The role of SD cards in the 21st century has become more crucial than ever it was. As we all know SD cards have high data transfer rates and are portable devices, most photographers and even smartphone users majorly depend on them to save all their personal or project photos and videos. Moreover, SD cards are also popular due to their compatibility with various devices. Such as Smartphone, digital camera, CCTV, Drone, DSLR, and many more.
Since we all use SD card to save our important photos, raw images, videos, and other documents, data loss from them can be disheartening. In today's world, losing photos from SD card is quite common due to uncertain data loss scenarios. Such as accidental deletion, formatting, corruption, lost files while transferring to a computer, and many more.
Recovering data from SD card is merely impossible without using any reliable data recovery software. And claiming as the best software to recover data from SD card is easier on the internet. To overcome this issue, we have tested 5 reliable SD card recovery software to help you make a decision on what is best for you.
Which is the Best SD card Recovery Software?
1. Remo Recover Software
Remo Recover is a complete tool to restore SD card data. It can detect over 500 file formats and ensures recovery of almost all file formats like photos, videos, raw images, and many more. Further, It has an option that allows users to define custom file formats. This can be a significant advantage to users who deal with unfamiliar file formats or, to users who work with usual devices such as medical equipment or geographical survey hardware.
Coming to testing scenarios, it showed a 100% success rate even in the most complicated data loss scenarios such as corrupted SD card recovery, unallocated partition, and formatted SD cards. Also, this tool can recover data from unrecognized SD card.
Pros:
- User friendly interface loaded with features such as an automated Deep scan option to restore SD card data under severe data loss scenarios
- Provides a free preview of recovered photos, raw images, videos, text files, and many more. In simple, it allows you to verify the recovery result such as .nef, .png, .jpg, and many more even before you save them to your desired location
- Supports SD card recovery from various file formats. Such as NTFS, FAT32, ExFAT, APFS, HFS, and other.
- Available for both Mac and Windows versions (Also compatible with the latest Monterey and Windows 11)
Cons:
- Recovery time is depended on the type of data loss scenario.
2. PhotoRec Data Recovery Software
PhotoRec is a free SD card recovery software. However, being free and open-source also means you will not be having any customer assistance. PhotoRec works on the MS-Dos platform. It means that PhotRec is compatible with almost all computer operating systems. This includes Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix, and even Solaris OS.
PhotoRec has two interfaces, graphical UI and MS-Dos UI. The tool is highly technical and detailed; it can even display individual storage sectors on the MS-Dos UI. In comparison to its commercial competitors, it is complicated to use. You need to be tech-savvy to navigate through this software.
Pros
- The tool is free to use which means you can access it for free
- It can recover various file formats under various data loss scenarios
- Supports all file systems
Cons
- It is designed with a complex user interface which means you can find it difficult to recover your data if you are not a tech savvy
- No customer support
- Since it is a free tool your data can be at risk
3. Free Any Photo Recovery
Free Any Photo Recovery is a free tool to restore memory card data. Even though this tool is a digital media recovery software but it has a few performance issues such as longer scan times. It also limps while recovering files in critical data loss conditions. It has a comprehensive set of options to recover photos from an SD card. Such as a dedicated window especially to select the RAW photo formats from the digital cameras.
Pros:
- This SD card recovery tool is free to use
- Self-Explanatory user interface to restore data
- Dedicated Photo recovery windows to restore images with utmost ease
Cons:
- It is limited to recovering only Photos and Videos
- Scanning time is higher compared to other SD card recovery tools
- It provides customer support only through email
4. Recuva
Recuva is a highly recognizable brand, and pricing at $24.95 makes it one of the most cost-efficient SD card recovery tools. Yet, it is a subscription-based service, you have to renew it every year. Even though Recuva performed well while recovering deleted images from SD card but it is not on par with other tools to restore SD card under complicated data loss scenarios. While scanning the drive, it might display the number of files found, yet files are not available in the recovery window.
Pros:
- The simplest user interface, really easy to use.
- Best performing SD card recovery software at its price point
- Can recover all file formats
- Fastest Scan times
Cons:
- Not available in the Mac version
- Cannot perform in complex data loss scenarios
- Sluggish customer support team
5. Stellar Data Recovery Software
Pricing at 79.95, comparatively stellar might seem to be a decent option, but you have to realize even it is subscription-based. Not considering the price factor, Stellar can be called one of the best SD recovery software. The user interface is highly intuitive and easy to use.
Performance is comparable to Remo. The tool completely streamlines the recovery process. If the normal scan doesn’t work, Stellar automatically kicks in the advanced scan. The advanced Scan option is more meticulous while scanning for lost data on the SD card.
Similar to Remo, Stellar is also compatible with all file systems and ensures to detection of almost all file formats. It also has a good customer assistance team.
Pros:
- Works flawlessly in all data loss scenarios
- Available on both Mac and Windows versions (not clear about Big Sur)
- Highly Streamlines UI
Cons:
- Does not segregate the deleted or lost files from the existing files after recovering
- Only one-year subscription
- All the files that show up as recoverable are actually not recoverable
- You cannot filter recovered data based on Tags just like you can do on Remo Recover
6. Alsoft Disk Warrior
Alsoft Diskwarrior 5 Disk Repair Utility Software is priced at $108 and is one of the most advanced repairs and data recovery tools. The software is specifically for Mac users. DiskWarrior has the capability to recover your lost documents, photos, music, and other files as well. Sometimes, your Mac may even tell you that you need to "Initialize Disk" which would erase your entire disk! The tool can salvage data even after the entire disk is erased.
The tool is having SMART technology, which allows you to automatically test and alert you to impending drive malfunctions. This makes backing up the files easier even before your drive fails.
Performance is quite decent as compared to other repair utilities. It repairs files and hard drives, then optimizes the disk directory to maximize performance. It even fixes mysterious errors like "Invalid node structure" and "Keys out of order", etc. You just have to plug in the problematic drive to your Mac and it will copy all data to a new drive irrespective of the fact that the erroneous drive may have bad sectors or corrupt files.
Pros:
- The Disk Warrior tool provides a preview feature. This will let you examine how your disk will appear after it is repaired. You can even compare your disk in its damaged state to its repaired state.
- Repairs invalid file permissions
- Rebuilds Attribute B-trees
- Repairs and rebuilds Access Control Lists (ACLs)
- Repairs Time Machine backups
- Eliminates the risk of losing access to files. While a few of the disk repair tools directly make an attempt to fix the directory by patching the directory structure. This includes the risk of deleting sections of the directory.
Cons:
- The current version of DiskWarrior – 5.2 – does NOT support APFS volumes. Thus, if you only have an internal SSD drive, DiskWarrior will not help you until the next version is released.
- Just developed for Mac, not for Windows or Linux.
- It is a better utility for repair rather than using it for data recovery.
- You will get the software delivered to you on a flash storage device. So you cannot use the repair tool as soon as you buy it.
