How to Recover Data from a Damaged SD Card

SD cards and microSD cards travel with us everywhere we go because they are found in our mobile devices, cameras, and various electronic gadgets. As such, they are routinely exposed to handling, movement, and everyday mechanical wear. It’s no wonder then that most people run into some kind of SD card problem sooner or later.

The good news is that a card that looks broken and unreadable often isn’t. Many problems that feel like real damage can be fixed safely at home (no expensive recovery lab required). This guide shows you how to read the symptoms first, recover data from a damaged SD card when necessary, and then apply the fix that matches.

Signs and Possible Causes of a Damaged/Broken SD Memory Card

SD card repair tools write to the card (typically by moving existing data around or by changing file attributes, and so on), and every write can overwrite files you still want back. That’s why you should always start by recovering your files from the SD card while they are still readable. Once that’s done, you can begin the repair process. So, if the files matter more to you than the card itself, jump to the data recovery steps.

When doctors diagnose their patients, they look for symptoms, which are clear signs that something is not right. Experienced doctors can recognize various symptoms so well that they can make the right diagnosis way before the lab results come in and confirm it.

Just like the human body, storage devices typically show certain signs when there’s something wrong with them. Here are some of the most common signs indicating that an SD memory card is corrupted:

Files are missing

• Sign: You open the content of your SD card but discover that certain files that should be there are missing.
• Explanation: Files suddenly disappear from memory cards for two main reasons. First, file system directory catalogs can become corrupted, causing the system to treat the files as free space. Second, the files receive the hidden attribute, which causes them to appear deleted even though they are still in their original locations. Recover what you can first, then unhide the files or run a scan.

The card can’t be opened or read

• Sign: Your PC, phone, or camera sees the card, but it will not open. You may get an error asking you to format the card, or it may simply hang when you try to read it.
• Explanation: Usually, the file system is corrupted, or the card uses a file system your device cannot read. A worn-out card with too many bad sectors behaves the same way. Get your files off the card before you run any repair tool, because those tools write to it. If the card is just worn out, it might be best to buy a new one, just to be safe.

The card isn’t recognized at all

• Sign: You insert your SD card into your camera or computer, but the card doesn’t show up.
• Explanation: This common sign of SD card damage can be caused by extensive file system corruption or an incompatible file system. The file system may have become damaged due to improper ejection, power loss, or other factors. Additionally, some devices may not recognize certain file systems used by the SD card. Once the card shows up again, recover your files before you try any repairs.

The card shows the wrong capacity

• Sign: Your SD card is supposed to have a capacity of, let’s say 64 GB, but your camera or computer sees less than that.
• Explanation: SD cards sometimes display the wrong capacity when they are formatted improperly or when the partition table, which is a table that describes how the storage device on which it’s located is formatted, becomes damaged. Formatting usually clears this up. It also erases the card, so copy your files off first.

The card is physically damaged

• Sign: Your SD card has visible physical damage, such as cracks, bends, or broken parts.
• Explanation: Physical damage to an SD card can occur due to various reasons, such as improper handling, accidental drops, or exposure to extreme conditions. When an SD card is physically broken, it may not function correctly, and data stored on it may become inaccessible. In some cases, the damage may be severe enough to render the card completely unusable. If you notice any physical damage to your SD card, you should stop using it immediately and seek professional data recovery services to retrieve your data.

How to Retrieve Data from a Damaged SD Card with Data Recovery Software

Recovering data from a damaged SD or microSD card requires a tool capable of handling many kinds of data loss scenarios, and Disk Drill fits that description.

As SD card data recovery software, Disk Drill can scan memory cards in all sorts of damaged states. To do it safely, it lets you first create a disk image, which is a byte-to-byte backup of the card. Once you have it, you don’t need to read the card again (great if it’s on its last leg) since you can work exclusively from the image itself.

Here’s how simple it is to back up a damaged SD card with Disk Drill:

Step 1: Download Disk Drill from its official website and install it on your computer.

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Step 2: Connect the damaged SD card to your computer. Should you encounter prompts from Windows suggesting formatting the device to make it usable again, resist the urge to do so as it could lead to further data loss or, in the worst case, make data recovery completely impossible.

Step 3: Launch Disk Drill and select the Byte-to-byte Backup tool from the left pane.

Step 4: Choose your damaged SD card and click the blue Byte-to-byte Backup button.

Step 5: Tell Disk Drill where it should save the backup image and click OK. Depending on the size and speed of your SD card, it might take a while for the backup process to finish, so be patient and don’t interrupt it.

Now that your damaged SD card has been backed up into a convenient image file, you can set the physical card aside. You won’t need to read it again for the next part because you can recover your lost data directly from the backup image.

Follow these steps to recover your data from the byte-to-byte backup image:

Step 1: Switch to the Storage Devices tab and click on “Attach disk image.”

