SD Cards can be fragile. Even the simplest mistake can make your card useless. If you are facing such issues with your card, then you have come to the right place. Following, we are going to discuss some solutions that will help you get your data back:
1. Connect to Another Device
You have to test it on another computer. This is a simple test, and it makes sure the issue is only with your card, not the system So connect and see if it works fine or not.
If your smartphone or computer is unable to read your memory card, you need to confirm the issue is only with the card, not your device. So, take your card out and insert it into some other device. If your memory card still doesn’t work, then try the next method!
2. Command Prompt
There is nothing worse than a storage device getting corrupted. You risk losing all your important data. Besides, you just can’t have a useless card laying around. So, it’s imperative you take some strict measures to reverse the damage. First, try using Command Prompt, consider the following steps:
- You have to check and write down the drive letter of your memory card
- Open Command Prompt and type “chkdsk” along with card drive letter
- Press Enter
- Chkdsk will scan your memory card and fix the issues to make it accessible once again
If you can use the card after this step, then recover every bit of data at the instant. However, this fails to resolve your issue; then you have to use a memory card recovery software free.
In case it works, you have to be patient. The procedure will take some time to complete. The duration of this process depends on the severity of damage, size of your card and size of data that needs to be recovered.
If the corruption is too severe, then cmd won’t be able to help your case. So, you might as well consider the following step:
3. Assign Drive Letter
If you see the following pop up, “Please Insert Disk into Drive X,” it means your system can’t read the SD card because there is some corruption issue with it. So, you better go to the System Settings and Assign a new drier letter yourself to try and resolve this issue.
It’s not new for the computer to become unable to access a storage device. Yes, you won’t be able to access the files because of this, so you better assign a drive letter to the storage device, and follow these steps to fix corrupt SD Card or Pen Drive:
- Connect the Device to computer
- Right Clock on My Computer and click Manage
- Open Disk Management and wait till windows load the virtual disk service
- Right click on the storage device and choose change drive letter and paths
- Click on the drive letter and click change
4. Try an Inbuilt Solution
Fortunately, most storage devices today have an in-built solution in case they end up being inaccessible. So, you have to select the card and right click
- Go to properties from Pop Up Menu
- See both Free and Used space on the memory card
- If it shows there is more used space than free space, then you might have hidden files
- Restore the Hidden Data
5. Format and Recovery
If you can’t recover your data using the methods mentioned above, then you can try to format your card, and reuse it. You need a Free SD Card Recovery tool for that. So, take your time and find a reliable option to recover data from a corrupted memory card
Yes, it’s possible you will fail in a few attempts. So, you better check if the data is writing protected or not. If there is such protection, then you better remove it first. Precaution is better than cure. So, you better use your card carefully. Don’t remove it abruptly and don’t use in one too many devices.
Formatting your card might sound off the track, but it’s a rather effective approach. Just make sure you have a powerful recovery tool like the one we mentioned to help you recover every bit of data. Initiate recovery and wait for it to complete, don’t interrupt the process.