*HELP* Corrupted SD card (updated 7-3)

[liberty47]

Got home from vacation last night and went to look back at some of the pictures I took on my cell phone (I have a samsung galaxy s5 with a 32gb sd card to save media). To my horror, the pictures were gone. Even the movies I downloaded from Amazon were gone. I plugged the sd card into a kindle and only type of file that came up was "other" with about 3-5 gb on it. I then put it in my cannon and the camera didn't detect anything. I was devastated. My five year old son was crying because we lost an awesome picture I took of him, it broke my heart.

I looked online and found some software called 'Wondershare dr phone'. The download is about $60 (but I need to go pick up an Sd card reader first). What I read on this website seemed like it wasn't too complicated.

Then I called geek squad and they told me it was extremely difficult to recover, they would need to send it out and likely cost $1000-2500

I can't justify spending thousands of dollars to recover the sd card, but the software for $60 would be great, if it is something likely to work and get the pictures back.

Has anyone had experience with something like this?

Any advice is appreciated.

[Carcassonne]

Chances are the info is gone.

I would try a Linux program. Sometimes Windows will block you from seeing things. Puppy is the smallest Linux program. Mint might be good also. Just download the free program and burn a bootable CD/DVD. Then boot your computer from the CD/DVD. When you put the card in the reader, an icon should show up on the screen. click on it and see if there is anything in the folder.



.

[ocabj]

I have used SanDisk Recovery Pro to recover an accidentally formatted SD card (with some overwrite):

http://www.lc-tech.com/pc/sandisk-rescuepro-and-rescuepro-deluxe/

You can try the evaluation version which will show you files that it can recover, but it won't let you actually copy them off; you have to buy a full version. But at least you can try it to see if it even works before buying.

[garyngwind]

not sure if this will apply, but i accidentally delete a few files in my hdd, someone recommended me RECUVA

https://www.piriform.com/recuva

not sure if it will work on a SD card though, but it did saved a bit of files that i lost

[Skip_Dog]

Do not go to geek squad. You most likely can get the pictures back. At least most of them. Use a program called recuva by Piriform.

http://support.piriform.com/

$25.00
What ever you do not reformat.

[Skip_Dog]

not sure if this will apply, but i accidentally delete a few files in my hdd, someone recommended me RECUVA

https://www.piriform.com/recuva

not sure if it will work on a SD card though, but it did saved a bit of files that i lost

Beat me to it. I was looking up their site...

[SkyHawk]

Try Zero Assumption Recovery.

http://www.z-a-recovery.com/

Free for recovery of images.

http://www.z-a-recovery.com/tutorials/digital-image-recovery.aspx

[Dragunov]

Where did you purchase the card? Chinese copies have made their way in, and they are NOT RELIABLE!

[liberty47]

I purchased the card on Amazon, its a san disk. Ordered a sd card reader and will likely try the recommendation from skyhawk.

Thanks a lot everyone, keeping fingers crossed, will update once I try. Part of me is nervous to try knowing they could be gone forever.....

[Megalomegalodon]

Have you tried to run a check disk on it.
Mount the card and open a command prompt.
Type in the drive letter of the card ie..F: and hit enter
Type chkdsk /r

[the86d]

Best time to learn to use photorec, if Windows sees the device as a drive... even if Windows can't see the data, photorec should be able to carve the data.

The files can usually be recovered, even if the file names will be randomly generated (to your eyes)...

[liberty47]

Have you tried to run a check disk on it.
Mount the card and open a command prompt.
Type in the drive letter of the card ie..F: and hit enter
Type chkdsk /r

This is done while SD card is mounted in the phone?

[Megalomegalodon]

This is done while SD card is mounted in the phone?

No, mounted in a computer.

[liberty47]

OK, I finally received the SD card reader. I was very nervous mounting it to the mac. Upon doing so, there were all my pictures! No need to download software, opened up the folder and immediately saved it to the hard drive on macbook. A great way to start the day.

My question now is, what the heck happened?!?! Why aren't the files recognizable on my phone (or other devices)? What do I do with the 32gb card now to be able to use it in the phone again (or is that a bad idea).

Thanks!

[castgold]

OK, I finally received the SD card reader. I was very nervous mounting it to the mac. Upon doing so, there were all my pictures! No need to download software, opened up the folder and immediately saved it to the hard drive on macbook. A great way to start the day.

My question now is, what the heck happened?!?! Why aren't the files recognizable on my phone (or other devices)? What do I do with the 32gb card now to be able to use it in the phone again (or is that a bad idea).

Thanks!

That's great news. I can't tell you what happened, but I can tell you that a 64gb SD card of mine went bad within a year and I used the no questions replacement warranty I purchased with it for $7 at MicroCenter. I was able to recover the images, but my camera could no longer recognize nor re-format. This is why the pro-grade cameras have dual card slots, but they are cost-prohibitive for most people.