How to Recover Photos/Pictures from Corrupted SD Card
If the memory card on your mobile device or digital camera has been corrupted and you find it impossible to retrieve your photos, do not worry. You can get back files, including photos from a corrupted SD card. In this post, we will share tips on how to recover the photos from corrupted SD card.
- Quick Navigation
- Part 1. Symptoms Associated with Corrupted SD Card
- Part 2. Possible Reasons for SD Card Corruption
- Part 3. Can You Restore Photos from Corrupted SD Card?
Part 1. Symptoms Associated with Corrupted SD Card
It is easy to know when an SD card has been corrupted. Some symptoms show that you need to check it or embark on a corrupted SD card photo recovery mission. Here are some possibilities of the possible symptoms:
- SD card is showing in the Disk Management but you cannot find the partition
- Memory card is showing in the Disk Management with the "No Media" status
- SD card is not showing up at all in both the Disk Management and File Explorer
- SD card is showing in the File Explorer and not Disk Management.
Part 2. Possible Reasons for SD Card Corruption
An SD card is an important component of a mobile phone or digital camera. If you love saving photos, videos, and large files, you will understand the importance of this tiny device. Unfortunately, it can get corrupted and when this happens, you can lose all photos and other files saved on it. So, why do SD cards get corrupted? Some of the reasons may include:
- The SD card is electrically or physically damaged
- I/O device error
- MBR corruption
- The SD card’s file system is corrupted, and others.
Part 3. Can You Restore Photos from Corrupted SD Card?
To know if you can recover photos from a corrupted SD card, you first need to check to see if the SD card appears in the Disk Manager. Connect the SD card to a PC through a card reader and wait for a few seconds. Next, navigate to "This PC" and then "Manage". Now click on "Disk Management" and check to see if the card is available. There are five possible situations that your SD card may be in. These include the following:
- Situation #1: The SD Card Shows in Disk Management but You Cannot Access the Drive (You may see it as a RAW File System)
- Situation #2: The memory card shows in Disk Management but the partition is lost
- Situation #3: The SD card shows in Disk Management but the state of it ‘No Media’
- Situation #4: The memory card shows in File Explorer but not in Disk Management
- Situation #5: The SD card is not showing up in both File Explorer and Disk Management.
In most cases, you will be able to find your photos from a corrupted SD card whether or not the card is showing in the Disk Manager or not. Let us look at how to recover corrupted SD card photos in different situations.
Retrieve Pictures on Corrupted SD Card in Situation #1 & Situation #2
If the reason why your SD card not showing is because of situation #1 or situation #2, you can get photos back from the card by fixing the corrupted SD card. The steps are quite simple.
Solution 1. Run CHKDSK to Fix the Corrupted SD card. To do this, follow the simple steps below:
- Click the "Start" button and type in ‘cmd’
- Right-click on the "Command Prompt" and select "Run as Administrator"
- Enter the chkdsk G: /f /r command (you should replace the ‘G’ in the command with the specific drive letter of the corrupted SD card).
If you still can’t access the corrupted SD card in Solution 1, then you might need a software tool to recover photos from corrupted SD card. The recommended software is the iBeesoft Data Recovery tool. Here is how to restore images off a corrupted SD card with the Tool in Step 2.
Solution 2. Get Back Corrupted SD Card Photos by iBeesoft
First, let’s say a little bit about this innovative best SD card recovery software. iBeesoft Data Recovery is a highly efficient and easy-to-use recovery tool. It offers two powerful scanning modes, which enable you to restore all formatted, lost, or deleted photos. Follow the steps on how to recover images from a corrupted SD card:
- Download iBeesoft Data recovery and Launch it.
- Connect SD card to the computer
- Filter file types before scanning
- Select card and click on the "Scan" button to next.
- Retrieve pictures from corrupted SD card
By default, all file types are checked when you launch the software. So, you can click "go to setting" to deselect all and select the specific file types you want to recover photos from SD card on Mac or Windows PC.
Preview the result window to see the lost photos that have been found. Click the "Recover" button to recover all the pictures.
Sometimes, you may have to format a corrupted SD card to make it functional again. Since you’ve recovered photos in solution 2, then fix the SD card by formatting it.
- Insert the corrupted SD card into the card reader on your computer.
- Open "This PC" and right-click on the SD card icon.
- Click on "Format Device" and wait for the formatting process to be completed. This will erase all data on your SD card and you can start saving new photos on it.
For Situation #3: There is "No Media" in the Device
If the reason why your SD card is not showing is because of situation #3, you will need to fix the error of "there are no media in the device".
For Situation #4: The SD card shows in File Explorer but not in Disk Management
If the SD card is not showing in the Disk Manager, the solution is to update the driver. To update the driver, follow the steps below:
- Right-click on "this PC" and select "Manage" and then "Device Manager".
- Expand the "Disk Drives" and right-click on the corrupted SD card. Select "Update Driver" from the available options.
- Select "Search for Updated Driver Software Automatically" and follow the prompting from here.
For Situation #5: The SD card is not showing up in both File Explorer and Disk Management
If this is the situation that your SD card is experiencing, it is impossible to recover data from the corrupted SD card. You may have to invest in another quality SD card.
There you have the different situations and solutions on how to recover images from a corrupted SD card. You can use any of these steps to resolve the issue with your SD card.