How to Recover Photos from Corrupted SD Cards?

Can you recover files from a corrupted SD card?

SD card is easy to carry and performs well in data transfer and storage. Thus, many people are willing to use this storage device to save photos and other essential files during work, life, and travel.

However, for various reasons, users may find their SD cards stop working, fail to be recognized by the PC, and thus lose access to their photos. They are bothered by SD card corruption.

Photo and other data loss caused by SD card corruption are not rare to see. Many users urgently need a guide to corrupted SD card recovery. Therefore, this article aims at giving proven fixes to this issue.

First of all, let’s check the signs to assess corruption.

Signs of corrupted SD card

The signs of a corrupted SD card are pretty obvious. Check the possible symptoms of a corrupted SD card to estimate the damage.

• Fail to be recognized.
• Empty SD card or file loss.
• Unreadable code.
• RAW SD card.
• SD card deleting files by itself.

◆ You may also see error messages like:

• This inserted SD card has an incompatible file system.
• Remove and reinsert the card to see if it fixes the error.
• A read-write error occurred on your SD card. If this continues, format your SD card or replace it.

Now, it is time to view the methods to recover pictures from corrupted SD cards.

How to recover photos from corrupted SD cards effortlessly?

Some preparations are necessary prior to the SD card data recovery process.

If your SD card is still readable, please skip this section and move on to the data recovery part. The professional data rescue app will help you recover corrupted SD card photos in a breeze.

Beforehand: try getting the SD card readable

Since your SD card is now inaccessible/unrecognizable/unmounted, we should make some attempts to make it readable.

If the SD card is now accessible, quickly transfer the files or back up SD card to computer/cloud storage, etc.

If the SD card is inaccessible at all, it may indicate that the SD card was seriously damaged; to get your data back, you may need to send the SD card to a data recovery service.

Recover photos from corrupted SD cards efficiently

The most efficient way to recover pictures from corrupted SD cards is turning to a reliable data recovery tool for Windows.

Using a trustworthy tool, you could effortlessly scan and search for lost or deleted images from internal/external healthy/corrupted/formatted storage devices.

MyRecover is an outstanding app with advanced scanning algorithms and techs to locate lost photos from SD cards, USB flash drives, HDDs, etc.

Apply to multiple photo loss situations: deletion, formatting, corruption, system crashes, etc. 

42 kinds of images are recoverable, including JPG/PNG/GIF/TIF/PSD, etc. 

Moreover, documents, videos, audio, emails, websites, zipped files, and more than 200+ file types are supported. 

After recovering data from an SD card, keep the original filename, formats, quality, and paths.

Compatible with SD, micro/mini SD, SHC/CF, and others; and NTFS, FAT32, and FAT16. 

Support Windows 7, 8, 10, 11, Windows Server, etc.

Step 1. Run the software > connect your SD card to the PC > hover the mouse over the SD card > click Scan.

Step 2. Filter/preview/sort the scanned files to navigate to your wanted photos quickly.

Step 3. Go to Other missing files > choose Images > choose the files you need. 200 + file types are supported. Thus, you could recover lost or accidentally deleted photos from SD cards in 3 simple steps.

Using this app, it will be an easy task to get pictures back after formatting SD cards.  

How to fix corrupted SD cards?

Fixing the SD cards is also essential. This part will offer solutions to help you bring the SD cards back to life.

Method 1. Run Windows Repair Tool or use CHKDSK

CHKDSK is one of the commands used to check and fix file system errors. The format goes as follows:

Notes:✎...

Refer to the guide to fix it when CHKDSK is not working.

Step 1. Input cmd in the search box to start Command Prompt > Run as administrator.

Step 2.  Input chkdsk F:/f to fix the corrupted file system. Try the usable parameters like /r, /f, /x, etc.

The /r parameter can also recover data from a corrupted device; if you need to get photos off SD cards without formatting, this tool would be helpful. But what is noteworthy is that the recovery rate is relatively low.

>> The Disk Check Tool is also usable if the CMD is too difficult.

Step 1. Open File Explorer/This PC > right-click on the corrupted SD card.

Step 2. Select Properties > click on the Tools tab > click Check under Error checking.

Step 3. Click Scan Drive.

Method 2. Assign drive letter

If the SD card isn’t showing in File Explorer, a drive letter might be lost. Go to Disk Management and verify. If so, assign a letter to it and make it visible in File Explorer.

Step 1. Connect your SD card with a card reader properly > right-click the start menu > Disk Management.

Step 2. Check if the size of the drive without a name fixes the SD card; if so, right-click on it > choose Change Drive Letter and Paths > Change > Assign the following drive letter.

Give it a letter and see if the SD card can be recognized as usual.

Method 3. Format the corrupted SD card

Disk formatting builds a new file system that fixes the SD card corruption resulting from a flawed file system. If the above fixes fail to make it, you may need to format the SD card to bring it back to normal.

Notes:✎...

Since formatting erases all files on the SD cards, please make sure to back up SD card data before formatting, or ensure you have recovered the wanted data.

Step 1. Right-click on the start menu > click Disk Management.

Step 2. Right-click the corrupted drive > select Format. Choose a target file system like FAT32, exFAT, etc.

FAQ

This article is a detailed guide that teaches users to recover photos from corrupted SD cards. Extra info is ready as well. Check out if you need more help.