How to Recover Formatted SD Card for Free?

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How to Recover Formatted SD Card for Free?

9 May 2019 John Weaver Senior Program Developer

Summary
Many people have ever tried to format the SD card. Formatting SD card can really release space and fix some errors, but it can also lead to data loss. How to fix and recover the formatted SD card?

Content

Three Symptoms of SD Card Formatting

How to Recover SD Card?

How to Fix Formatted SD Card?

1. Use CHKDSK to Fix SD Card
2. Format SD Card Again

how to protect and recover data on the formatted sd card

Since the SD card is small, cost-effective and convenient, it has been widely used in digital devices like cameras and phones. Naturally, some problems may happen during using the SD card. Some people, at this time, will try to format the SD card.

Three Symptoms of SD Card Formatting

The SD card should be formatted before you can use it.
Quick format is done on the SD card.
Full format is done on the SD card.

Being asked to format - If the system tells you that you cannot use the SD card before formatting it, the SD card may have had errors in the file system. At that time, you should recover the data beforehand, and then try to format or fix it.

the corrupted sd card needs to be fixed and formatted

Quick format - It is a common way. Quick format merely clears the file allocation table, which leads the system not to detect files on the SD card. In fact, the files are still there and you can recover the formatted SD card via reliable data recovery software. After that, you can try to fix or format it again.

recover formatted sd card via quick format blank sd card

Full format —— Different from quick format, full format will scan the whole SD card, generate the new wizard, initialize the file allocation table and clear all data on the SD card. This is an irreversible process.

How to Recover SD Card?

Renee Undeleter is professional, utility data recovery data. It supports in fingerprinting and rebuilding file system. No matter which sort of files, the files cleared from Recycle Bin or the formatted disk/USB/SD card, it can recover the data.

Renee Undeleter - Powerful Data Recovery Software

Easy to use Only simple steps to recover data from storage devices.

Multiple scan modes Fast partition scan, whole partition scan and whole disk scan for different recovery needs.

File types Support to recover pictures, videos, audios, documents, mails, etc.

Supported storage devices Recover data from recycle bin, SD card, external disk, etc.

Supported systems Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, XP, 2000 and Mac OS X10.6, 10.7, 10.8.

Easy to use Only simple steps to recover data from storage devices.

Multiple scan modes - 3 scan modes for different recovery needs.

Supported storage devices Recover data from recycle bin, SD card, external disk, etc.

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① Download and install Renee Undeleter. Launch it and select [Whole Partition Scan].

select whole partition scan in renee undeleter

② Select the target SD card.

select the target drive to scan in renee undeleter

④ Wait for the scan. The scanning time depends on the capacity of the SD card.

⑤ Preview the scanned results. Check the target files and click [Recover].

preview and select the files to recover in renee undeleter

⑥ Select the target folder to save the files. As soon as you click [Recover], the files will come back!

select the output folder for usb or sd card recovery session in renee undeleter

Note!To avoid the second data loss, please don’t save the retrieved data on the SD card. As you’ve recovered the formatted SD card, you can follow these steps to fix it.

How to Fix Formatted SD Card?

1. Use CHKDSK to Fix SD Card

CHKDSK, a free command tool in Windows, can check and fix errors on SD card. It is responsible for fixing the file system. In the recover process of CHKDSK, some dmaged files may be discarded or covered and finally get impossible to be retrieved anymore. Therefore, you must recover the formatted SD card before you run the CHKDSK command.

① Press the group keys [Win+R] to type [cmd] in Run.

② Type [chkdsk n:/f]. Replace “n” with the target drive letter of the partition, and /f is the order telling the command to fix any errors.

type chkdsk to fix the corrupted sd card

③ Then, press the key Enter to run. It will start to fix the corrupted SD card. Just follow the tips when prompted.

Note!Chkdsk doesn’t support all file systems of SD cards, only FAT and NTFS. If the micro SD card is not one of these systems, but HFS or EXT (used in Linux), you have to format the card.