How To Recover Files From Corrupted CF Card?

Updated on November 21, 2022

Recovering files from a corrupt CF Crad is not an easy task but with the help of right tool you can effortlessly recover your data from corrupt or inaccessible CF Cards. Remo Recover is a advanced tool designed to restore deleted or lost data from various storage devices. This tool can easily restore photos, videos, and other media files from corrupt CF cards in just a few clicks. Download Remo Recover a corrupted CF card recovery tool now!

Compact Flash card is commonly renowned as CF card. And it is commonly used in devices like digital cameras, camcorders, and other electronic gadgets because of its high storage capacity, reliability, fast data transfer rate, etc. Apart from this, the CF card can also save high-resolution photos, videos, and audio files easily.

Despite the above features, the CF card is prone to corruption and damage. At times, when you connect the corrupt CF card to your Windows or Mac system, it pops up an error saying “corrupt CF card” or “drive not accessible”, etc.

In this article, you can find a complete guide on how to fix a corrupted CF card, a reliable method to perform corrupted CF card recovery. Also, find common reasons that cause CF card corruption.

Table of Contents:

  1. Why Is My Compact Flash Card Not Working Or Corrupted?
  2. Corrupted Compact Flash Card Recovery
  3. How To Recover Files From a Corrupted CF Card?
  4. How To Repair a Corrupted CF Card?

Why is my compact flash card not working or corrupted?

  • Inappropriate handling of CF card: If you suddenly eject your CF card while transferring the data to a computer or during the CF card read/write process, etc. it can lead to CF card corruption resulting in the inaccessibility of photos, videos, and documents saved on it.
  • Virus Attack: Virus-like Trojans, Malware, Spyware, Adware, etc. are the most common reasons behind CF card corruption. Generally, if you often connect your compact flash card to virus-infected devices leads to CF card corruption.
  • File system failure: The file system manages the data saved on the drive. Any damage to the file system corrupts the CF card. Thus file system failure makes the CF card undetectable on the computer system which leads to data loss.
  • Other Reasons: Using the same CF card on multiple gadgets, failed synchronization of the CF card data, viewing photos or videos when the CF card’s memory is full, etc. can lead to CF card corruption.

Note: If you have formatted your CF card irrespective of the reason and lost data. You can refer to this article to find out how to recover files from a formatted CF card.

Corrupted Compact Flash Card Recovery

To recover files from your CF card, first ensure that your CF card is accessible. Once your CF card is accessible, you can quickly recover any data that has not been overwritten.

If the CF card is not accessible or readable, then the foremost thing to do is to remove your corrupted CF card if it is connected to any device and avoid saving any new data like photos, videos, audio, text documents, etc. This will increase the chances of recovering data from corrupted CF cards successfully.

Remo Recover is undoubtedly the trusted CF card recovery software, as it is equipped with cutting-edge recovery technology and the most user-friendly interface. It has a powerful scanning technology that can reconstruct and recover data from a corrupted or formatted CF card. So, let's get right to it and see how to recover data from a CF card with Remo Recover software.

How To Recover Files From a Corrupted CF Card?

Performing corrupted CF card recovery is simple with the help of Remo Recover. This photo recovery software is best as it is designed with advanced scanning algorithms. This tool safely scans corrupt or formatted CF cards, SD cards, or any other storage devices to recover photos, videos, and various media files from it.

Steps to Recover Data From Corrupted and Unreadable CF Card using Remo Recover:

  • Download and install the Remo Recover software on your computer.
  • Connect the Corrupted CF Card to the computer using a suitable card reader.
  • Select the Corrupted CF card and click on Scan.

    • Note: If you are unable to find the CF Card, click on the Can’t Find Drive? option.

    select-the-corrupt-cf-card

  • Once the scan starts you can click on the Dynamic Recovery View to recover the lost file during the scanning process itself.

    • use-dynamic-recovery-view

  • After the scanning process, you can see your lost data under the Lost and Found folder or Lost Partition folder.

    • listed-data-from-cf-card

  • You can preview all the recovered files using the Preview option for free.

    • preview-the-recovered-files-from-cf-card

  • If you are satisfied with the recovery results, select the files which you want to restore and hit the Recover button to save them at your desired location.

    • save-the-files

This compact flash drive recovery tool can restore raw image and photos file formats like BMP, PNG, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, and many more, and video file formats like MOV, MP4, AVI, FLV, 3GP, etc. from corrupted CF card on all latest versions of operating systems like Windows 11 and macOS Catalina.

How to Repair corrupted CF card?

