How To Recover Deleted Files From SD Card With Easy Steps [MiniTool Tips]

SD Card refers to Secure & Digital Memory Card . Its semiconductor-based flash memory helps it excel in portability and compatibility.

Due to its wide and easy use, people are prone to make mistakes, such as accidental removal of useful files from SD card. It’s no wonder they are seeking ways to recover deleted files from SD card .

Additionally, SD cards are relatively more fragile when compared to other storage devices like hard drives, making it more vulnerable to data loss. There is, hence, an increasing need for SD card recovery on Windows 10 or other systems.

Recover Deleted Files from SD Card Using Recovery Software

Taking privacy into consideration, I think using a piece of file recovery software that is compatible with SD card is much more helpful and reliable than consulting a for-profit data recovery agency. This is due to two reasons:

1. A data recovery company could charge a high amount of money for them to finish the SD card data recovery for you.
2. The staff that works on the recovery company may leak your confidential information due to many profitable reasons.

As a result, I advise you to use a piece of file recovery software instead of hiring any company or professional to help you recover your data. MiniTool Power Data Recovery is a professional and powerful recovery program that could help you with SD card file recovery ( Can you recover deleted photos from SD card? ).

Step 1: Get the Software Installed Properly

How to do:

1. Download the setup program from the specified website.
2. Open the program to install it to a local drive.
3. Connect your SD card to the computer with the software installed.
4. Run the software to see its main interface. (You should seize every second to start the recovery task to achieve highest recovery rate).

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Please note that if you’d like to recover permanently deleted files from a local drive, you cannot install the data recovery software to that target drive; otherwise, there can be even more data damage.

Step 2: Select a Proper Option

In the main interface, there are two tabs at the top. For recovering deleted files on an SD card, you can choose one of the two choices in this step:

• Logical Drives
• Devices

Please note : if you have divided your SD into two or more partitions, you could select Devices .

Step 3: Scan the SD Card

In this step, you should do two things:

1. Locate the drive that your SD card was mounted on with the deleted files.
2. Select the drive and click on the Scan Alternatively, double click on the SD card directly to detect the lost files.

Please note that your computer sometimes may not detect the SD card connected via USB. To fix this problem, read this post:

Step 4: Check Files to Recover

Do the following three things in this step:

1. Observe the disk scan results in the main panel.
2. Check the files that you need by adding a check mark in front of them.
3. Click on the Save button and choose a storage location in the pop-up window.

Please note that you must make sure the drive you have selected to store the lost files has enough free space before clicking on the OK button to confirm your selection. Now, you can wait for the SD card deleted files recovery.

How to recover deleted photos from SD card without software?

Situation one: you have copied SD card files and pasted them to another storage device:

1. Connect the device to your computer properly and then open it.
2. Select the photos you have deleted.
3. Copy the deleted photos and paste them to the SD card.

Situation two: you have backed up the SD card using Disk Clone.

1. Open the backup software you have used to clone/copy disk.
2. Restore the deleted photos under guidance.

For example, you can backup and restore photos with MiniTool ShadowMaker.

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In addition to accidental deletion, there are many other issues that could occur on your SD card.

• SD card corrupted/formatted
• SD cannot be accessed
• SD card dead
• SD card write protected

You may ask can you recover files from SD card online. In this part, I’ll discuss these problems and tell you how to fix them properly.

Let’s see how to recover files from corrupted, inaccessible, dead, or write protected SD card.

SD Card Is Corrupted

Hi, I just got back from a trip to Germany. I have a 1GB Impact SD memory card with over 800 pictures that are corrupted. It actually became corrupted while I was in Germany. I put it in a media card reader there several times, but the last I time I did the card got corrupted. When I insert the card in the camera it says it needs to be formatted (which I haven't done). I've tried several of the free picture recovery programs, but none of them even detect the existence of the card when I have it plugged into my reader. Any suggestions? - said myc78 on CNET Forums

System saying the SD card is not formatted is one of the common error messages that indicate your SD card is corrupted. Under such circumstances, the corrupted SD card recovery should be divided into two stages:

1. Recover data from a corrupted memory card through the four steps above, with Removable Disk Drive selected in step 2.
2. Repair corrupted SD card.

7 Useful Ways to Fix Corrupted SD Card

• Connect your SD card to another device (through another USB port).
• Change drive letter of SD card.
• Uninstall and reinstall the driver of SD card.
• Run CHKDSK command to check errors on SD card ( how to recover data after CHKDSK ).
• Restore Device Defaults while formatting the SD card in Windows/File Explorer.
• Clean SD card using CMD DiskPart ( how to recover data lost by DiskPart clean ).
• Repair/remove bad sectors (you can use Surface Test feature to see whether your SD card has any bad sectors).

