Can You Recover Data from SD Card? Of Course!

Gemma updated on Jan 18, 2022 to Data Recovery Resource | How-to Articles

As a common data storage device, SD card is popularized for its small size and large capacity. Are you bothered by SD card data loss and wondering can you recover data from SD card? It's not a problem anymore, this post will tell you how to do it.

"Oh no!" These two words might be the only thing you can think of when you realize that photos and videos on the SD card have disappeared. You are panicked, confused, and helpless. You wish the deletion never happened and looked through the SD card files over and over again. Finally, you've accepted the fact that your data is gone, gone forever.

SD card contains lots of precious information and can be applied on many devices, such as digital cameras, dash cams, motion cameras, and drones, etc. Since it is of vital importance, can you recover the lost data from your SD card? Fortunately, yes. This article will cover the most common two cases - deletion and formatting, tell you how to recover data from SD cards in the most effective way.

What Happens to Your SD Card after Deletion or Formatting?

First of all, we want to explain that after deleting and formatting an SD card, the way data disappears is different. Here is the difference.

Delete:

When you delete files from the SD card (or hard drive or flash drive), the data is not deleted immediately, instead, your computer just marks the space as rewritable. Now you just can't see the deleted files, but they are still on your SD card. If you use the data recovery software now, it could scan and find those invisible files, and recover them. 

However, all these recovery procedures are only feasible if no overwrite occurs. It means you didn't add any new files to your SD card after deletion. That's very important. So please remember, don't do anything when you lost data on your SD card, hard drive, or USB flash drive. 

Format:

Format is a little different from delete. If you have accidentally formatted an SD card, usually it's a quick format. You can regard the quick format as a deletion. All the files on your SD card are deleted, but no overwrite happens. You can use the data recovery software to recover lost files. However, if you have performed full formatting, it means all your SD card data is deleted and overwritten. You only have slight chances to restore your data.

How Can You Recover Data from SD Card?

As mentioned before, as long as there is no overwrite happens, you can use data recovery software to find back your lost SD card data. For most data recovery tools, the method of restoring deleted and formatted data is the same. The important thing is to find reliable tools.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, praised by many review sites, such as PCMag, TechRadar, and Lifewire, is a good choice for users who need to recover data. It is very easy to use for both beginners and experts, and it can recover files from SD cards, hard drives, external hard drives, USB flash drives, etc. This software has helped millions of users over the past 17 years in the data recovery field. Here are the key features of EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard

  • Covers the most common data loss scenarios: deleting, formatting, partition loss, OS crash, virus attack, etc.
  • Supports recovery of more than 1000 file types.
  • Can scan and list the deleted files quickly.
  • Scans and recovers files in three simple steps.

You can download EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard from the button above. Then follow our guide to see how to recover data from the SD card.

Step 1. Select the SD card to scan

  • Download and install EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard on your Windows PC.
  • Use the proper way to connect your SanDisk/Lexar/Transcend SD card to the computer. 
  • Open EaseUS SD card recovery software. All connected drives will display here. Select your SD card and click "Scan".

Step 2. Check for scan results

  • Wait for the scanning process to complete.
  • Click "Filter" and specify one or several file types to show up, like Pictures, Word, Excel, PDF, Videos and so on.
  • Click "Preview" to check if they are the wanted files.

Step 3. Recover SD card data

  • Choose desired files and click "Recover".
  • Choose a different location to save the recovered files instead of the original SD card.

Why Does My SD Card Need Formatting?

Many users have told us, the reason why they lost data on their SD cards is that they received an error message saying that "SD Card Needs to Be Formatted" or "You need to format the disk". They do what the Windows says, and get nothing but an empty SD card.

The error message usually appears when your SD card is corrupted or there is some problem in the file system format. The only way you can fix the SD card is to format it as a fresh one. And you can do it more smartly.

Using EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard, you can extract data from an SD card that needs to be formatted to another safe location. After you have executed the formatting, you can put the recovered data on your SD card again. Bang! New SD card, and no data loss.

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard Can always Help You when There is No Overwrite

Hope you can solve your problem after reading this article. And there's one thing we want you to remember. Whether you have lost the SD card data due to deletion or formatting, don't do anything to your SD card and turn to data recovery software immediately. The only chance can you recover your data back is when there's no overwrite occurs.