How to Recover Deleted Videos from SD Card without Software

Whether you're a professional videographer, vlogger, or recording videos for family or friends, you can use an SD card to save videos on your digital camera, phone or computer.

Sometimes, losing important videos or photos from your SD card can be heartbreaking. Videos stored on SD card may be lost due to various reasons such as accidental deletion, formatting, partition corruption, physical damage, virus attack, etc.

Can I recover a deleted video from SD card?

When you delete any videos from the SD card on your computer or any device like a camera or smartphone, those videos are not moved to the Recycle Bin or Trash. So, you can’t just restore them from your Recycle Bin. Then you may wonder it is possible to recover a deleted video on your SD card.

In most cases, the answer is yes, you can recover deleted videos from SD card. Actually, when you delete a video or a file, the SD card just mark the file as “deleted”, and become invisible. But these lost videos will remain on the SD card until overwritten with new data.

Therefore, when you unfortunately find that your files are lost or deleted, you should immediately stop using the SD card and remove the card from the device. Then you can try the methods mentioned in this article to learn how to recover deleted videos from SD card without software.

How to recover deleted videos from SD card without software

Now, here are some methods on how to restore deleted videos from SD card without any software. Connect the SD card with the computer via an adapter, then follow the detailed steps below.

How to recover deleted videos from SD card for free via Backup and Restore

Backup is one of the best options you can try to recover SD card data without third-party software. If you have backed up your deleted video files, you can consider yourself lucky because you can easily restore them and avoid data loss altogether. 

Steps to restore deleted videos from SD card with Backup:

Step 1. Connect your SD card to computer > press the Win + I key together to open Settings.

Step 2. Click Update & Security > tap Backup.

Step 3. Tap Restore My Files at the Backup & Restore tab.

Retrieve deleted videos from SD card using attrib Command Prompt

Sometimes, if you don't find the video on the SD card suddenly, it may be hidden rather than deleted. You can use CMD (Command Prompt) to get it back to normal. It is one of the most powerful features on Windows. If you know the command line well, you can try this way to perform SD card data recovery without software.

Steps to recover hidden video from SD card:

Step 1. Insert your SD card into computer > type cmd in the search box > select Command Prompt > right-click on it > choose Run as administrator.

Step 2. Type the command in the window: attrib -h -r -s /s /d drive letter:\*.* > hit Enter. (Replace the “drive letter” in the command with the letter of your SD card.)

For example, if your SD card letter is F, the command you need to type is: attrib -h -r -s /s /d F:\*.*.

NOTE:
h assigns the Hidden attribute to the selected files.
r refers to Read-only attribute, which means files are readable but non-modifiable.
s assigns ‘System’ attribute to the selected files.
/s implies to search the specified path including subfolders.
/d includes the process folders.

Restore deleted videos from SD card with Windows File Recovery

Windows File Recovery is Microsoft's official data recovery tool, a command-line application that can be used to recover files that have been deleted from your device. It is a powerful command line tool that can recover permanently deleted files from SD memory card or other storage devices.

It doesn't have a graphical interface, making it difficult for a green-hand. So, you can learn step by step how to recover deleted videos from SD card with the introduction below.

First, you need to know the general command line syntax: winfr source-drive:destination-drive: [/mode] [/switches].

Source-drive: The location where the files were deleted.
Destination-drive: The location where you want to save deleted files after recovery.
[/mode] [/switches]: There are two basic modes: Regular & Extensive. And Extensive mode includes two advanced modes: Segment & Signature. The file system of the disk determines which mode you use.
You can check the file system by clicking This PC, right-clicking the drive where you deleted the file, check the file system Properties to choose the corresponding Mode and Switch according to the following figure.

Mode

Switch

After knowing what the specific parameters mean, now follow the steps to recover deleted videos from SD card.

Step 1. Plug your SD card into computer > go to Microsoft Store to get Windows File Recovery.

Step 2. Open Windows File Recovery, type the command: winfr source-drive:destination-drive:[/mode] [/switches] > hit Enter.

For example, if you want to restore files from E: drive to D: drive, you want to use Segment mode, and the files you lost are Docx files, then as shown in the figure, your command is: winfr E: D: /segment /n *.docx.

Step 3. After that, a recovery folder will be created in the destination drive of your choice. You can go to check if the lost/deleted video is recovered.

Tip: If you find this option complicated, you can turn to another Windows file recovery alternative - WinfrGUI. It is a 100% free tool that fully invokes the functionality of Windows File Recovery through a simple GUI, making it easier for you to recover data.

Suggested: Easily recover permanently deleted or lost videos from SD card free

On one hand, you may not back up your data ahead of time. On the other hand, CMD parameters are complex, lack a graphical user interface (GUI), and are a bit technical for the average user. A wrong command can cause further problems.

Therefore, it is recommended to use an easy way to recover deleted videos from SD or memory card. For example, you can easily get back deleted or lost files using professional file recovery software.

MyRecover is such a reliable and powerful file recovery tool with a graphical user interface that makes it easy for anyone to perform the recovery process without any backup.

♻ It allows you to recover deleted or lost videos of various file formats like MPEG/MPG/MP4, MOV, AVI/NAVI, ASF, WMV, RM/RMX, FLV/F4V QSV, etc.
💥 It applies to comprehensive data loss scenarios, such as inadvertent deletion, disk formatting, system crash, virus attack.
🐜 It allows you to recover deleted files from hard drive, SD/memory card, USB, SSD, and other storage devices in Windows 11/10/8/7 and Windows Server.

You can click the download button to get MyRecover and see how to recover deleted video files from SD card free software.

Step 1. Connect SD card to computer > launch MyRecover > click the SD card drive > click Start Scan.

Step 2. It will automatically check the drive for all lost files, and you can search for the specific file you lost in the search box in the upper right corner and click Filter to select desired files.

Tip: You can also find the lost or delete files based on their Type, Data Modified and Size.

Step 3. When you find the files you want to recover, select them and click Recover x Files, then choose a storage location to save the recovered files.

Bonus tips to avoid SD card data loss

If you can always keep your SD card safe, you don't need to worry about recovering deleted files from SD card. Here are some precautions to protect your SD card from data loss.

✦ Back up SD card: It is recommended to back up SD card data to a computer or external disk on a regular basis.

✦ Always click the Eject button: Clicking the Eject button helps avoid data corruption due to sudden interruption of the read/write process.

✦ Think twice: Be sure to confirm before deleting files or formatting cards.

✦ Take care of your SD card: Regular SD cards are fragile and usually don't survive harsh conditions, put them in a protective case.

✦ Don't save too many files to the SD card: This ensures the speed of SD card access.

Final Verdict

We just discussed three effective ways on how to recover deleted videos from SD card without software. If you have never backed up your SD card or don't want to execute commands with complex parameters to restore your files. You can try a professional SD card video recovery tool - MyRecover to help you.

Such data loss incidents cannot be completely avoided, but it is absolutely possible to be fully prepared. Get into the habit of backing up all your files in a timely manner, so you can retrieve them when needed.