Repairing a damaged or corrupt CF card is similar to fixing a corrupt SD card on Windows or Mac. If you have tried manual methods to repair a corrupt CF card such as assigning a new letter to the CF card drive or running a command prompt, it might not help you if the severity of corruption is very high.

Most Windows users run the CHKDSK function and Mac users run first aid recovery, which are in-built tools to repair a corrupt or unreadable CF card on Windows and Mac respectively. In most cases, CMD or disk utility function cannot help you fix unreadable SD cards or CF cards.

The only thing you can use is to format the corrupt CF card using the below method. Make sure you have recovered your CF card data using Remo Recover before you implement the method as it leads to a data loss scenario.

Steps to Fix corrupt CF card on Windows:

The CF Card corrupted and the unreadable issue can be easily fixed by following the below-mentioned steps.

  • Connect your CF card to a Windows computer.
  • Type: cmd in the Windows search box.
  • Open the command prompt as Run as Administrator

    • run cmd to fix CF card

  • Type: diskpart in the command prompt window
  • Type: list disk and press Enter

    • list disk to fix CF card

  • Type: select disk 1 and press Enter
    Note: Replace 1 with the corrupt CF card drive letter

  • Type: clean and press Enter

    • cf card repair

  • Type: create partition primary and press Enter
  • Type: select disk 1 and press Enter
    Note: Again replace 1 with your corrupt or damaged CF card drive number

    • repair CF card

  • Type: active to make the CF card partition activate
  • Type: format fs = NTFS or format fs = fat32 and press Enter
  • Type: assign letter = F
  • After this, type exit to complete the method

Steps to Fix corrupt CF card on Mac:

  • Connect your corrupt CF card to Mac
  • Go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility

    • fix cf card on mac

  • Select the CF card which you want to format and click the Erase option
  • Provide a new name to your CF card (optional)
  • Click the Format option and choose the format type
    Note: Select exFAT if you want to make it compatible with both Windows and Mac. Otherwise, you can select MS-DOS (FAT)

    • fix CF card on mac

  • Click on the Erase option. Now, your corrupt CF card will be formatted by your Mac device

Conclusion:

Although not as popular as SD cards, CF cards are still an effective way to store and transfer data. Data loss should always be a concern, regardless of how well you keep your CF card. Although data recovery software can help you recover deleted files from your SD and CF cards, recovery is never guaranteed if corruption is major. Make regular backups of your most important files to ensure the safety of your data.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Can you retrieve photos from a corrupted CF card?

    Yes, just like you can recover data from a formatted SD card, you can recover images from a corrupted CF card. Once the card has been formatted, the data is still there on the NAND chip until it is replaced by new data at the same storage address. This is why you shouldn't keep using the CF card if data is lost, as the chances of recovery are greatly diminished when it is overwritten.

  • Which CF card recovery software is the best?

    The best CF card recovery software is determined by the features and functionality that you require. Cost is a key factor for some. Others may desire features that will help protect their data. We've compiled a list of the best photo recovery software.

    • 1. Remo Recover (Windows and Mac)
    • 2. Recuva (Windows only)
    • 3. Yodot Photo Recovery tool
    • 4. Easeus Data Recovery software
    • 5. Stellar Photo Recovery
  • How can I repair a damaged CF card?

    Similar to how you may fix a corrupted SD card, formatting a corrupted Compact Flash card will fix it and return it to its default settings. The contents of your CF card will be erased, so make sure you have tried to recover them or are ready to do so after formatting:

    • 1. Open File Explorer after connecting your CF card.
    • 2. Right-click on your CF card in the left panel and select Format.
    • 3. Ensure Quick Format is chosen, then click Start.
  • Why is my Compact flash card not getting detected?

    Few of the most common reasons that make your CF card undetectable.

    • Damaged USB port: A broken port might be a basic reason why your CF card is unable to get detected. The simplest way to fix this issue is by trying other USB ports.
    • Using a Damaged card reader: AT times the problem might not be because of the CF card but the card reader that is used to connect your CF card to the system. If you have faced an undetected issue, try using any other cf card with the same card reader. If the issue still persists, then the issue for sure is with the card reader.
    • Physical Damage to the CF card: any type of physical damage can be the reason why your system is unable to detect the connected CF card. The possibility of recovering data depends on the severity of the damage. We highly suggest you take the help of data recovery experts in such cases.
  • How To Retrieve Photos from corrupted CF card?

    Remo Recover comes with an Advanced Filter option that lets you sort and filter important files that you want to recover minus any unwanted clutter. The tool lets you decide what you want to recover. Once the entire drive scan is completed, use the filter option and select Images as a type of file that you want to recover and save the recovered files.

Why Choose Remo?

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