Recovering data from a SD card or any other type of memory card is essentially the same as recovering data from a regular disk. As memory cards are typically ejected and inserted on a regular basis they appear to be a tad more prone to file system corruption. If this happens the memory card file system typically appears as ‘RAW’.
Setting up for data recovery from a memory card
First of all I recommend you use a card reader for the recovery, even if until now you attached the smart phone or digital camera to a PC using a USB cable. First reason is that your device may not allow for direct disk access. Also, recovery software needs direct access to the disk, or in this case memory card.
Read and write speed when using a card reader is often higher than when connecting a device to the PC using a USB cable. Also, in general they behave better and more reliable when there are bad sectors on the memory card.
 External USB memory card reader |
 Internal memory card reader |
Card readers are inexpensive devices. Micro SD cards often come with an adapter so they fit standard size card readers.
Memory card recovery software
Recommended generic data recovery programs (DiskTuna Approved):
UFS Explorer
Very well rounded tool supporting many filesystems and advanced storage technologies such as RAID and numerous encryption techniques. Moderately difficult to use. This is your best bet when trying to recover data from NAS devices.
[Mac/Win/Lin]{FAT|NTFS|ReFS|HFS+|APFS|EXT|BTRFS|UFS|XFS|ZFS|+More +RAID}
R-Studio
Well rounded tool with a good mix of filesystem, RAID, and encryption support. Supports professional data recovery hardware from DeepSpar.
[Mac/Win/Lin]{FAT|NTFS|ReFS|HFS+|APFS|EXT|UFS|XFS|+RAID}
DMDE
Another favorite for some pros. This is my work horse logical data recovery tool. Be warned that this tool can write to patient drive, but it will never do so using the default configuration.
[Mac/Win/Lin/DOS]{FAT|NTFS|ReFS|HFS+|APFS|EXT|BTRFS|+RAID}
Memory cards used in GoPro, DJI or modern system and DSLR cameras
Due to the way in which modern and action cameras record video footage, recovery of such files require specialized recovery algorithms. Currently Disk Drill with it’s Advanced Camera Recovery module is the best option if this type of situation.
Disk Drill
[Mac/Win]{FAT|NTFS|ReFS|HFS+|APFS|EXT|BTRFS|+RAID}