It is the worst nightmare when you realize that all your precious data saved in the micro SD card has been lost or deleted. Micro SD cards are great but they're fragile and don't like being mistreated. As they are used in devices like phones and cameras so they tend to contain valuable information. However, you need not worry, as data loss is inevitable but recovering data from a micro SD card is definitely possible. You will have a good chance to retrieve your data from the micro SD card unless overwritten. In this article, you will learn how easily you can recover lost or deleted data from a micro SD card.
Micro SD cards are highly preferred among other flash drives because they are supported by a large range of devices like phones, digital cameras, music players, etc. With widespread use, it happens quite often that you might have accidentally deleted or lost some data. Additionally, SD cards are prone to corruption, accidental formatting, and damage, which can also lead to loss of saved photos, videos, audio files, etc. Also as memory cards have a limited lifespan, after a certain period of time they can get corrupt or damaged.
And now you might be wondering how to retrieve data from the micro SD card? Go through the below segments to recover the lost files from the micro SD Card.
Can I Retrieve Deleted Files from a Micro SD Card?
Yes, you can recover data from a micro SD card. You might think that it is not possible to recover the lost files from a memory card but that is not true. Fortunately, those lost or deleted files are not permanently gone when they are logically erased from the card. Until the file’s storage space is overwritten with new data, you will have a chance to recover them.
Take a look at the factors that cause data loss problems in micro SD before moving ahead, learn how to perform micro SD card recovery.
Common Data Loss Scenarios in micro SD cards:
- SD card clean-up gone wrong: While removing some unwanted media files from micro SD cards you may select the vital data and delete them unknowingly.
- Formatting micro SD card: Formatting will help you clear virus infections and other minor file system issues. But if you don’t have a proper backup of your files then you could lose your vital data from the flashcard.
- Memory card corruption: Abrupt removal of the card from digital media devices like cameras, smartphones and computers (connected via card readers) and severe virus / malware attack can corrupt your micro SD card file system rendering the card will make data inaccessible.
- Memory Card Errors: SD card or Memory card returns an error ”Card error”. if you improperly formatted the SD card or improper ejection or corruption of the memory card. You can know more on various SD card errors here
Caution! When you face this kind of data loss situation, stop using your micro SD card immediately. Because your files stored on the micro SD card can be overwritten, if you continue to use it.
How can I recover data from my micro SD card?
Here are the four simple ways through which you can recover data from a micro SD card. Depending on the scenario that you have encountered, refer to the below-mentioned solutions. You will get a few solutions to recover micro SD card files for free as well as with the help of the best micro SD recovery software.
NOTE: Always check if the micro SD card is write-protected as you won’t be able to open, edit, copy, or save any photos, videos, or other files in the card, if it is write-protected. Also check the drivers and the card reader are working fine or not.
Method 1: Recover Deleted or Lost Files from micro SD card for Free
Microsoft Windows File Recovery Software is an inbuilt file recovery feature that helps you recover deleted or lost files on Windows 10 devices. Windows File Recovery will be a useful tool for you, if you have accidentally deleted an important document, or wiped a drive clean by mistake. This tool is a command prompt utility that can be operated using basic commands.
To get started with the process first connect the micro SD card to your computer. Then install the Windows File Recovery tool from the Microsoft Store. Open the Store and search for Windows File Recovery and download for free. After that follow the below steps to recover deleted files from the micro SD card for free.
- Type in the search bar Windows file recovery program and double click it.
- Click Yes, once the permission box appears asking you to allow the app to make changes to your device.
- Then a Command Prompt window will open up with Administrator access.
- Now you have to run the winfr command. The syntax for WinFR will look like this:
winfr (source-drive:) (destination-drive:) [/switches]
In the place of the source drive you have to specify the drive which will be scanned and you want to retrieve data from i.e, micro SD card drive. The destination drive specifies the drive location where you want to save the recovered data. The “/” specifies the recovery modes.
NOTE: You should always choose a different drive for storing the recovered data, do not choose the micro SD Card itself.
There are 2 modes
- Regular Modes: When you need to recover recently deleted files, make use of Regular mode with the following commands.
Winfr C: E: /regular /n *.JPEG /n *.mp4
Enter Y to start the recovery process.
Here the source drive is Drive C and the destination drive is Drive E. /n is used to add a search filter in this command specifically for .JPEG and .mp4 files.
- Extensive Modes: When you need to retrieve data from a formatted or corrupted disc, you can use this Extensive Mode.
Winfr C: E: /extensive /n \Users\
\Camera roll\*.PNG /n \Users\\Camera roll\*.PSD.
This command will specifically scan the camera roll folder for .PNG and .PSD files.
After following the above-mentioned method you will be able to recover lost data from a micro SD card. But there are a few limitations to this method.
Limitations:
- Windows file recovery built-in tool is available only for Windows 10 version (build 19041 or later versions).
