Founded in 1988, SanDisk is an American manufacturer of flash memory products such as memory cards, USB flash drives, and solid-state drives. They are currently the third-largest manufacturer of flash memory products in the world.
SanDisk products offer an excellent price to performance ratio, so it’s no wonder that SanDisk is the first choice of so many professional and regular content creators and computer users alike. However, even storage devices from premium manufacturers such as SanDisk are not immune to corruption and data loss.
Fortunately, there are many SanDisk recovery software tools that can help you get back lost or corrupted files from not only SanDisk storage devices, including SD cards, CF cards, and USB flash drives but also storage devices from other manufacturers.
The goal of this article is to provide the most comprehensive guide to SanDisk data recovery, teaching you everything you need to know to get back lost data and perform a corrupt file recovery if needed. Don’t worry: no expert-level skills or knowledge are required to apply our memory card recovery methods—you just need one of the best SanDisk recovery software tools listed below.
SanDisk recovery software, also referred to as compact flash recovery software, is a term used to describe data recovery applications with support for flash-based storage devices, such as memory cards, USB flash drives, and eMMC storage.
Such applications are available at a variety of price ranges, from free to professional, and they all share the same goal: allow you to recover permanently deleted files that haven’t yet been overwritten. But even though data recovery tools share the same goal, their approaches to achieving it are sometimes very different.
Here’s what you need to pay attention to when choosing SanDisk recovery software:
After conducting hands-on tests of numerous data recovery tools, our team has meticulously identified the top 8 SanDisk recovery software options currently available on the market. Below, we detail the unique features and capabilities of each tool, enabling you to make an informed decision on the best software for your specific file recovery needs.
Supported file systems: APFS, HFS, HFS+, NTFS/NTFS5, FAT/FAT32/exFAT, EXT2/EXT3/EXT4, BTRFS | Supported file formats: over 400 | Price: $89 for Disk Drill PRO, free version for Windows available (recovers up to 500 MB)
After our team’s in-depth evaluation, we found that Disk Drill delivers a smooth recovery process for both Windows and Mac platforms. Our hands-on experience showed its exceptional strength in recovering RAW files, marking it as a leader for SanDisk SD card recovery. This evidence of excellence makes it a number one pick for professional photographers and videographers, who heavily rely on the data recovery of their SanDisk SD cards.
The free Windows version of this file recovery software tool can undelete up to 500 MB of data and preview an unlimited number of files. To recover more data, you need to upgrade to Disk Drill PRO for just $89.
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Supported file systems: FAT, exFAT, NTFS, Ext2, Ext3, and Ext4 | Supported file formats: less than 100 | Price: Recuva is free, but you can pay $19.95 to upgrade to Recuva Professional
The glory days of Recuva might be over considering this once extremely popular and well-rated file recovery application hasn’t been updated since 2016, but that doesn’t mean Recuva isn’t worth your time anymore. When it comes to simpler data recovery jobs, Recuva is still a fantastic option because it can restore an unlimited number of files free of charge. For a comprehensive software test, refer to our Recuva full review here.
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Supported file systems: NTFS, NTFS5, ReFS, FAT12/16/32, exFAT, HFS/HFS+ and APFS (Macintosh), Little and Big Endian variants of UFS1/UFS2 (FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD/Solaris) and Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 FS (Linux) | Supported file formats: several hundred | Price: from $79.99 (the free version can only recover files up to 256 KB)
R-Studio is an advanced memory card recovery solution that supports virtually all Windows, Mac, and Linux file systems you may come across. It also runs on all of the three operating systems we’ve just mentioned, so you can perform the recovery on just about any laptop or desktop you want. Just keep in mind that each platform requires a separate license, so you better carefully evaluate your purchase decision before you finalize your order. You can check our complete R-Studio software test here.
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Supported file systems: FAT(FAT12,FAT16,FAT32), exFAT, NTFS, NTFS5, ext2/ext3, HFS+, ReFS | Supported file formats: over 1,000 | Price: $69.95 a month or $99.95 a year (the free version can recover up to 2 GB)
EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard has been around since 2004, collecting hundreds of positive reviews from users and professional reviewers alike. The free version of this SanDisk recovery software can retrieve up to 2 GB of data, and it supports more than 1,000 file formats. You can use the tool to address all kinds of data loss scenarios, including deletion, formatting, and file system corruption, among others. For a more in-depth analysis and our user experience, check EaseUS Data Recovery review here.
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Supported file systems: NTFS and FAT file systems | Supported file formats: images, documents, mail, standard definition video, music, and more | Price: from $39.99 a year
RescuePRO software, which comes bundled free with SanDisk SD cards for recovering lost files and is also available separately, was put to the test by our team. In our testing, RescuePRO proved good at simple recoveries, easily handling lost files on various SanDisk cards. However, its performance fell short in more complex situations, such as attempting to recover data from SD cards with corrupted file systems. Despite this limitation, the entry-level version of RescuePRO sufficiently meets the needs for basic memory card data recovery.
