SD Card Recovery Software

Use your Windows computer to recover deleted files from a memory card. Disk Drill data recovery software is a free SD card recovery solution that restores lost and deleted images, videos, audio files, and more. Deleted files can be recovered from virtually any storage device with this flexible tool.

SD Card Recovery Software

SD Card Recovery Software for Different Data Loss Situations

Disk Drill can recover files from your SD cards in a wide range of data loss situations. Here are some data loss scenarios that the software can address.

Formatted SD Card

Formatted SD Card

Formatting the wrong SD card can destroy your valuable data. The software solution scans your card and recovers the files that seemed lost after formatting.

Accidental Data Deletion

Accidental Data Deletion

If you have accidentally deleted important files from your memory card, you can get them back quickly and easily with this data recovery software tool.

Virus Infection

Virus Infection

Infection with a virus or malware can be the case of data loss. Disk Drill gets your important files back if they have been deleted by malicious software.

Corrupted SD Card

Corrupted SD Card

Missing files can be caused by a corrupted SD card. Scanning the card with Disk Drill will get those files back so you can save them to a different device.

Damaged SD Card

Damaged SD Card

Lightly damaged cards may be able to be recovered with Disk Drill. A data recovery service will be needed to recover heavily damaged cards.

Filesystem Problems

Filesystem Problems

If your card’s filesystem suddenly changes to RAW making it impossible to view your files, Disk Drill can scan the device and recover its data safely.

Use Free Memory Card Recovery Software to Restore Lost Data

Have you deleted some important photos from your memory card? Disk Drill can recover files from an SD card and get your valuable data back where it belongs. Some of the features that make Disk Drill the best tool for SD card data recovery include:

  • A user-friendly and intuitive interface A user-friendly and intuitive interface
  • Recovers data from all types of memory cards Recovers data from all types of memory cards
  • Restores files from digital cameras and mobile devices Restores files from digital cameras and mobile devices
  • Excellent RAW photo and video recovery performance Excellent RAW photo and video recovery performance
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Disk Drill works with any type of file system you have – NTFS, FAT32, EXT, ExFAT, HFS+, etc. Recovering lost files has never been so versatile. SD card data recovery and CF card recovery is not all Disk Drill can do. You can restore erased files on system disks, external devices, USB drives, other computers, etc. Free Disk Drill is smart. It will scan your system and let you know what it can recover. Recover 500 MB of data for free.

Recover Deleted Data From any Memory Card

Disk Drill supports data recovery on all types of memory cards. From a microSD card to an SDHC card taken out of a professional-grade digital camera, this reliable software tool will get your lost data back in the space of a few clicks. Take a look at the range of devices that are compatible with Disk Drill.

SD Card
SD Card

SanDisk®, Sony®, Lexar®

SDHC Card
SDHC Card

PNY®, Genuine SanDisk®, Lexar®

microSD/miniSD Card
microSD/miniSD Card

Delkin®, Verbatim®, Silicon Power®

MMC Card
MMC Card

Transcend®, Johnziny®, Canon®

xD Picture Card
xD Picture Card

Olympus®, xD-Picture®, Fujifilm®

CF Card
CF Card

MyMemory®, EgoDisk®, Delkin®

Tip: To recover data from a damaged SD card that cannot be accessed by your computer, contact Cleverfiles Data Recovery Center.

Supported File Types for SD Card Recovery

Disk Drill can recover virtually any kind of file that might have been stored on your SD card or compact flash card. The software supports over 400 different file signatures when performing a deep scan and will find all of your images, videos, and any other type of data on your card.

Video
Video
360 (360-degree GoPro video), INSV (Insta360 Video file), M4V (iTunes video), MKV (Matroska Video), MOV (Apple QuickTime movie), MP4 (MPEG-4 video), R3D (Redcode Raw video image)
Audio
Audio
MP3 (MPEG Audio Stream, Layer III), MID (MIDI), AA (Audible Audio Book), AIFF (Audio Interchange File), WMA (Windows Media audio files)
Images
Images
3FR, ARW, CR2, CR3, CRW, DCR, DNG, ERF, EXR, FFF, GPR, HEIC, IIQ, KDC, MEF, MOS, MPO, MRW, NEF, NRW, ORF, PEF, RAF, RAW, RW2, RWL, SR2, SRF, SRW, TIF, X3F, X3I
Documents
Documents
SXC (OpenOffice Calc), PDF (Portable Document Format), PPTX (Microsoft PowerPoint), ODG (OpenDocument Graphics)
Archives
Archives
ZIP (Extended Zip File), RAR (WinRAR Compressed Archive), ISO (ISO-9660 CD Disc Image), 7Z (7-Zip Compressed)
 Other Files
Other Files
RAW (Raw disk images), DB (Paradox), DAT (Legacy binary images), MYO (MYOB Limited Windows File), VMDK (Virtual VMWare disks)
5 EASY STEPS

How to Recover Files From a Memory Card

Use the following steps to recover lost or deleted files from an SD card using Disk Drill.

