Does your SD card suddenly become inaccessible on your Pc and hide the data that you need? This is a common problem and we know that there is a safe solution to addressing it and retrieving lost unreadable SD card data.
Understanding Why Your SD Card Isn’t Detected
If your SD card suddenly isn’t readable on your computer, the reasons usually fall into one of these:
> As far as we can deduce it, one of the most recurrent causes is in file system issues. This mostly occurs when the card is pulled out while it’s in use or at times when there is a power surge.
> Another way is that viruses or malware can also corrupt the card. Whenever it is connected to an infected device it can format the files or even make them inaccessible.
> This is true since it becomes incompatible especially when you transfer it into other devices without formatting. A card that works perfectly well in one camera, may not work well in the other if the file systems are not the same.
> Lastly, physical damage could be the problem: Any exposure to heat, moisture or slight bending will affect it and interfere with its interaction with your device.
Master the Basics: Fixing Common SD Card Errors
Regardless of what is wrong with your SD card, there is usually a dependable do it yourself process of bringing it back to life. It only takes simple steps to repair the card and regain your files. This approach involves using in-built Windows tools and few of the advanced recovery applications to solve it. Follow along.
#1 Solution: Checking SD Card Status in Disk Management
It might get a bit frustrating if you plug your SD card in your computer and your computer does not recognize it on File Explorer. The key is whether it is presented in Disk Management as this application lets you know whether the system is aware of the card at a more profound level.
1> Press Win + X and go to Disk Management.
2> Find your SD card amongst the drives. If it tells you it’s RAW or not formatted, the computer can recognize the card but its file system may be damaged.
3> If the card is not seen in Disk Management, then perhaps it is a connectivity issue, a bad card reader, or a driver issue.
If the card doesn’t show up in Disk Management, try these steps:
1> Ensure that the SD card is well connected — Ensure that the SD card has been inserted well into the card reader or slot. More often than not, a basic procedure known as reseating of the card is enough. If the connection is actually pretty weak, then your computer may not even be able to recognize its presence.
2> Try a new card reader — If it does not work with one device, try using one card reader with a different device. Make sure and see whether it is possible to test the SD card on a different computer or device. If it works on another system then there is a problem with the reader on your current device which we did face multiple times.
3> Update or reinstall drivers — If your drivers are old or corrupted, it could be the reason your computer can’t see the card. To update or reinstall drivers, click start, right click and navigate to device manager. Search for Disk Drives or Universal Serial Bus controllers.
Locate the device, right click on it and click on the update driver. If that doesn’t work, select Uninstall device and then, right after that, reboot the device in order to reinstall drivers automatically.
4> Use another USB port — a particular port connected to the computer may not always deliver stable power or solid contact, if connected to an external card reader. You should try to plug the device to a different USB port as it can help remove this issue sometimes.
Note: If none of these solutions and the card does not appear in Disk Management or appears ‘No Media’ or shows the wrong size then the problem is more complex. It could be a problem with the hardware of the card, and, regretfully, you can’t rectify it without replacing the card. If your problem falls into any of these categories, you will have to approach a professional data recovery service to recover data from sd card to help you have your files back.
#2 Solution: See If Your SD Card Has a Drive Letter
If your sd card appears in Disk Management but not seen in File Explorer, then the problem might be that it doesn’t have a drive letter. If a card is not given the drive letter, the computer does not know where to find it in the File Explorer, yet the system remains aware of the card.
How to assign a new drive letter to your SD card:
1> If you are using a Windows PC then you can simply right click on the start menu and then click on “Disk Management”. This will bring up a window, then display all the drives and partitions that are connected.
2> Now, in the Disk Management window, there will be an SD card that you have to locate in the lower pane. It will be seen like a regular floppy disk but will not be given a drive letter.
3> Go to SD card’s Properties and select “Change Drive Letter and Paths.”
4> In the next window select ‘Add’ if no drive letter has been assigned or ‘Change’ to select a new one.
5> Select an available drive letter listed in front of it in the list and click ‘OK’.
6> The new drive letter should now be assigned, the SD card should be visible in the File explorer under its new letter.
#3 Solution: SD Card Cannot be Accessed? Recover Data from Unreadable SD Card
However, if the SD card is not detected at all, then you should be facing really major issues to the file system of the card. Before proceeding with more fixes, we should try to recover the data at this stage. The longer the card stays in the holder and cannot be accessed the higher danger of total loss of files is.
Windows users have no in-built utilities to recover the lost data. This, however, can only be done using certain software specifically designed for the purpose. We know that there are lots of choices out there, and we have added our list of the best ones in this article. There are quite many of them, but in our opinion BLR data recovery software is one of the best, so let’s use this tool to explain the procedure.
Recover data from unreadable SD card with BLR Data Recovery Software:
Step 1: Download a free trial version of BLR Data Recovery Software for your system.
Step 2: Transfer the unreadable SD card to the computer and start the software, then, perform a search for the missing files.
Step 3: Check the contents of the recoverable data, choose the files that are necessary, and move them to a safe folder.
#4 Solution: When They Said Nothing Helped to Fix the Issue? Format the SD Card
However, if none of the above methods has proved fruitful in attempting to rectify your unreadable SD card, you have no option than to format it. Formatting will delete all files without a trace and it will almost be impossible to retrieve the information. (Okay, if a quick format was done, then there is still a chance to recover lost data, but if the full format was performed – the data cannot be restored.) However, since we have already managed to copy all your crucial files, this is a good final step toward solving any non-physical problems of your SD card.
Steps to Format an SD Card:
1> Place the SD card into the computer using a card slot. Make sure that it is well connected firmly.
2> Locate the Disk Management, right click it by clicking on the ‘Start’ menu and selecting ‘Disk Management’. Search through volumes and find your SD card.
3> Select the SD card and right click it then choose the option format. This will open a format dialog box.
4> Select the required file system to use in the computer. The FAT32 is used in the operation of the SD cards with less than 32 GB and the exFAT is used in cards with 32Gb and above.
5> Write the volume label and then tick the ‘Perform a quick format’, if desired, to perform a quick format on the volume; else leave it blank to do a full format.
6> This will open the program which will begin formatting when you click on the OK tab. Make sure you agree with the action stated in the warning dialog that says all data will be deleted.
7> Allow the formatting of the project to take its due course. After this, the SD card will be completed, sometimes referred to as write protected and should not exhibit any type of error that would cause the card to be read as unreadable.
In Conclusion
In most of the projects we have completed, these solutions were perfectly effective in recovering SD card access and files that were lost. However, if the problem is critical, or you do not want to deal with it on your own, there is another solution: turn to data retrieval services. However, they are costly, so in case there is important data on the SD card, then it will be worthwhile to ensure that nothing has been lost.
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