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Supported file systems: APFS, HFS, HFS+, NTFS, FAT & ExFAT | Supported file formats: over 200 file formats | Price: from $49.99 a year (the free version can recover up to 1 GB of data for free)
With over 3 million customers around the world, Stellar Data Recovery is a stellar choice when it comes to all kinds of data loss scenarios involving logical damage. The tool has a highly intuitive user interface, and it boasts the ability to retrieve data even from RAID 0, 5, and 6 arrays. The setup process is breezy, but scanning can take some time, so be patient and don’t interrupt it unless you absolutely have to.
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Supported file systems: FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, exFAT, VFAT, NTFS, NTFS5 and ISO9660, Joliet, UDF | Supported file formats: several hundred | Price: from $69.00 a month or $89.00 a year
Minitool Data Recovery is a well-rounded recovery utility for Windows and Mac. It supports internal hard drives as well as external devices such as HDDs, SSDs, USB flash drives, SD cards, memory cards, and others. Whether you need to recover lost data after unsuccessful formatting, a devastating virus attack, or a critical hard drive failure, Minitool Data Recovery is always ready to help.
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Supported file systems: FAT, exFAT, NTFS, and ext2/ext3/ext4 | Supported file formats: supports more than 480 file extensions | Price: free and open-source
If you’re a fan of open-source software, then PhotoRec is a must-try recovery tool. Our tests confirmed PhotoRec’s efficiency in standard recovery scenarios, effortlessly restoring files from various SanDisk cards. However, it’s worth noting that in complex recovery tasks, such as dealing with corrupted SD card file systems, PhotoRec might face challenges. Despite this, its straightforward, text-based interface and solid recovery capabilities make it a noteworthy option for basic SD card recovery tasks.
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To illustrate an SD card recovery process, we’ll use Disk Drill with a SanDisk storage device as our example:
There’s nothing revolutionary about the concept of prevention being better than cure. Even though SanDisk data recovery software can solve even the most desperate data loss situations (as long as they don’t involve mechanical damage or overwriting), you should still do as much as you can to avoid them, and understanding the most common scenarios that lead to data loss from SanDisk storage devices is a great first step:
User errors | To err is human, and some user errors can lead to data loss. For example, most users have accidentally selected the wrong file when bulk-deleting multiple files in a rush. Fortunately, most user errors can be solved even without SanDisk recovery software because modern operating systems come with many data protection features. |
Formatting gone wrong | Formatting is a potentially risky operation because you can lose all data just by making one fatal mistake, such as formatting the wrong storage device. As permanent as formatting may seem, the fact is that formatted storage devices are not actually as devoid of data as they seem. It’s just that the space occupied by your files has been marked as empty. |
File system corruption | Just like an unsupervised toddler can turn a neatly organized stack of documents into a huge mess, a badly programmed software application can do the same with any storage device, causing file system corruption that results in your files not being accessible. In some cases, corrupted devices can be repaired, but you need to use the right repair method otherwise you could make the situation even worse. |
Malware attacks | There are many destructive strains of malware that can infect your SanDisk memory card or flash drive and cause data loss. Perhaps the most sinister type of malware that you can encounter is called ransomware, and it can perpetually block access to your files unless you pay a ransom using a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. |
Physical damage | While modern storage devices are fairly resilient against magnetic fields, dust, and even moisture, they can still be completely destroyed just by being dropped onto a hard surface or squashed inside a bag. Unfortunately, physical damage can rarely be repaired at home, so it’s best to let data recovery professionals handle it. |
As you can see, data loss caused by SanDisk corruption isn’t always permanent. There are many excellent SD & microSD card recovery techniques and tools that can save the day without much effort, and we described those you definitely need to know about in this article.
To recover files from your SanDisk SD card:
Selecting the best SanDisk SD card recovery software is no easy task because we all have different preferences and priorities. That said, here are the top 3 recovery tools based on our own independent testing:
You can quickly and easily recover data from SanDisk Cruzer using Disk Drill:
Both Windows and macOS can fix a corrupted SanDisk SD card without any third party software.
Windows:
macOS:
That depends on what’s wrong with it. If you don’t know, you can go through the following general USB flash drive troubleshooting steps:
You can recover deleted files from any SanDisk USB storage device using data recovery software:
In some cases, a broken SanDisk USB flash drive can be fixed, but we don’t recommend you attempt it yourself at home because a single mistake could quickly make data recovery impossible. Instead, hire data recovery professionals to recover your data for you using state-of-the-art equipment.
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