1. Download and Install Disk Drill SD Data Recovery Software for Windows

Download and install the freeware version of Disk Drill for Windows on your computer. During installation, you will be prompted to provide administrator-level credentials to complete the process. You can recover up to 500 MB of data for free without upgrading to the Pro version of the tool. Connect the SD card to your computer with either a card reader.

Download and Install Disk Drill SD Data Recovery Software for Windows

2. Choose the SD card and recovery method you need

Select the SD card from the disk list presented in Disk Drill’s interface. You can preview the partitions on the drive by clicking the gray arrow, but we recommend scanning the entire drive.

Choose the SD card and recovery method you need
!

Tip: To safeguard your data during recovery, especially with a logically damaged card, use the "Byte-to-byte Backup" tool to create a disk image. Then, mount it via "Attach Disk Image" in the "Storage Devices" tab and scan this backup instead of the card.

3. Start scanning for lost data

Click the Search for lost data button to initiate Disk Drill’s advanced scanning algorithms. Over 400 different file types are defined in the application’s recovery database and are recognized by the scanning procedures. They include virtually any kind of file you are likely to be using on a memory card or digital device. Scans can be paused and restarted at any time for a more convenient recovery.

Start scanning for lost data

4. Select the files which you want to recover on your SD Card

During the scan, you will see progress as the process executes. You can pause the scan to recover files or wait for it to complete. You have several methods by which you can search for the files that you want to recover. This can save a lot of time when compared to looking through the potentially long list of files that Disk Drill may have found.

Select the files which you want to recover on your SD Card
Use "filters" for faster search by selecting the right file type
4.1. Use "filters" for faster search by selecting the right file type

Recovered files are displayed in folders and categorized by file type to simplify your search for recoverable data. You can choose to look only at Pictures, Video, Audio, Documents, Archives, and other files to narrow the search. If you are interested in the videos that have been recovered, why waste your time looking at everything that the app found?

Use "filters" for faster search by selecting the right file type
Search for files
4.2. Search for files

If you know the name of the file you are looking for, you can just look for it directly in the app’s search bar. You can use wildcards as in other search boxes, so as long as you know part of the name this can still save a lot of time sorting through recovery results. Just jump right to the file you need.

Search for files
Check Reconstruction section
4.3. Check Reconstruction section

Reconstructed files are those that have been found through a deep scan. The file fragment did not supply enough metadata to recreate the filename. They are found in the Reconstruction section and will have a generic filename with a valid file extension. You can preview the files and rename them after you perform the recovery.

Check Reconstruction section

5. Recover the deleted data from your SD card

Click the Recover button once you have identified the files you wish to restore. You will be prompted for a safe location at which to save the recovered files. Don’t save them to the SD card that suffered data loss or you may cause file corruption during the recovery process. When recovery is complete, you can move the files to the location of your choice.

Recover the deleted data from your SD card

Technical Specifications

sd card recovery software
Operating Systems Supported:

Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP
Windows Server 2019/2016/2012/2008
View system requirements

recover files from sd card
File Systems Supported:

FAT16/FAT32/exFAT, NTFS, NTFS5, HFS, HFS+, APFS, EXT2/EXT3/EXT4, BTRFS and any RAW disk

free sd card recovery
Hardware Requirements:

Disk Space: 1GB minimum free space
CPU: 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x86-64) compatible CPU 1.0 GHz or faster
RAM: at least 4GB

cleverfiles PROTECT

Protect Your Data with Enhanced SD Card Recovery

One of the free data protection tools provided by Disk Drill is called Recovery Vault. This tool allows you to designate specific important folders and files for additional protection against accidental deletion. Recovery Vault backs up the file’s meta-data in the background and enables you to recover protected data quickly without performing a full data recovery procedure.

recover deleted files from an SD card

A Comparison of the Best Memory Card Recovery Software

There are a lot of software applications available that claim to be able to recover data from memory cards. To help you find the best solution for your needs, we have put together this comparison of five of the most popular recovery tools for Windows that work and can restore your files. Take a look at the features offered by each solution and find the right one to resolve your data loss situation.

