How To Recover The Files and Data From A Damaged SD Card

Recover The Files and Data From A Damaged SD Card

Many times, it happens that your SD card gets damaged and you tend to lose all the data and files stored in it. You may save all the important files on that SD card, but what can be done, it’s got damaged. Now it became that you have to forget all the files and data on that SD card if you don’t have any backup of the data. Is there any way to recover the files and data from a damaged SD card?

Yes! Here is how to recover the files and data from a damaged SD card. You can get back the files from the corrupted SD card. It’s as simple as recovering the deleting files from a PC or any digital storage device. But as the SD cards are fragile, they need to be treated carefully. Devices like mobile phones and cameras use SD card as their memory device. SD cards can store various data like photos, videos, contacts, music files, and different types of files and documents, and apps in itself without making any changes.

Suppose that you have stored all your favorite and important files and data in a memory card and it broke unknowingly. Do you think, you can’t recover the files and data and you have lost all that you have stored on that SD card? Not absolutely! There is a chance that you can get back all the files and data from the SD card. Here we go into the process to recover the files and data from an SD card.

But keep in mind that you should never format the SD card after you found that it is damaged. If you click to format the SD card, you can’t retain any photos on the SD card. But how will you declare that the SD card is not working? It can’t be declared that an SD card is damaged when your laptop or PC is not able to read the SD card after inserting it in the slot. You need to recheck if that SD card is not working. For that insert the SD card into the slot of another PC or laptop. Sometimes, it is the slot or the card reader that doesn’t work, not the SD card.

If you clearly found that the SD card is not working, then you need to recover the files and data from it. How?

You need to install a file recovery Software. Disk Digger is one among many file recovery apps which will help you get back all the contents of the damaged SD card. All the file recovery apps don’t contribute completely in the recovery of all the data on the SD card. So check the limitations of the Software before downloading it.

ZAR (Zero Assumption Recovery) is another similar program which will give an overview of how to use it. Follow the below steps.

Install ZAR and insert the damaged SD card into your PC’s card reader.
Launch ZAR
Click on “Image Recovery” option when prompted to recover all the photos on the SD card.
Then select an appropriate disk or location to save the photos and tap on “Next”. Now ZAR will analyze the SD card which will take a few minutes. After which you will see a list of recovered files.

Make sure that the location or folder you select is the one on your PC’s hard disk to store the data on the SD card. After recovery of the data from the damaged SD card, check the destination folder for the data saved. They might have lost their names, so you might have to rename the files. This could include adding a file extension so as to be correctly recognized by Windows.

These SD cards have to be maintained with care as they are thin and feeble plastic shells on which a tiny chip exists. They cannot be placed in the pockets or bags directly. Because of its tiny size, you might miss it easily. If your SD card is write-protected, you can’t be able to delete any of the files on it.

How to fix a dead SD card?

If your SD card looks physically undamaged and the switch is in the unlocked position, you can try one of the Windows’ built-in tools to fix the SD card. The options to fix an SD card depends on if your card appears in the Windows Explorer or not.

If it appears, follow the below few steps.

Right-click on the SD card
Choose “Properties”
Then tap on Tool tab and click on “Check”
Now Windows will scan the SD card for errors and try to fix them.

If it doesn’t appear in Explorer, follow the below steps.

Go to “Start” menu
Search for “Disk Management” and check for the drives which Windows can see. The drives which don’t have a drive letter can also be included in the list. If you can’t identify your SD card in the list of drives, the SD card is either completely dead or the card reader isn’t working properly.
If the SD card is there, but without a drive letter, then right-click on it and use the available options to give it a drive letter or format it to a file system that Windows can read. Then allocate a letter.