Having trouble in recovering photos from SanDisk SD card? Don’t worry, here in this post, we’ll guide you through how to get back your photos with three options.
I have saved lots of my old pictures on my SanDisk SD card. Recently, when I tried to review my pictures, I found some of them are missing. I don’t know if I have accidentally deleted them or if they are just lost because of anything else. I just want to know how to recover photos from SanDisk SD card. Please help.”
- Question from Reddit
Normally, the photos in your SanDisk SD card might be missing (deleted/lost/hidden) because of the following reasons:
Fortunately, no matter what causes your photos to disappear, you can recover them as long as they haven't been overwritten by new files. Please stop using the SanDisk SD card immediately to avoid the missing photos being overwritten.
Here we provide you with 3 options on how to recover photos from SanDisk SD card no matter if the photos are deleted, lost, or hidden.
You can restore your photos using MyRecover if your photos have been permanently deleted due to human error, SD card corruption, or formatting. It only takes three simple steps and has a high success rate to recover deleted photos thanks to an intuitive interface and straightforward operating procedure. For the reasons listed below, it is strongly suggested:
Let's see how to recover deleted files from SanDisk memory card via MyRecover in 3 steps.
Download, install and launch MyRecover on your computer and connect your SanDisk SD card to the computer with a card reader.
Step 1. Hover the mouse over your card reader. Then click Scan to let it be scanned.
Step 2. You will see your deleted photos that are recoverable listed here. You don’t need to wait for the process to complete if you find the photos you want to recover.
Step 3. Check the scanning result and choose a new location to save your recovered photos. Click Recover xx files to save the restored photos.
You also have the option to use Windows File Recovery to recover deleted photos from SD card using CMD. This method is a little more technically difficult because it uses command lines. Furthermore, the recovery rate has yet to be established. Please take note that this tool only functions with Windows 10 versions 2004 and up in addition to these.
Preparation work before using Windows File Recovery:
To use this tool, check out your File System first. Go to This PC > right-click on the external drive that contains the deleted files > click Properties.
In addition, you need to use recovery mode and switches to get back your files. To decide which mode to use, refer to this table.
| File system | Scenarios | Mode |
| NTFS | Deleted recently | Regular |
| NTFS | Deleted for a while | Extensive |
| NTFS | Formatted disk | Extensive |
| NTFS | Corrupted disk | Extensive |
| FAT and exFAT | Any | Extensive |
Switches are used to filter the scanning range, thus can save the scanning time.
| Switches | Meaning | Supported mode(s) |
| /n | Filter the scan range: scans for a specific file with its file name/path/type, etc. | All |
| /y: | Recover specific extension groups. | Signature |
| /k | Recovers system files. | NTFSSegment |
| /u | Recovers undeleted files, for example, from the Recycle Bin. | NTFSSegment |
Step 1. Download and install Window File Recovery on your computer from Microsoft Store and then open it.
Step 2. Open Powershell or Command Prompt (run as administrator). In the Command Prompt, enter commands in the following command format:
winfr source-drive: destination-drive: [/mode] [/switches]
For example, if you need to recover deleted pictures from C: drive (the SD card) to D: drive, then the command will be like:
winfr C: D: /n *.png
Sometimes, a photo missing doesn’t mean it has been deleted, it might also be hidden because of many reasons like system errors, virus attacks, or human causes. If your files disappeared somehow, you could use the attrib command to recover hidden photos.
Step 1. Plugin your SanDisk SD card into your computer.
Step 2. Open the Windows search box and search for "cmd". Locate Command Prompt and choose Run as administrator.
Step 3. Type in “attrib -h -r -s /s /d drive letter:\*.*”, for example, “attrib -h -r -s /s /d G:\*.*”.
(Replace G with the drive letter of your hard drive or external storage device where you lost files.)
Step 4. This process will finish after the command prompt returns back the original location. Then you can go to the destination place to check these files. If the attrib command is not working, it may be because is not a hidden document, but a deleted file.
This post primarily introduces three options on how to recover photos from SanDisk SD Card no matter whether they are deleted/lost/hidden. Even if you are able to get back your photos, we highly recommend you to back up your important files using smart backup solutions such as AOMEI Backupper to avoid data loss in the future.