Disk Drill data recovery software

Disk Drill

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard

Recuva

Recuva

Minitool Power Data Recovery

Minitool Power Data Recovery

Recoverit SD Card Recovery

Recoverit SD Card Recovery

Rating (5 star)

Supported SD card file systems

ExFAT, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, ext2, ext3, ext4, HFS+, APFS

ExFAT, FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, ext2, ext3, HFS+, ReFS

ExFAT, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, ext2, ext3, ext4

FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS

ExFAT, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, ReFS, JFS , ext2, ext3, ext4

Deep scan file signatures

400+

1000

50

100

1000

Corrupted SD card recovery

Formatted SD card recovery

RAW SD card recovery

RAW photo recovery

Partial support

Limited support

Limited support

Partial support

Video file recovery (HDV, AVCHD, H.264, MPEG4 etc.)

Limited support

Limited support

Data loss prevention

Modern user-friendly Interface

Mount recovery results as a virtual drive

Save scanning sessions

Built-in preview of photo / video files

Limited support

Limited support

Limited support

Limited support

Backup failling SD cards to a disk image

As the above table reflects, each data recovery tool comes with different features at varying prices. Following an in-depth look at each data recovery application, we’ve summarised what we think about each tool below. Read more   Close  

1. Disk Drill Data Recovery

Disk Drill has everything you need in a data recovery tool. Using advanced algorithms, it can scan your drive for lost or deleted files and recover them in just a few clicks. It’s also packed with lots of useful features that help protect your data from being lost.

2. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard

EaseUS is another prominent data recovery tool on the market. It’s a recovery solution available on Windows and Mac with the ability to recover over 300 file types. One of its notable benefits is the ability to repair corrupted JPEG/JPG and MP4/MOV files. However, its costly subscription-based pricing model may be prohibitive for the average user.

3. Recuva

Recuva has always been an industry favorite because it offers unlimited file recovery for free. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been updated since 2016, resulting in it slowly falling behind other data recovery tools on the market, year by year. However, as a free solution, it’s definitely worth a try.

4. MiniTool Power Data Recovery

MiniTool offers a means to recover data from a wide range of devices. To trial the software, you can even recover up to 1GB for free. However, Mac or Linux users may be disappointed to find that it only offers support for Windows file systems. Moreover, it only supports 100 file signatures, which may be problematic if trying to recover less popular file types.

5. Recoverit SD Card Recovery

Recoverit is a feature-rich data recovery tool. It supports over 1000 file formats and includes additional features like advanced video recovery and repair. Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer much in the way of data loss prevention, meaning it can only help you recover your files, not protect them.

Tips to Protect your SD Card

Here are some tips to protect the data on your SD card. They will help you minimize the need for recovery software and increase the likelihood of a successful restore process if it becomes necessary.

Stop using the card

Stop using the card

Stop using the card as soon as you suspect data loss has occurred to prevent the deleted files from being overwritten by new data, making them unrecoverable.

Handle SD cards gently

Handle SD cards gently

SD cards can easily be physically damaged by roughly inserting and removing them from a device. This can lead to data loss and should be avoided.

Stay away from viruses

Stay away from viruses

Every time you connect your SD card to a device you run the risk of infection with malware or a virus. Only use devices that have been verified virus-free.

Backup your data

Backup your data

Backing up your data provides you with a way to recover from data loss without software. It’s a valuable practice that you should be performing regularly.

Don’t ignore signs of failure

Don’t ignore signs of failure

Signs of impending SD card failure can include slow loading or missing files. If you think your card may be about to fail, move your files to a new storage device.

Label your SD cards

Label your SD cards

Inadvertently formatting the wrong SD card can lead to substantial data loss. Labeling them may help you keep track of them and format the right card.

Customers and software guru say

I lost a whole SD card's images after a faulty download to a laptop. I was on location but Disk Drill found all my files and their tech support was very impressive and helpful. - Geof Smith
Read more
intowindows.com intowindows.com
«All-in-all, I am pretty much impressed with Disk Drill software. The UI is elegant, and moreover, this data recovery software really works.» by Admin
Read more

Frequently Asked Questions

Updated on by Disk Drill Team

How to Recover Deleted Files from an SD Card?

To recover deleted files from an SD card:

  1. Download and install Disk Drill.
  2. Connect the SD card to your computer.
  3. Launch the application and choose the SD card from the list of disks.
  4. Click Search for lost data to scan for lost files.
  5. Preview and choose the files for recovery.
  6. Click the Recover all button to restore your selected files.

Does Disk Drill support MicroSD card recovery?

Yes, it does. Here’s how to recover data from a MicroSD card with Disk Drill.

