Micro SD card data loss/recovery

06
2014-04
  • user291494

    I have Patriot micro SDHC 32GB class 10 memory card. I use it only for saving pictures and videos taken with my phone (Galaxy S3 GT-I9300, CM 10.2 stable) and for saving music too. Basically all large files (movies, app(s) data, etc., mostly irrelevant), pictures and videos(very important) and music were on this card.

    Now the problem is that it suddenly stopped working over night, and couldn't be read in any way. Previously (last 2 months top) it would from time to time suddenly stop working, but ejecting it and inserting it back in would do the trick.

    I've tried to eject it and insert it, no results. It wouldn't even recognise it, or it would display an error notification such as "corrupted volume, please format". Usually I could read it normally with my phone or access it via USB cable over my phone and everything was fine. Both system and external memories were useable and accessible.

    Then I tried to read it with an USB card reader (http://the-gadgeteer.com/assets/sandisk-microsd-1.jpg), but still nothing. My laptop wouldn't even find anything inserted.

    When that failed too I have inserted it into an SD card adapter and then in my laptop's SD card reader (laptop is ASUS G750JX, Win8.1). This was similar to my phone's situation; either not recognised at all, or would show unmounted volume; "please insert drive into volume F".

    I haven't tried any recovery software yet, because I'm planning to try with a proper USB card reader. The only thing that I need from that card is folder with taken pictures. I can download music again and other stuff can be downloaded (even though it would be nice if music could be recovered too). Any advice is welcome, so please post any ideas for full or even partial recovery. Literally anything is helpful at this moment. Thank you for your help.

    • Answers
  • Xavierjazz

    From your description, it sounds as if it is broken.


    • Related Question

    data recovery - Recover files from a dead SD card in linux? (Possibly killed by a Nokia E71)
  • Blorgbeard

    I have an SD Micro card that is not working any more.

    Background:

    What happened is I took it out of my old cellphone (it was working fine), and put it into my new cellphone (a Nokia E71). The Nokia complained that it was encrypted and prompted for a password. I have no idea why it would think that it was encrypted.

    It wouldn't accept a blank password, so I tried 1234. That didn't work, so I swapped it back to the old phone, where it wasn't recognised anymore. Then I tried it in my laptop's card reader, and it doesn't work there either. I have a known good card that does work in the laptop.

    I don't know whether I physically damaged the card when pulling/pushing it around between phones, or whether the Nokia did something to it..

    I'd like to at least recover files from it if possible.

    Troubleshooting details:

    On my (Ubuntu linux) laptop, when I insert it into my card reader, /dev/sdc appears, but there's no /dev/sdc1 - no partition is found.

    I tried to make an image of it thusly:

    sudo dd if=/dev/sdc of=brokencard.img

    But I get this error:

    dd: opening `dev/sdc': No medium found

    Then I tried this:

    sudo fdisk /dev/sdc

    And got this:

    Unable to open /dev/sdc

    I tried the photorec and testdisk utilites (from cgsecurity), but neither of them would find /dev/sdc.

    I'm now out of ideas. What else can I try?


    • Related Answers
  • davr

    If you can't even access the device, you're pretty much SOL. My only suggestion is to try using different PC's / different card readers, you may get lucky. But most likely the card is dead. Probably not the Nokia's fault, just a coincidence, never heard of a specific device killing a SD card, they just sometimes fail. Lots more reliable than the old floppy discs, but not perfect.

  • TREE

    If your only alternative is to throw it out, try this:

    • stick it in either device and try to format it. If this works, it won't likely be a "full" format, but only the high level structure. This may let you then at least find the device in linux. Once there, of course, you can try other tools.

    • for actual recovery, I've had good luck with magicrescue http://freshmeat.net/projects/magicrescue

  • Broam

    You could try PhotoRec but you need to be able to mount the device first--it would be usable if you could get a dd image.

    Edit: This is probably the little-used "S" part of the SD standard; most desktop operating systems don't support the security flags. You might be able to use another Nokia phone to completely wipe the card.

  • John Kloian

    I've had good luck with dd_rescue. Of course if you can't access the device this would not be a viable option.