Methods to Perform Corrupted SD Card Recovery (2024)

“Can I recover photos from a corrupted SD card?”

“How to carry out corrupted SD card recovery?” Questions like this were posted here and there on forums. Just like recovering a corrupted hard drive, so many users are troubled by SD corruption in varying degrees. Here is a case of camera SD card corruption.

I have a 4GB Verbatim SD card. Today, all the pictures are gone! Connected it but the folder doesn’t open. The error message says it is not accessible. I want to recover all the data from the card. Is there a way to do it?

- Question from WindowsEIGHTForums

It is obvious that the SD card of this user ran into some problems. There are some similar errors like the one in the example above, for instance, “SD card error”, a readwrite error took place on it.

Then how to fix corrupted SD card? Here several methods will be given in the 3rd part. Before that, let us take a look at the reasons for SD card corruption.

Causes of SD card Corruption

SD card corruption results from several reasons. Some of them can be easily settled with but some not.

◆ Physical damage. Sudden force, liquid, and static can cause physical damage to SD cards easily. So please hold it with care and keep it from liquid, static, extremely high temperature.

◆ Manufacturing defects. SD cards with poor quality can readily get corrupted. So it is suggested to purchase SD cards from a legitimate official manufacturer.

◆ Deletion. Users may delete the configuration files mistakenly, leading to unreadable errors or an inaccessible SD card.

◆ Virus. As a type of removable storage device, when connected to the computer, it is easy to be infected with viruses. Viruses are likely to encrypt data, and the data in the SD card may be erased maliciously.

◆ Improper usage. Neglect of maintenance like improper plugging and unplugging, unexpected ejection, and force ejection can cause SD card corruption.

Then how to fix corrupted SD card? Well, the methods vary among situations. If your SD card was physically damaged, turn to a data recovery service near you as soon as possible.

Now, methods corresponding to the causes are ready for users. Check them out and adopt one according to your specific situation.

How to perform Corrupted SD card recovery?

To retrieve corrupted SD card using Disk Management may not be foolproof, but worth a try. Follow the tutorial below to repair corrupted SD card.

Method 1. Retrieve corrupted SD card via Disk Management

The SD card is often not read or recognized because the SD card drive letter conflicts with the computer drive letter. A new drive letter can be assigned to the SD card to help address the SD card problem.

Step 1. Connect your SD card properly. Tab on Win+R to start the Run window. Input diskmgmt.msc in the dialog box and click OK.

Step 2. Locate your Corrupted SD card, right-click on it, and choose Change Drive Letter and Paths > Change > Assign the following drive letter.

Then reconnect your SD card and check if it is alright.

Method 2. Repair corrupted SD card using chkdsk command

If the system reminds you that the SD card cannot be read, the file system might be corrupted. Then you could repair corrupted SD card using chkdsk command. You could also try the Recover command in CMD to recover readable info from the corrupted disk.

Step 1. Connect your SD card to your computer properly. Input cmd or Command Prompt in the search bar beside the Start menu. Choose Run as administrator.

Step 2. Input chkdsk F:/f. When seeing the “Windows has made corrections to the file system.”, the corrupted file system is fixed. F refers to the drive letter of the SD card.

Confirm your operation and then check whether the SD card can be accessible now.

Method 3. Recover data from corrupted SD card

If assigning a drive letter and the "chkdsk" command cannot fix your corrupted SD card, maybe you could try directly retrieving data from it. The key is that a prerequisite must be met: your SD card can be recognized by your computer. 

Then how to achieve corrupted SD card data recovery? Is there any good software to help users retrieve data? Of course yes. MyRecover is a preferable choice among all the Windows data recovery tools.

As an efficient and useful tool, MyRecover is embedded with high-performance scanning techniques. It assists users to scan hard disks for deleted and lost files in many aspects.

Scan and restore deleted data with its original file format, name, and directory kept unchanged. 

Support data recovery from HDD/SSD/USB/SD card. 

Recover 200+ types of data. 

Restore data while scanning, no need to wait.

Support Windows 11/10/8/7 SP1 & Server.

Seeking help from professional Windows recovery software is a better bet to save your precious time. Now download MyRecover to enjoy its features.

Step 1. Run the software > connect your SD card with a card reader > hover the mouse over the SD card saved deleted files before, and click Scan.

Step 2. Files can be sorted by Size, Type, Date modified, etc. Filters and file searching are also available.

Step 3.  Select the data you need > Recover x files. Please save the files to another place to avoid data overwriting.

What's more, this utility facilitates SD card photo recovery as well.

Method 4. Conduct corrupted SD card recovery via formatting

You may need to repair corrupted SD card by formatting if the SD card cannot mount or be recognized even though you have tried all these methods above.

By formatting the SD card, a new file system will be redistributed, addressing various errors or failures of the SD card. Thus, the SD card can work properly again.

Here two ways to format the SD card are ready for you.

Formatting via CMD

Step 1. Input cmd or Command Prompt in the search bar of Windows. Select Run as administrator.

Step 2. Input diskpart > list disk > select disk 2. The number of the drive here should be the number of your SD card.

Step 3. Input clean. This will wipe all the data on it. Check if you have input the correct drive letter!

Step 4. Input clean partition primary size=942 to create a new volume on the hard drive. The created size is based on the size of your SD card, in megabytes.

Step 5. Input activate > quick format.

Step 6. Finally, input assign letter=F to give a name to it. The drive letter here should be different from all the letters on your computer.

Restart your computer and reconnect the SD card, then it should be alright.

Formatting easily via AOMEI Partition Assistant

However, the method given above is quite dangerous to some degree. Rather than take the risk of inputting the wrong command, and leading to a much severer disaster, it would be better to try reliable professional software.

AOMEI Partition Assistant can correctly format the damaged SD card. Compared with the diskpart command, it is simpler and more intuitive to use. Even green hands can quickly get started.  It supports Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista/XP, if you are using Windows Server, upgrade it into Server Edition.

Moreover, the feature users could utilize here is completely free.

Step 1. Install and run AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard version. Right-click on the partition of the SD card, then click Format Partition.

Step 2. Give a name to it first, then choose the same file system as the original one. Then click OK.

Step 3. Finally, click Apply.

Then the format operation will be successfully performed in a few minutes. This tool also scans hard disk for deleted partitions very quickly.

Summary

4 methods have been elaborated to conduct corrupted SD card recovery. Choose one to retrieve corrupted SD card according to your own situation.

It is suggested to eject the SD card securely, but not to eject it while uploading or downloading data. What’s more, use an antivirus program to protect your SD card and computer from time to time.