  1. Connect the MicroSD card to the computer with Disk Drill.
  2. Start the app and choose the MicroSD card from the list.
  3. Scan the card for recoverable data.
  4. Preview the files and select the ones you want to recover.
  5. Recover the files to a new and safe storage location.

How to Recover Deleted Files from an SD Card for Free?

To recover deleted files from an SD card for free follow these steps:

  1. Download and install Disk Drill SD Card recovery software for Windows.
  2. Connect the SD card to your computer and start the app.
  3. Click Search for lost data to find your SD card files.
  4. Preview and select the files to be recovered from SD card.
  5. Click Recover and restore up to 500 MB of SD card data for free.

Can We Recover Data From a Corrupted SD Card?

Yes, you can recover from a corrupted card using these steps and Disk Drill without formatting the device.

  1. Stop using the SD card immediately after corruption is detected to prevent further data loss.
  2. Connect the SD card to your computer using a card reader. Ensure the system recognizes it.
  3. Download and install Disk Drill for Windows or Mac.
  4. Open Disk Drill and locate your connected memory card, which should be listed under available drives.
  5. To protect data during recovery from a logically damaged card, use the "Byte-to-byte Backup" feature in Disk Drill. Select your memory card, choose "Byte-to-byte Backup," and save the disk image file to a secure location on your computer.
  6. Mount the Disk Image by navigating to the "Storage Devices" tab in Disk Drill. Click "Attach Disk Image" and select the disk image you created.
  7. Scan the SD card or the Disk Image by selecting it and clicking the "Scan for lost data" button.
  8. Preview the files that can be recovered and select the ones you wish to restore.
  9. Complete the recovery by saving your data to a new location.

What is the Best Free SD Card Recovery Software?

Here is a list of the best SD card recovery tools you can find:

  1. Disk Drill SD Card Recovery Software
  2. FonePaw Data Recovery
  3. Recoverit SD Card Recovery
  4. Glarysoft File Recovery
  5. R-Studio
  6. MiniTool Power Data Recovery
  7. Recuva
  8. Acronis Revive
  9. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard
  10. Wise Data Recovery
  11. Remo Recover

How do I fix an unreadable SD card?

Here are some things you can do to try to fix an unreadable SD card.

  • Try the card in a different device or card reader.
  • Check the card for physical damage to the connectors.
  • Assign the card a drive name.
  • Clean the card to ensure it is free of dust that may affect connectivity.

How to Recover Deleted Files from an SD Card without Software?

To recover deleted photos from an SD card without software you can:

  1. Check the Recently Deleted folder on the device which contains the memory card.
  2. Try the card in a different device or card reader that may allow access to lost data.
  3. Connect the device to a different USB port.
  4. Restore files from a previously made backup of the data.

How to Recover Deleted Photos from an SD Card?

To recover deleted photos from an SD card follow these steps:

  1. Download and install Disk Drill.
  2. Attach the SD card to your computer.
  3. Start the app and choose the SD card from the disk list.
  4. Click Search for lost data to identify deleted photos.
  5. Preview the list of recoverable photos.
  6. Select the photos to be restore and click Recover all.

How Can I Recover Photos from a Formatted SD Card?

To recover photos from a formatted SD card use this procedure:

  1. Attach the SD card to your computer.
  2. Start Disk Drill and select the SD card from the disk list.
  3. Click Search for lost data to scan the card for deleted photos.
  4. Preview the found images and choose the ones you want to retrieve.
  5. Click Recover to restore the pictures.

How can I recover deleted files from a SanDisk SD card?

Recover from a SanDisk SD card with the following procedure.

  1. Connect the SanDisk card to your Windows computer.
  2. Start Disk Drill and select the card from the disk list.
  3. Click the Search for lost data button to scan the card.
  4. Preview the recoverable files and make your selections.
  5. Choose a location to save the recovered data.
  6. Click Recover to perform the recovery.

How much does SD card recovery cost?

There is no way to determine how much SD card recovery will cost without first understanding the condition of your SD card and the cause of data loss. If you use a data recovery tool, it will only cost the price of what you paid for the software. Using a professional data recovery service will cost more, but you benefit from a greater chance of success when recovering your files.

Can you recover erased SD card?

If the contents of your SD card have been deleted through user error, formatting, or logical damage, there is a good chance that your data can be restored if you act fast enough. The first thing you should do is stop using the card, as continued use puts your data at risk of being overwritten.

To recover the deleted data from your SD card, you can do so using data recovery tools like Disk Drill. Software of this type specialize in searching for and recovering deleted data.

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Memory card recovery software for Mac – get your memory card data back.