How to Fix and Recover Flash Memory Cards

A memory card or flash card is an electronic flash memory data storage device used for storing digital information. These are commonly used in portable electronic devices, such as digital cameras, mobile phones, laptop computers, tablets, video game consoles…

There are various forms of memory cards. The most common memory cards nowadays are SD cards, microSD cards, CompactFlash and miniSD cards. Many memory cards are designed with portability in mind and can be removed and accessed on other devices. The frequent plug in and out makes memory cards prone to damage and potential data loss. When we cannot access the data within Memory cards, we can try to recover files from memory cards with the tips provided below.

Check Errors Using CMD

We can check memory cards with chkdsk in Command Prompt for logic errors. The chkdsk command line is short for “check disk”. It verifies the file system integrity of a volume and fixes logical file system errors. It can also check for bad sectors and mark them.

There are several parameters for chkdsk command. Chkdsk drive_letter: /f fixes logical error on the memory cards such as file system corruption, while chkdsk drive_letter: /r fixes logical errors as well as checks for bad sectors. Chkdsk drive_letter: /r analyzes the drive and attempts to relocate data it finds to good sectors. It also marks the bad sectors so that these bad sectors will not be used again, which effectively removes the bad sectors from the system. If used without parameters, chkdsk displays only the status of the volume and does not fix any errors.

Recover Lost Data with Data Recovery Software

Sometimes the memory cards suffer from partition lost or RAW  problems. In these cases, the computer will fail to recognize memory cards and will not assign drive letters to them. We can attempt to recover the inaccessible files using 3rd party utilities such as H Data Recovery Software. H Data file recovery is a fully-featured data recovery software. It is able to recover data in most data loss situations, recovering from memory cards with lost or damaged partition included! Here is the step-by-step tutorial:

Step 1. Install and launch H Data Recovery Software. Insert the memory card into a USB card adapter and plug your card adapter into your computer.

Step 2. Select the Flash Memory Recovery module by clicking it. The software will automatically detect all the flash memory cards currently connected to this computer. Choose your memory card and click Next.

Step 3. H Data Recovery will scan the memory card file system and try to find and reconstitute the files. When the scan is complete, you will be able to see the list of all recoverable files. If you act quick enough after the format, the chance of a complete recovery is very high.

Step 4. Select all the files you want to restore, and click the Next button. Choose a place you want to restore these files to.