.


  • Immediately open the program through Start or a shortcut on the desktop. First, insert your memory card into your computer.


  • Click "Next" and you will see the next step. Here you need to choose the drive letter on which the flash drive is now. Expand the first list and select it.


  • Once you set the device letter, in the bottom line, set the path to save the recovered files. It is in this folder that all photos and other documents will appear.


  • Click "Next" again to get started. If the program itself could not indicate the amount of memory of the device, write it down manually.


  • Confirm the restoration and click "Yes".


  • Wait for the scan to complete. In the process, all lost files will be found, as well as problems in the flash drive. As soon as the line is completely filled with green, the scan was successful. In the lower window you will see everything that was recovered.


  • The program will tell you how many files were found in total.


  • Click "Next" to view them.


  • Check the boxes for the ones you want to recover. Click “Next” again. The recovery will take several minutes, depending on the capabilities of your computer.
  • Now you can use the Micro SD flash drive and the files recovered from it again.


How to restore an SD card or USB flash drive if the computer does not see them, does not read or write data? Problems with flash drives are rarely caused by normal wear and tear. More often, the causes of problems with them are ignoring the rules of safe removal of the device by users, experimenting with various software in which these flash drives are involved, as well as their initially lousy quality. Below is a list possible actions, carried out in the Windows environment, which can solve the problem, unless, of course, the cause lies in a mechanical breakdown. And we, friends, will go from simple to complex.

  • Note: below we will only talk about restoring the performance of flash drives, but not about saving the data stored on them. This is a separate topic, and there is a site on this subject. Most of the methods for recovering SD cards and flash drives suggested below will result in the loss of their data.

1. Hardware lock

SD cards, MicroSD adapters and flash drives can be hardware-protected from writing data or completely blocked even for reading. These devices have a lock switch, which must be set to the "Unlocked" position accordingly.

2. Problems not related to the drives themselves

The cause of problems with SD cards and flash drives can be the Windows security policy. You need to find out if access to removable drives (in full or in part of writing data to them) is blocked by the computer administrator. You also need to check the card reader or ports Computer USB. If everything is in order with the latter - the card reader reads other SD cards, but there are still problems with the flash drive, no matter how you connect it to other USB ports, let's move on.

3. Windows Explorer

Standard formatting tools Windows Explorer can help in simple cases such as unsuccessful data writing to a USB flash drive. Or when for some reason a smartphone, tablet, camera or other device cannot handle this operation with respect to SD cards. In any of current versions Windows in the Explorer window on the drive, call the context menu, click "Format".

We leave the original file system and first try a quick format.

If it fails, we repeat the operation, but with full formatting (uncheck the quick one).

4. Windows Disk Management

You can try to format the format in disk management. To launch this tool, in the system search field, enter:

diskmgmt.msc

In the disk management window, focusing on the size of the drive, we are looking for it among the drives connected to the computer. And in context menu called on it, we start formatting.

You can immediately choose full formatting.

If your flash drive has a partition structure like a hard drive, you need to delete each of those partitions. This is done using the option in the context menu "Delete volume".

And then, in place of the resulting unallocated space, you need to create a single partition. To do this, in the context menu on this very unallocated space, we launch the “Create a new volume” operation and follow the instructions of the step-by-step wizard.

5. Programs for low-level formatting

Regular formatting tools may not help in difficult cases, for example, when flash drives are displayed (in the same Explorer or disk management) as unrecognized devices with the RAW file system. The latter means that either the Windows environment does not understand the file system of the drive, or there is no file system as such in principle. Actually, this is what causes problems with a flash drive or SD card when it works on other devices, with other operating systems. In such cases, third-party Windows programs designed for the so-called low-level formatting will help restore the USB flash drive.

In fact low-level formatting- This is a procedure that is carried out either in the production environment of manufacturers of flash devices, or in serious narrow-profile services. Various Windows software that claims this kind of operation actually performs the usual full formatting, but by mechanisms different from those used by the operating system. Such programs are good at dealing with flash drive problems if these problems occur at the file system level. Let's look at two of these programs.