- Along with that this utility does not come with a user friendly graphical interface which makes the process complicated. And if you are not an expert in using command prompt it can cause some additional problems if misoperated.
- If the micro SD card is corrupted and you are not able to access it or PC is not recognizing it, then this method won’t be helpful.
- Moreover, in one very common case where micro SD card is showing up as empty or unallocated then also the manual method will not be able to do much for you.
In case you are not having the latest version of Windows or were not able to retrieve data using the above method, then you will need a professional micro SD card recovery tool- Remo Recover.
Remo Recover for SD cards is one of the best and finest tools to recover data from SD cards, hard drives, and other storage devices. It’s advanced recovery algorithm runs an in-depth scan on all the SD card storage sectors and recovers any data that is deleted or missing safely. Even if the micro SD card is severely damaged, this tool is capable of performing the recovery task smoothly. Download and try the tool for free now.
Method 2: Recover Data from micro SD Card with Remo Recover
Micro SD cards are also called NAND flash memory chips and these chips work very differently from any other storage device. Thus, it is important that you choose a trusted micro SD card recovery software because sometimes the data that is deleted or erased because of a reformat becomes invisible to data recovery tools.
However, Remo micro SD card data recovery software uses advanced data recovery algorithms that can retrieve any data lost due to accidental formatting, deleting or corruption. This is possible because the data is still there in the micro SD card, it’s just hidden by a quirk of flash memory data storage.
Steps To Recover Data From Micro SD card:
- Connect the micro SD card to your PC and Download and install Remo Recover, launch the product and click on Recover files and then click on Scan.
- After completion of the scanning process, the recovered files will be listed.
- Preview the files to judge the results of the software by double-clicking on the recovered data
- Save the recovered files on the desired location.
Watch and learn to recover data from a micro sd card easily with simple clicks.
Note: If your SD card is not showing files then learn how to fix and restore the SD card not showing files.
Method 3: Recover hidden files from micro SD card with attrib command
Virus attacks generally lead to files becoming hidden but attrib command will help you in recovering hidden files. The main purpose of this command is to remove and set file attributes like hidden, read-only, system and archived files. You will be able to recover hidden files from other external storage devices as well with attrib command.
- Connect the micro SD card to your system and In the search bar type Command Prompt and double click. Log into the command prompt as Administrator.
- Note the micro SD card colon’s name. For example, if your memory card happens to be Drive "E", ensure to get "E": typed into the command. And hit Enter.
- Now to type in the following command to unhide the folder: [drive letter: \ >attrib -h -s -r /s /d *.*] or [drive letter: \ >attrib -s -h /s /d *.*] and hit Enter. (There will be space between after every letter)
- Where the letters mean the following:
-r: The read-only attribute
-s: It assigns ‘System’ attribute to the selected files
-h: It will assign the ‘Hidden’ attribute to the chosen files
/s: It directs to search the specified path including subfolders
/d: It consists of process folders
- Type Exit to exit from the command prompt.
Now, once the process is finished, a new folder will be created on micro SD card drive. All the recovered data will be available there in that folder in .chk format and you will be able to see all the hidden files now.
Method 4: Recover files from Corrupted micro SD card with chkdsk command
Sometimes due to corruption you will be not able to access your precious data on the micro SD card. This happens because with time and more usage, micro SD card tend to form bad sectors which needs to be repaired. Moreover, corrupted micro SD card needs to be handled properly otherwise it may lead to permanent data loss. To verify if your micro SD card is damaged and recover data from the memory card, follow the below steps. Open the command prompt and run as an Administrator.
- Plug in the micro SD card to the system, click on the Windows button and type Command prompt. Hit Enter.
- Next command prompt window will open up that will allow you to fix your corrupted SD card without formatting.
- Now type chkdsk /X /f [sd card letter]: or chkdsk [sd card letter]: /f command. For instance if the the card is in drive E the command will be chkdsk /X /f e: or chkdsk e: /f
- Then type Exit to exit from the command prompt.
The chkdsk command scans the corrupted micro SD card and checks for the issues in the micro SD card problems. After trying these steps you will be able to restore data from corrupt SD card. You will see a message saying "Windows has made corrections to the file system" in the command window. Then if the corruption is minor, the damaged SD card will be successfully fixed, and you can see your data again.
Note: If your data is severly corrupted then it is recommended to make use of professional data recovery software by Remo. Remo Recover software is designed with a powerful in-built scanning algorithm that allows users to get back digital media files of any type like music, videos, images, raw images etc, from micro SD card in just a few minutes. Download and try the tool for free now.
Conclusion:
A micro SD card is a portable storage drive that is becoming more vulnerable to unreadable memory card error due to extensive use, as micro SD cards are commonly used in many devices. Use Remo Recover for micro SD cards in a situation where you have lost data from a micro SD card and follow the above-listed instructions to recover data from the micro SD card successfully.