SD Card Cannot Be Accessed

I am having some trouble with my 500D-camera or the card reader. When I put my SDHC card in the camera it just says 'Card cannot be accessed. Reinsert/change card or format card with camera' and I can't format it, then it just says: 'Cannot format. Change card'. It doesn't work with my other card either - but the two cards work in my little point and shoot camera. Any ideas of what could be wrong? - asked LauraT on Digital Photography Forums

Situations you cannot access your SD card on a computer:

• The SD card becomes RAW ( how to recover data from the RAW drive )
• SD card showing 0 bytes ( how to recover 0 bytes files )
• The volume does not contain a recognized file system
• Location is not available, access is denied
• Do you want to scan and fix Removable Disk ( Windows Scan and Fix deleted files )

How to Recover Data & Format SD Card

How to recover data from SD card cannot be accessed ?

1. Get and install the data recovery software.
2. Run the software and select Removable Disk Drive .
3. Scan the inaccessible SD card.
4. Select files you need from SD card and recover them.

The most effective way to fix the card cannot be accessed error is to format it.

How to format an SD card?

Choice 1: format the SD card in a camera (or other devices that use the card).

Choice 2: take out the SD card and connect it to your computer for formatting.

• Open Windows File Explorer -> right click on the SD card -> choose Format .
• Open Windows Disk Management-> right click on your SD card -> choose Format .
• Run Command Prompt as administrator -> type diskpart , list disk , select disk * , and clean in order (press Enter button after each command).
• Open MiniTool Partition Wizard -> select the SD card -> Find Partition Management from the left pane -> choose Format Partition -> click on the OK button in Format Partition window -> press Apply -> click on the Yes button in the Apply Changes window.

SD Card Is Dead

I powered down my phone, removed the MicroSD card, and plugged it into my laptop to add some videos to be able to watch while I was away. I first deleted some other video files that I no longer needed on it. Then I created a new folder and copied some new videos into it. So far, everything was going as planned... Or so I thought. Now here is where the problem happened... I created another folder to add some more videos, but when I opened it up, I got a terrible surprise. Not only was the folder already populated, but most of the filenames contained illegal characters and some files didn't even have a date (and yet others had dates were several decades in the future), and the total size of the files shown was nearly 45GB - quite impossible on a 32GB card that still showed free space on it. - posted by awgie

Signals & Protections

Two signals that indicate your SD card may be dead:

• The SD card becomes strange: files get lost weirdly; capacity of the card is changing; weird characters & messy codes appear.
• The SD card doesn’t respond on any devices.

Recover Data From Dead SD Card With This Easy And Safe Way.

How to protect your SD card?

• Use genuine data cable and card reader .
• Always safely remove SD card from the computer.
• Be gentle and careful when using an SD card.

SD Card Is Write Protected

Suddenly, all of my SD cards, 4 of them, I cannot delete photos. Keep getting the message that they are all write protected, remove write protection first. Doing this for years and now this is happening. Can you help me? Tried to format but get the same message. Thanks. - from stan7496 on Tom’s Guide Forums

According to the investigation, most current SD cards have a function called write protection .

What will write protection do ?

Once the write protection function is activated, the SD card will be put in a read-only state. That is to say:

• You can only read data from the SD card.
• You could never modify the data inside.
• You are not allowed to write any new data into the card.

How to Remove the Write Protection

• Turn off the lock switch on SD card (the switch is a small white or silver tab located on the left side of card generally).
• Open Registry Editor -> find the StorageDevicePolicies folder -> select WriteProtect key from the right panel -> set the Value data to be 0 -> click on the OK
• Run Command Prompt as administrator -> type diskpart , list disk , select disk * , and attributes disk clear readonly in order (press Enter button after each command) -> Disk attributes cleared successfully .

Please note : some people may be also interested in SD card recovery for Android, right? Please read this post which tells you the methods for recovering deleted files from SD card Android in detail.

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Bottom Line

SD card could get defected easily, so it is highly recommended to backup data regularly.

If data really get lost from SD card, you should start SD card data recovery at once.

• When you find files are deleted by mistake or realize the deleted data are still useful, please hurry to get back deleted files from SD card with the software introduced.
• If any accidents happen to your SD card, please remember to rescue your data as much as possible. After that, you should try to fix the problem by using the methods mentioned in the above situations.

Recover Deleted Files from SD Card FAQ