HDD Low Level Format Tool

http://hddguru.com/software/HDD-LLF-Low-Level-Format-Tool/

Shareware portable program HDD Low Level Format Tool can format different type storage media such as SD cards and USB sticks. After unpacking the archive with the program, run it, agree to the license terms.

Choose free use.

Directly in the program window, specify the problematic drive and click "Continue".

We confirm the decision.

We are waiting for the operation to complete and check the operation of the media.

SDFormatter

http://flashboot.ru/files/file/355

The completely free little program SDFormatter is another tool for so-called low-level formatting. Works with both SD cards and USB sticks. We install SDFormatter into the system, launch it, in the "Drive" column we indicate the problematic flash drive. Click "Format".

The program wants to make sure the seriousness of our intentions, click "OK.

Asks not to touch the drive while the operation is being carried out.

Upon completion, we test a USB flash drive or SD card. If it doesn’t help, repeat the operation with the settings for a complete rewriting of sectors (nothing more than a full format). Press "Option", select "Full (OverWrite)". And also click on "Format" at the bottom.

If using the above methods it was not possible to reanimate the flash drive, and it is still under warranty, you need to stop at this stage. And take no further action, except to contact the seller with a request to replace the device. All the actions that are described below should be resorted to only when, in fact, there is nothing to lose. The instructions below apply to USB sticks, SD cards, and MicroSD cards. However, in the case of the latter, the probability of recovery is extremely small.

6. D-Soft Flash Doctor

D-Soft Flash Doctor performs the so-called low-level formatting, and along the way it also detects bad sectors (cells). Well, and, accordingly, knows how to block them and replace them with backup ones. The program can help when flash drives or SD cards have difficulty reading individual files that have fallen on bad sectors. The program is free and portable. I did not find the official site, but it can be freely downloaded on the Internet.

In the D-Soft Flash Doctor window, the first thing to do is run a scan for errors.

In my case, there were no damaged (broken) sectors.

But if in your case, friends, the scan results are different, and bad sectors are found, we start the recovery process.

The window for this operation promises that the process will not last longer than 10 minutes, but in fact, remapping bad sectors on a drive with a capacity of more than 4 GB can take quite a long time. So it is better to run the recovery operation at night.

7. Flashing the memory controller

Programs for the so-called low-level formatting or their analogues, in any other form declaring the function of resuscitation of all types of SD cards and / or USB flash drives, turn out to be powerless in the event of a software failure of the controller when it needs to be flashed. This problem may have different symptoms, but more often it is either the computer does not completely see the drive, or it sees, it can even read data, but cannot format it by any means. In particular, due to write protection, despite the fact that the drive is not blocked by hardware.

An SD card is a removable storage disk that stores data written to it, allowing you to transfer information from one reader to another. Such flash cards are located in digital devices, store photographs, music, videos, documents, and so on.

SD cards are used in mobile phones, tablets, GPS navigators and other similar devices. Their storage capacity can be up to 2 terabytes. They are available in several types and sizes. MicroSD, miniSD and SDHC formats are especially popular.

These devices are set up for long and reliable work, but the loss of information from these cards is often a problem for their owners.

What causes data loss from the card?

Content loss problems happen with any storage media, and the SD card is no exception to this rule. Before you start recovering files from the SD card, you should determine the cause of the data loss. It can be:

1. A common option is the accidental deletion of information from a flash drive.

2. The process of formatting a digital device while an SD card is in it.

3. Incorrect disconnection of the card, i.e. when data is transferred from a flash drive to one or another equipment, the user pulls it out of the connector, due to which the logical structure of the drive is damaged. Therefore, the card should be removed when no operations are performed on it.

4. Also, the recovery of the SD card occurs after the last frame was taken on the camera with an overflowing flash drive. This often results in the computer not being able to "see" the card.

5. Due to an electrical short or a malfunction in the firmware of the reading equipment, the controller inside the card fails.

6. Mechanical defect of the drive.

How to check the performance of a flash drive?

