Please help me! I formatted my SD card by mistake this morning. There were many of my favorite photos and movies on it. Now, they are completely removed from my SD card. I must get them back. Is there a way to unformat an SD card?
Formatting is the quickest way to make the SD card as a clean slate. It also helps fix SD card errors, such as slow transfer speeds, formatting required before use, virus infection, or the SD card not showing up on a Mac or Windows PC. So, we may be losing data because of the intentional or unintentional format of the SD card. When it happens, please don't worry. We still have a great chance to unformat the memory card with/without the computer. Next, let's check out.
"Unformat" is the technical term for reversing the formatting process of an SD card. It is often used for data recovery scenarios.
Formatting an SD card is very simple, whether on a computer, camera, or Android device. You just need to click the "Format or Erase" option, and all the data will be immediately erased. Generally, three ways will be mentioned below to complete this process. Without a backup, the file recovery possibilities are different. Here are the details.
| How to Format the SD Card | Possibilities of Recovering Files after Formatting | Reasons |
|---|---|---|
|
#1.1 Right-click and select "Format" in the Windows File Explorer or Disk Management. #1.2 Click "Erase" in the Mac Disk Utility. #1.3 Click "Initialize/Format" in the camera or Android phone settings. |
High, but the premise is that you do not save new data after formatting. | It will only clear the file allocation table (FAT) and other file system information and delete all references to files and directories. In simple words, the original data is still there but invisible due to no index information. |
| #2 Use Professional Erasing Tools like File Shredder. | Low, it may happen that the recoverable files cannot be opened or found at all. | For the purpose of protecting personal privacy, these software programs will use blank items to fill the data area, where the files are actually saved. By doing this, it will overwrite the original data. |
| #3 Use Full Format (also known as Logical Format). In Windows PC, when you cancel the "Quick Format" option while formatting the SD card. | Impossible | It will not only delete the file system table entries but also clear the SD card sectors to clear the original data completely. |
As mentioned above, you are lucky if you accidentally formatted the SD card by the first method and lost some files. There are 2 ways available to help you get them back on the Windows PC.
Undoubtedly, it is the most reliable and easiest thing you need to do. It will scan the formatted SD card on your computer to find the erased data without any effort. There are many software programs available on the Internet. However, not all of them can help you unformat the SD card. Some programs have not been updated for many years, and some do not even support the latest micro SD cards at all. To save you time in searching for a suitable program, we suggest you try iBeesoft Free Data Recovery first. Later, we will introduce more free software suitable for this data loss situation.
If you do not find the lost files in the original directory, please click the "Other Lost Files" folder in the left panel and view the recoverable files by file type. Here, you will see all the file names as "# + sequence number + Missing Filename File + suffix name." They are not displayed with the original names because these files were severely damaged during the formatting process. Even if they have been repaired, our program still cannot correctly identify their original names.
People who have ever repaired a damaged SD card or other drives must be familiar with CMD. When you accidentally format an SD card, there are also applicable commands to recover the erased data. But unfortunately, it only works if you know the specific names of the files, and you need to run the following command repeatedly.
If your SD card file system is FAT, you will see "RECOVER is not available for FAT32 drives." To solve the problem, replace the command in step 3 with "attrib -h -r -s /s /d *.*". In addition, if you are using an older version of Windows, you can also try "unformat [drive letter of the SD card]:." There is more syntax about it here.
Accidentally formatted SD card how to recover? Although there is also a command line tool on Mac, it can only check the status of the memory card and fix some errors. Therefore, if you want to do this, using a recovery program is still your first choice. Here, you can try iBeesoft Free Data Recovery for Mac. Compared with the Windows version, it not only provides an independent module to repair videos that cannot be played after recovery but also can create an image for the damaged SD card to extract the files from it.
Please do not save the recovered data to the SD card again. Otherwise, some files may be overwritten and cannot be opened.
Since Android phones cannot expand storage space as freely as computers, many users regularly format memory cards to clean up useless files. If you happen to lose precious photos or videos because of this, you can also use an Android recovery app to get them back. However, through Google Play search, you should have found that many programs will guide you to use their computer-based versions. How do you choose? Through our test, file recovery by the AI Photo Team is an option you can consider. The only drawback is that it can only recover one type of file at a time.
Though we have recommended some wonderful programs above to unformat a memory card, it can't guarantee that you can 100% retrieve lost files due to an accidentally formatted SD card. Therefore, you can also try the following 3 alternative tools.
Recoverit is a program with 21 years of recovery experience. It is good at retrieving data from 2000+ storage devices, especially videos and photos. Its signature scan mode is very helpful for SD card unformat on Mac, Windows, and Android, but unfortunately, it does not offer a free version.
DiskDigger provides 2 versions: a free version and a professional version. If you just want to unformat an SD card on an Android phone to get the lost photos and videos, then the free version is enough.
If the SD card you are using is from SanDisk or Sony, you can also use their official solutions. In terms of algorithms, they have been improved according to their data storage methods to ensure that you can get a good result. However, in our tests, they are not as effective as iBeesoft Free Data Recovery in recovering videos.
When your SD card is repeatedly formatted or saved with new data, it may fail to recover data with the programs mentioned above. Is there any other way to unformat my SD card? You can try to contact a local data recovery service. They have professional skills and are equipped with a dust-free laboratory, and even in the case of data being overwritten, it is still possible to retrieve it. However, you need to pay for it. Usually, you can follow the steps below to get this kind of service.
Although accidentally formatting an SD card without a backup can make us feel desperate and helpless, with the SD card unformat with/without computer methods introduced in this article, we believe you can handle the situation. In addition, by understanding the data recovery possibilities of different formatting methods, you should be able to handle your important or private files properly in the future. Finally, I hope this guide can help you successfully unformat the SD card.
Not always. Since Android phones run almost 24 hours a day, whether it is the applications you install or the system, they are very likely to generate new files and store them on the card after you format the SD card. If these data overwrite the ones you want to recover, then they will disappear. For this, if you want to increase the chances of data recovery, what you have to do is to use the tools we mentioned as soon as possible.
Stop using the SD card immediately to prevent erased files from being overwritten. It will increase the chances of recovering formatted files. If the card is used in a mobile phone, unplug it immediately and connect it to the phone or computer only when you need to unformat the micro SD card.
Usually, it happens mostly because you unplug the SD card improperly, and its file system becomes RAW. Raw is a format that the computer and camera cannot recognize. There are 2 ways to get your data back and make it usable again.
It is most likely because you have used full formatting, third-party software, or saved new files afterwards. For this reason, the last resort is to consult a data recovery service provider.
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