SD card screwed - recommended program to sort please.

robgraham scribbled...

Try Recova

Looks like it could be worth a shot. The "SD" is irrelevant to the problem - the OP's best bet is to treat this as standard filesystem corruption (almost certain some FAT variant in this case).

After that and hopefully copying everything off the card, I'd run a badblock scan and reformat (make new filesystem) on the card to be sure.

camera being corrupted. I suddenly spotted that the battery indicator was showing empty just as I took a picture and went to shut the camera off at o nce (for some reason!!). Anyway I guess the directory has got a bit scramb led.

viruses, so can I get a bit of a recommendation for something that is clean and works please.

Never had need for it myself, but PhotoRescue has an excellent provenance a nd reputation.

HTH J^n

I've seen Recuva recommended but fail, whereas I've used PhotoRec several times and seen it work.

The way photorec functions it can't possibly make the corruption any worse as it recovers whatever it can to a folder that isn't on the SD card. So long as you're happy running a "DOS style" app, I'd say try it first.

Tim Watts scribbled...

Forgot to mention - I'd be using the lock tab before doing anything.

Be aware that the write-protect notch on SD cards is "voluntary" it doesn't physically prevent writing to the card, software can ignore it.

Some card readers are unaware of the tab.

Andy Burns scribbled...

Ta. Never heard of that program, hope I never have to use it. I don't need my 32Gb camera cards going t*ts up.

I've used Data Rescue 3 for Mac (they also do a Windows version) - excellent. They do a demo version that'll show you what it can do, without actually doing it.

In message , Graham. writes

As are some users ...

PhotoRec also has a HDD cousin, DiskTest. Both first class in my experience, and definitely not malware (if downloaded from a reliable source)

if all of the recovery attempts fail (quite likely)

google panasonic sd card formatter 2.0

Another thumbs up for Photorec. Has got me out of trouble more than once

I have a duff SD card that does not even respond to that.

I'd duplicate the card with a bit duplicator first, to a disk image. For this, I'd use dd or ddrescue on Linux. Probably ddrescue if there's a chance of damage to the SD card beyond simple filesystem corruption [Raspberry Pi boards can do horrible things to SD cards].

Then I'd copy that disk image file to a second file.

Then on that second file I'd run a FAT analysis and file recovery tool for photos. Maybe PhotoRec.

The reason for making a disk image of the card is so there's no chance of modifying the card and making things worse.

The reason for operating on a copy of that disk image is the same, I don't want to have to re-read my master card again during recovery at all.

In message , Graham. writes

Thank you :-)

Many thanks guys for all your suggestions and recommendations. I might be able to get round to tackling this in the evening, and report back.

Rob