Restoring a damaged SD card starts by checking its functionality. When a flash drive stops working normally, it is accompanied by some symptoms. For example, there are maps that, when damaged, show the wrong structure of file archives, or digital device cannot determine the flash drive or its amount of memory.

If this happened to your memory card, then you should not rashly throw it away, but try to restore its performance, because it happens that the information stored on it is very valuable and rare and it is not so easy to find and download it again (and sometimes impossible) .

SD card recovery software

So the adage “measure seven times - cut once” is relevant to the problem we are describing.

Restoring files from an SD card

Next, we describe step-by-step recommendations for reconstructing corrupted data. Looking ahead, users should be warned that these recovery steps help "breathe life" into the SD card in 80% of all such situations. In other cases, mechanical intervention of specialists in the structure of the map is required, which cannot be done at home. Such operations are carried out in special workshops and laboratories.

Now we will look at ways to recover data from a flash drive on our own:

1. Restoring deleted files from an SD card begins with looking into the trash of a damaged flash drive. If accidental deletion of information from the card occurred on a computer or laptop, then they do not appear in the device's trash. But if the data was erased on the tablet, then you should go to the menu of such a device, find the SD card icon and look in it for a file called Recycle bin, which may contain deleted objects.

2. As soon as you find that the information from the flash drive has been deleted, you need to put the memory card aside and temporarily not use it, since when saving new data, the old files will be permanently overwritten, and it will be impossible to return them.

3. A special program is downloaded to recover SD cards from the Internet if the information was not found in the basket. At the same time, you should carefully choose an application for working with a memory card, taking into account not only the cost of the program, but also user reviews about it. It happens that the cost of lost data exceeds the cost of the application itself. In this case, it is better not to experiment, but to pay for the program and return your files to the card.

4. After installing the application on the computer, connects the USB flash drive or the equipment on which it is located to it.

5. The program for recovering the SD memory card is launched, at the request of the application where to look deleted files, the flash drive is indicated. Next, the program starts scanning the file system of the card.

6. After the application is finished, it will highlight the found files. A good program displays a list of data by creation or modification date, name, and so on.

7. In this list, you can choose which files you want to restore by checking the box next to them.

8. After all the above procedures, the information can be stored on any medium, both on SD and on a computer or on floppy disks.

When the micro SD card is restored via special programs, then these file locations, their names are often lost, they are in a "chaotic" state. Recognizing them in this case will not be easy. Therefore, experts recommend choosing such a recovery application so that it has the function of previewing information data before restoring and saving it. Also, the more viewing formats the program supports, the better.

When working with flash drive recovery, you should take into account the fact that each application works according to its own algorithms. Some things they do better and some things worse. Therefore, it is impossible to foresee which program works best for restoring an SD card. It often happens that in case of serious damage, the maximum recovery of files is not at all the same application that showed excellent results in other cases. Therefore, if one program could not completely find and return all the data, then other information products should be used.

The most popular programs that recover lost data

The most used SD card recovery applications are free Recuva, PC Inspector File Recovery, R.saver 1.0 and Pandora Recovery. All of them support popular Windows file systems — FAT16/32 and NTFS. These applications have proven themselves well in the work of restoring information from a flash drive.

Recuva

This application has become famous for being the very first free program, the specification of which is not only to restore the SD card, but also work with computer hard drives, as well as delete unnecessary files.

This program is considered primitive today, as more modern applications have appeared. But if you just need to return some file, then it is perfect for this procedure due to its simplicity and practicality.

PC Inspector File Recovery

SD card recovery with this German utility is better than Recuva. This application is taken to work with lost disk partitions that are not recognized operating system. However, the minus of the program is a poorly understood menu.

R.saver

This application, unlike others free programs, often manages to cope with difficult cases of data loss, for example, when the computer does not find the memory card. In most situations involving data loss on a flash drive, this utility shows the best results, comparable to popular commercial products.

The program menu and even pop-up tips are completely in Russian, easy enough to use. R.saver is recognized as one of the best programs, problem solving on the restoration of memory cards, so it's best to keep it always at hand.

