How can I get photos back from an SD card?

Question

so my friend had photos in her sd card and one day its saying sd card error". So she goes to a bunch of places and they all tell her to try formatting it first. What can I do to retrieve photos back from the sd card because I've heard that it's possible. thank you for any help

Answer 1

You best bet is a program called Recuva by Piraform. Recuva recovers files deleted from your Windows computer, Recycle Bin, digital camera card, or MP3 player. And it's free! For more info or to download the software: http://www.piriform.com/recuva . It should take about a minute to perform a scan of your SD card.



If you are running Windows XP, there is an excellent recovery software called PC Inspector Smart Recovery. It is also free! It is designed especially for memory cards. Unfortunately they do not have a version for Vista or Windows 7. For more info: http://www.pcinspector.de/SmartRecovery/info.htm?language=1



Usually these programs read past any errors and will recuperate the photos not affected by the corruption. If they fail, then try formatting the card and running the program again. At this point you have nothing to lose and at least you have given it your best shot if you fail.



I have used both programs in the past and I had excellent results each time. I did find Smart Recovery a little more user friendly.



Good luck.

Answer 2

In most cases when it shows card error that means the card is corrupted and it can be read by any device including the camera.



But, there are download recovery programs available that could help. However, if your computer can't read the card it's probably toast and needs to be replaced.

Answer 3

You can recover deleted or formatted pics from SD memory card (microsd, sd mini, sdhc, etc) with steps below

1. Do not save any new file to sd memory card.

2. Connect your card to computer. You should see memory card shown as a drive letter (like H:) in My Computer.

3. Download recovery software, recommended one is asoftech photo recovery (simply because i was using it and it worked)

4. Install and open the photo recovery program, select your memory drive, and click 'Start' button to start scanning process which will find your deleted photos.