Step 2: Select the byte-to-byte backup image you’ve just created and click “Open.”

Step 3: Choose the image you’ve just mounted from the list of available storage devices and click “Search for lost data.” Disk Drill then asks which scan you want. Universal Scan is the right default for most damaged cards. Advanced Camera Recovery can do better when you mainly want photos and video from a camera or drone, since it rebuilds media files that got fragmented.

Step 4: Wait until Disk Drill completes the analysis of the image and then click on “Review found items” to see the results. If you don’t want to wait until the end of the scanning process, then you can choose to review the found items sooner. Just know that the list of results won’t be complete.

Step 5: Select all the data you want to recover. By default, Disk Drill displays Deleted, Reconstructed, as well as Existing files. If you’re looking only for files that have been, for example, deleted by mistake, then you can click the Show button and configure Disk Drill to display nothing but them. You can also take advantage of Disk Drill’s other filters, its search bar, and its preview feature to locate what you’re looking for.

Step 6: Click the “Recover” button and then specify a location for your recovered data. Click “Next” to save your data to the specified location.

Step 7: Click the “Show recovered data in Explorer” option and verify that the files you expected were recovered successfully.

Disk Drill can scan a damaged memory card and work around read errors. It supports all popular memory card file systems and even handles RAW cards that show up as unformatted. Its signature scan capabilities can find hundreds of file types, including RAW photos and video file formats used by many makes and models, so the data recovery process can be successful even when the card looks like a lost cause.

How to Fix a Damaged or Physically Broken SD Card with and without Formatting

For every problem, there’s a solution; and for every damaged SD card, there are several.

Some ways of recovering data from a damaged SD card don’t require formatting, while others do. You can read our comprehensive overview of 11 solutions on how to fix a corrupted SD card and repair logical damage to familiarize yourself with the most available methods before you commit to any specific one. The list below runs from the safest checks to the riskiest fixes, with formatting as the last resort.

But if you’re short on time and are interested only in the most effective methods, you can simply read the following quick summary of multiple major solutions on how to fix a damaged SD card (with and without a computer):

Method 1: Access the SD Card Using a Different Device

You should start by trying the card in at least one other device that can read it because it can tell you whether the card is the problem or your main device is (you don’t need a second computer for this, since most Android phones, smart TVs, and game consoles read SD cards).

A second device rules out a lot in one go. It covers a dead card slot, a bad adapter or reader, a worn cable, and size limits on the device you started with. Driver and OS quirks show up this way too. If you don’t have another device with a card slot, buy a cheap external card reader and test with that. Do this early, because the result changes which fix makes sense next.

More tech-savvy users can create a live USB drive with a Linux distribution that supports a wide range of file systems, like Ubuntu, and use it to access the files stored on the SD card. This approach allows you to bypass potential compatibility issues with file systems that Windows doesn’t recognize.

Method 2: Fix File Attributes to Unhide Hidden Files

Your files have various attributes that specify how they can be displayed and manipulated. When file attributes become messed up, bad things can happen, such as you losing the ability to access them. Damage to the card itself doesn’t usually change these attributes, but issues with them can make files vanish from view, and that looks a lot like a card that’s dying.

The good news is that you can fix file attributes to unhide hidden files with a single command.

1. Open the Start menu, type “Terminal” in the search box, and launch the Terminal app as administrator.
2. Enter the following command and press Enter: ATTRIB -H -R -S /S /D X:*.* (replace X with the drive letter assigned to your SD card).

Method 3: Assign a New Drive Letter to the SD Card

Is your SD card detected by Windows but impossible to access because it’s not listed as an available storage device? Then it’s possible that it doesn’t have a drive letter assigned to it. And if the SD card has a drive letter, but you can’t access its contents, changing the drive letter might help resolve the issue by forcing the system to reinitialize the card.

Follow these steps to assign a new drive letter:

1. Press Win + X and select Disk Management.
2. Right-click your SD card and select the Change Drive Letter and Paths option.
3. Click the Add button to assign a new drive letter to the SD card.

You can also use the Disk Management utility to change an existing drive letter by selecting the Change option instead of the Add option.

Method 4: Reinstall SD Card Drivers

Your SD card communicates with your operating system and all software running on it with the help of system drivers. A faulty operating system update or poorly thought-out tinkering attempt can damage system drivers and make it impossible to access the content of your SD card. To fix this problem, you need to reinstall SD card drivers.

1. Press Win + X and select Device Manager.
2. Expand the portable devices section.
3. Right-click your SD card and choose the Uninstall device option.
4. Disconnect the SD card from your computer.
5. Restart your computer and connect your SD card. Windows will automatically install the correct drivers.

Method 5: Scan the SD Card Using CHKDSK

CHKDSK is a file system repair utility in Windows, and you can use it to fix file system errors on an SD card with one simple command.