Pandora Recovery

This is also a good free utility that recovers lost data, especially images and photos. It looks for accidentally deleted files, and also reanimates information after formatting.

Outcome

Data loss on memory cards due to various user actions is not yet a catastrophe. You should not immediately change the flash drive or give it to computer specialists for repair. There is a high probability that you can recover lost data at home using a set of certain programs.

And only if you can’t reanimate the SD card on your own, then you should turn to professionals for help. But it should be borne in mind that the price of such services will be no less than the cost new card memory. Therefore, it is necessary to turn to specialists only when the lost information is really very valuable, it is impossible or difficult to find it again.

If the data on the card is not so important and it is easy to re-record it, then you should try to restore the card yourself using all the recommendations described in the article, and if it doesn’t work out, buy a new USB flash drive. Only this time, you have to be careful with it.

Even well-known card manufacturers such as Transcend, Kingston or Silicon power do not guarantee the infinitely long performance of your flash drive and the safety of data. But do not rush to think that everything is lost - you can try to recover the files lost from the SD card.

File recovery with CardRecovery

There are many utilities on the net to recover erased or lost images from Kingston or Silicon Power cards. The most effective program to recover data from a damaged SD card is Card Recovery. It supports not only SD memory cards, but also microSD cards or regular USB flash drives. The utility works with the most common multimedia formats:

  • MOV etc.

Working with this program is quite simple, it has proven itself to be highly efficient, functional and user-friendly interface.

Step 1: Prepare for Scanning

After launching the program and the welcome screen, you will be prompted to proceed to scan for lost data on the memory card. To do this, you need to select which disk you are going to scan (select the letter label of the memory card), as well as the location on the disk of the folder where the files recovered from the USB flash drive will be saved.

Optionally, you can check off the types of damaged files that need to be restored, as well as the model of the device in which the SD-card was installed (digital camera or Android smartphone).

Once you're done, click the NEXT button.

Step 2: Scan

All data found on the SD card as a result of scanning is displayed in the program window as a single list.

A full map scan usually takes no more than 10 minutes.

If you find the files you need in the list, you can abort the scan and move on to the next step. However, due to the lack of a preview, it is more reasonable to wait until all the data is found on the SD card.

Step 3: preview and select data to save

You can view the files that were detected by the program as a result of scanning the card. Preview is only possible for 6 files at a time, which makes it difficult to search. It is much easier to mark all the files, and then select the necessary ones already saved in the folder.

Step 4: Save

At this stage, the files selected for recovery will be saved to the folder specified in step 1. After the procedure is completed, the utility will offer to open this folder for further work with the data.

PhotoRec 7: a utility for recovering any type of data

Despite the fact that the name of this utility hints at the ability to work only with multimedia data, the utility can recover files of any type from any media: Silicon flash drives Power, transcend and kingston SD cards. Another advantage of 7 is that it can work with damaged SD-cards that are not detected when connected to a PC and do not have a drive letter.

Step 1: Select recovery options

After starting the utility, a window appears on the screen where the user is prompted to select a flash drive or memory card from which to perform recovery, as well as the file system in which the drive is formatted. The most common is the second item: FAT/NTFS/HFS+. You also need to specify the path where the data recovered from the SD cards will be saved.

If you need to recover a specific file format from a damaged flash drive, you can select it by clicking on the File Format button and ticking the corresponding extensions.

Step 2: data recovery

After all the preliminary settings have been completed, click on the Search button to start scanning and repairing SD cards (Silicon Power or another manufacturer). At the end of the process, the program will tell you how many files and what format were found on the damaged memory card. To exit the PhotoRec 7 utility, click Quit. Files recovered from memory cards can be found in the folder you specified when initial setup utilities.

Having problems on an android phone or any other with a memory card? Can't read data from it or your android phone/tablet doesn't detect it?

You can repair a damaged micro sd card if it is damaged using a computer, check it for errors, or completely reformat it.

