Fix A Damaged SD Card And A Hard Drive
Did you ever come across to fix a damaged SD card or a hard drive? SD cards and hard disk drives are the storage devices used to store and retrieve digital information with a rapidly rotating magnetic disk. But sometimes these storage devices get damaged due to some reasons. And they prompt you to format the damaged SD card when inserted in a mobile phone. But don’t ever immediately take the step to format the SD card or hard disk drive soon after the mobile phone or computer prompts you to.
The reason why you should not format the storage device is that you may lose any important data stored on the SD card or hard disk drive if any. Then what is an alternative thing that can be done? Sometimes it happens that your mobile phone won’t read the contents on the SD card. Whereas the computer will read when inserted the Sd card in the computer or laptop.
And if you commit to format the SD card simply after your mobile prompts, you might have lost all your memories and the whole data on the SD card. Even there is a chance that your computer will recognize the removable disk but won’t show the contents in that.
So how to fix a damaged or corrupted or unreadable SD card and a hard drive if this is the case? We have discussed some of the ways to fix a damaged SD card and a hard drive. And I’m sure these methods won’t let you lose your memories and the contents on the storage devices in any way. We guarantee for the safe recovery of your SD card and hard disk drive along with their contents.
How to check the SD card or hard drive is damaged?
The SD card or the hard disk drive has a number of problems behind that it’s not working. It may be a fault in connection, loose connection, or something else. So let’s first know the reasons why it gets into problems and results in damage to the device.
1. Check the IDE/SATA to USB enclosure:
First of all, check if the IDE/SATA data cable is connected properly. If you find it’s not, then remove the hard drive from its casing and use an IDE/SATA data cable and power connector to install the drive internally on your desktop computer. You can even get an IDE / SATA to USB adapter or a new USB enclosure, so you can hook the drive up externally via USB.
2. Improper connections:
Sometimes, it’s not that the drive fails, but the physical connection of the cables connected to the motherboard. So before consulting a technician, make sure that the cables are correctly connected. First, switch off the power supply to the system and check for the misconnections and all the other connections. After the confirmation of the connections, boot your system and check if the hard drive or SD card is working.
3. Check the PCB:
Check if anything is wrong with the Printed Circuit Board. The hard drive can be damaged internally or externally. If the problem is with the PCB, then the hard drive is damaged externally, and this external problem can be easily solved. But don’t take any advantage to repair the circuit board on your own if you aren’t completely aware of solving it. This may tend to lose the contents of the hard drive.
All the solution for these problems might be only for a temporary purpose. So, make sure that you back up your data in the storage device. Use the perfect software to back up the data and have enough storage space available with the device.
And copy the files one by one slowly. Never go for a fast process to complete the backup in less time. This may lead to crashing of the data and the device might get more damaged. This will end up in losing all the data in the device. It may even slow down the backup process further. So don’t copy multiple files at the same time.
The following are the ways to fix a damaged SD card and hard disk drive.
Method 1: Using Check disk
First of all, we need to know the problem of the SD card. To find and fix a damaged SD card, we have to run Check disk command. Follow the below steps to run this command.
Step 1: In the Windows Explorer, note the drive in which the removable disk is inserted or showing.
For example E drive.
Step 2: Open command prompt with administrative privileges.
- In Windows 7: Start > Programs > Accessories > Right click on command prompt > run as administrator
- In Windows 8 or 10: Right click on Start menu > Command prompt (Admin).
Step 3: Type “chkdsk (the drive letter):/f” in the command prompt window. And wait until the disk checking process completes to fix a damaged SD card or hard drive.
Step 4: Explore the contents of the SD card after the completion of the checking process.
Step 5: You can use the SD card or the hard drive as usual. But don’t forget to copy the contents of the storage device before using it again.
Method 2: Using PhotoRec
It’s not that every damaged SD card will be repaired with the above method. It may happen that the user didn’t find any use of that method and they may search for an alternative method. So, this is an alternative solution for those who didn’t find the above one to work perfectly for their SD card or hard drive.
Now, in this method, we use PhotoRec to fix a damaged SD card or a hard drive. It is a free recovery utility for repairing an SD card. This method will fix a damaged SD card and recover the lost files from the corrupted disk.
Step 1: Download PhotoRec
- Navigate to: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download page.
- Click on Download TestDisk button.
- Extract the “testdisk-7.0.win.zip” file.
Step 2: Follow the below steps to recover the corrupted files with PhotoRec.
- Explore “testdisk-7.0” folder and open the qphotorec_win application.
- Choose the disk from which the data has to be retrieved.
- Then choose the complete disk or the partition to retrieve files.
- Check on “Whole: Extract files from the whole partition”, to recover corrupted data
- Then choose a destination location on your disk to save the recovered files.
- Click the File Formats button and choose the type of files you want to recover. (e.g.”jpg, JPG Picture”).
- Finally, press the Search button.
- When the scan and recovery process is completed, navigate to the folder you selected (before) to view the recovered files.
- Don’t forget to format the corrupted disk (or memory card) before using it again.
Hope, these methods will help you fix a damaged SD card or hard disk drive and backup the data in the device.
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