1. Open the Command Prompt by typing “cmd” in the search box on the taskbar.
2. Enter the following command and press Enter: chkdsk X: /f (replace X with the drive letter assigned to your SD card).
3. Wait for CHKDSK to finish.

Method 6: Run Windows Error Checking Tool

In addition to the CHKDSK file system repair utility, Windows comes with a graphical error checking tool that does basically the same thing but differently. Like CHKDSK, it makes repairs by writing to the card.

1. Launch File Explorer.
2. Select This PC from the left pane.
3. Right-click your SD card.
4. Select the Properties option.
5. Go to the Tools tab.
6. Click the Check button under Error checking.
7. Wait for the tool to check your SD card for file system errors.

Method 7: Format the SD Card

Yes, we understand that you want to avoid formatting, but if your SD card is triggering all kinds of error messages or refusing to cooperate at all, then it might really be best to format it and start from scratch.

Formatting isn’t actually as destructive as it seems (at least when the Quick format method is used). What happens when you format an SD card or any other storage device is that all storage space is marked as empty, allowing new data to be stored in its place. Until that happens, the original data is still exactly where it was, and you can restore it using data recovery software by following the instructions provided earlier in this article.

Of course, formatting is still an inherently risky thing to do when dealing with a damaged SD card as it could potentially further the card’s damage, so we recommend creating a full SD card backup as a precautionary measure. Once the backup is ready, you can follow these steps:

1. Press Win + X and select Disk Management.
2. Right-click your SD card and select the Format option.
3. Keep the Perform a quick format option checked, choose your file system (FAT32 is a good choice if you’re not sure), and click OK.

Use Data Recovery Service for Damaged SD Card Recovery

It’s true that SD card data recovery software like Disk Drill can quickly and reliably recover lost data from most corrupted memory cards, but it can’t retrieve data from physically broken SD cards that no longer function properly.

Instead of attempting to perform a DIY repair of the broken SD card (something that rarely has a successful ending), you should instead send the SD card to a professional data recovery center and let it recover your data for you.

Here’s how most professional data recovery centers work:

1. You initiate your data recovery request by providing as much detail about the affected medium, the circumstances surrounding the data loss, and the lost data.
2. You pack and ship your storage device using a provided address label that you can simply print and attach to your package.
3. A data recovery professional will examine the storage device and get back to you with a free failure report and a guaranteed price quote.
4. You approve the quote and wait for your data.
5. The data recovery center will ship your data back to you on a DVD, flash drive, or external hard drive.

How to Prevent an SD Card from Getting Corrupted

Most of the time the methods above will get your files back, but it’s, of course, best if your card never becomes corrupted in the first place. Fortunately, there are a few habits that can help with that:

Cut out the human error factor. Most corruption is caused by bad user habits, so getting rid of them should be your top priority:

• Wait for the camera to finish writing before you remove the card from the reader. If the access light is blinking or something on your screen indicates that writing is in progress, leave the card alone.
• Don’t let your battery reach its last bar when writing data to an SD card. Low power in the middle of an active write is one way to interrupt a write process and introduce data corruption.
• Use a decent card reader and a port that doesn’t wobble. Loose USB hubs and cheap adapters can drop the connection at the worst possible moment and interrupt write operations before they can finish properly.
• Eject the card in your operating system before you remove it physically. Yanking it out while data is being written to it is how stories like this one start, and it’s the fastest way to turn a working card into a RAW one.

Keep up with a little maintenance. The following habits keep the file system stable and your devices in agreement over months of use:

• Always format your SD card in the device it’s intended for (so that the device automatically applies the best formatting settings). When formatting on a computer, you can use SD Association’s official SD Memory Card Formatter, but don’t forget to format again before using the SD card in a camera, smartphone, or other similar device.
• Try not to shuffle one card between multiple devices, such as a camera, a drone, a phone, and a dashcam. Each device has its own preferred way of storing data on the SD card, and they are not guaranteed to be mutually compatible. If you do need to move a card to another device, back up its contents first and then format it in the next device before you start using it there.

If the same card keeps glitching, stop trusting it with anything you care about. Random disconnects, card errors that come back, files that show up as 0 KB, slow write warnings are all signs that something isn’t right. A pattern of them usually means the card is degrading. ProGrade’s guide to memory card care covers the same warning signs and when to swap a card out. A fresh card costs a lot less than a lost shoot.

Read also

How to Recover Files from a Corrupted SD Card

Recover Formatted SD Card

TL;DR

Here’s the short version:

• Unless the card is snapped into pieces or otherwise severely damaged, you can usually handle the recovery yourself, and software like Disk Drill does most of the work.
• Plug the card into your PC and see if the software finds it. If it does, make a byte-to-byte image of the card and scan that image.
• If the software can’t see the card at all, check the connection first. Try another device, another card reader, another port.
• If none of that works, a professional data recovery service is the next step we recommend.

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