In general, the fact that the SD card is not read is not unusual. If you have a lot of data stored on it and use it extensively on your phone, there is always a chance that you might have a problem reading the content.

But this does not mean that the card should be discarded immediately. There is always a chance to restore the work of the SD card.


Sometimes the solution may be to check the file system for errors in saved files, repair bad sectors, format the card, or complete removal section (map structure) and its re-creation. Let's take a look at each of these solutions below.

How can I restore the performance of an external sd card

To fix a damaged sd card you will need:

  • PC or laptop running Windows;
  • any way to connect an SD card directly to a computer.

You can connect it to your computer with an adapter - if not, you can buy a USB card reader.

Method One - Repairing a Corrupted CHKDSK File System

If your device says sd card is damaged, here's what you can do. The first and easiest way is to use the Windows system disk repair tool, i.e. CHDSK.

This tool is from Microsoft and is only available on Windows computers. CHKDSK does this without deleting any files, so you won't lose card data.

First, connect the SD card directly to your computer or laptop and launch My Computer or This PC (Windows 8 and later).

In the drive list, find the included SD card and remember which drive letter it was assigned to. For the purposes of this guide, let's assume that the card has been assigned the letter "D".

Press Windows + R key combination to bring up the window Windows startup. In the run window, enter the following command to enable command line: cmd.


A new command line window will appear. Now you must enter the appropriate command, which will scan the memory card and fix errors on it. The command looks like this: chkdsk D: /f

Of course, instead of "D:", write your drive letter (don't forget the colon). Press the "Enter" button to start scanning.

After the scan, you can test your memory drive and see if everything works.

Method two - formatting a damaged sd card

The second way to fix a damaged SD card is to format it and delete all data. This option can help if CHKDSK was unable to verify and there are still problems (for example, errors reading individual files).

Of course, you will lose all data, but chances are that formatting will fix the card.

To do this, connect the drive to your computer, and then call "My Computer" or "This Computer". Find the connected SD card in the disk list and right-click it.

Select Format from the context menu. A new format window will appear for the specified drive (in this case, the SD card).

Click the "Default Allocation Size" button and make sure "FAT32" is selected as the file system.

You can format with the "Quick Format" option selected, only for more accurate results I recommend that you uncheck this box - the formatting will be much longer, but done more carefully, which can help solve problems with the card.

After formatting, reinsert the card into your smartphone, tablet, digital camera, or other device you are using and check that the card is working properly.

Method three - completely delete all partitions and re-create again

An SD card is no different from a regular disk - it can have one or more partitions. By default, there is always only one section.

You can format the card in such a way as to completely remove the partition and leave it unallocated.

This is called low-level formatting. Note that this will also permanently delete all data on the memory card.

After formatting, you can create a new partition. This often helps when the memory card appears as "RAW" after plugging in and doesn't show partitions that can be accessed.

For this formatting, you can use a program called "HDD Low Level Format Tool". You can download below.

Connect the drive to your computer, and then run the HDD Low Level Detection Tool.

See a list of all your drives on your computer, including the connected external drive. Find your SD card in the list and select it.

Make sure you choose the right one. Once selected, click Continue and go to the Format this device tab.

The card will be completely formatted and all partitions will be deleted. This will now be a clean, unallocated surface.

That's not all - the card is in such a state that it will be useless. Now go to the Start menu and find the Windows Administrative Tools folder, and in it select Computer Management.

A new window will appear. In it, select "Disk Management". A new window will appear displaying all drives - both internal and external connected via USB.

Find your drive, the surface of which is displayed in black. Right-click on the black unallocated area and select New Simple Volume.


You will see a wizard that will guide you step by step through the partition creation process. You don't need to change anything, just click next. Pay attention to the "File system" field and make sure that FAT32 is selected instead of NTFS.

Confirm the creation of a new partition. Your micro sd card will now appear in the My Computer window with a drive letter automatically assigned. You can disconnect it from your computer and connect it to your phone or tablet. Good luck.

Developer:
http://hddguru.com/

operating system:
windows

Interface:
English




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