Retrieving Pictures from a MicroSD

LST on 21/07/2015 - 08:38

Hi All,

Recently transferred all my picture on phone memory to a new microSD (Samsung) but last night I couldn't get my phone (Note 3) to read the microSD. Tried to use a laptop/tablet to read the card but to no avail.

I read some forum about incorrect insertion\/positioning of the card in the phone may cause issues and I recall I dropped my phone from a height couple of days ago. Not sure if it is because of the drop.

Anyway, yes, I know… I'm dumb and stupid not to back up my pictures. Lesson learnt.

But can any kind soul tell me if there is still hope of me retrieving pictures from my microSD? The card is detectable by laptop/tablet but it kept asking me to format.

Any software or reputable company that does this?

I read up a few forums but would like to hear from you guys as I have received many good advise (and bargains of course!) from this website :)

Computing

Comments

  • gmatht on 21/07/2015 - 08:58

    Yep, If it asks you to format the drive then your computer is detecting that something is there. If something is there you can ignore the partition information and scan the disk from beginning to end looking for lost files.

    Back in the day I think I used EaseUS. It was great, but there may be better options; especially since you only want to scan for Jpegs, simple tools like PhotoRec should do the trick. "Portable Data Recovery" may be easier to use. http://www.pendriveapps.com/portable-data-recovery/

  • Master Bates on 21/07/2015 - 09:29

    It is really important not to reformat the card or write anything to it. Recuva is a free tool that can retrieve files from your memory card. Good luck!

  • ESEMCE on 21/07/2015 - 09:47

    And turn on Google Photos auto backup (or Dropbox or OneDrive or Flickr etc etc etc)

  • ShadowCrimson on 21/07/2015 - 11:06

    As mentioned already Recuva is a great tool and also [PhotoRec] (http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download)
    which is bundled with TestDisk.

    These are the two I use when needing to retrieve data like photos and documents (minor data recovery) from a sd card/hdd that has been formatted etc. As long as it is detected in the laptop.

    • Daniel Plainview on 21/07/2015 - 12:24

      PhotoRec is the best option here by FAR.

  • cheapass88 on 21/07/2015 - 11:43
    +1

    one thing i'd like to mention as i've been screwed over in the past is to make sure you buy microsd cards from a reputable seller. there are more fakes on ebay than genuine ones. it reports your card as for eg. "32gb" but it's actually only 128MB.. so that could be a reason why the card is failing.

    I've reported it to ebay in the past and left negative feedback. But ebay must get contacted by the seller and I've noticed the feedback was later removed because no one else complained. The SD cards look identical to the original which doesn't help!

  • ST on 21/07/2015 - 12:16

    Thank you all! I have heard of test disk and am going to test it tonight.

    I have even heard of people sending their sd card to a German company who can actually rip the card apart and solder it onto another platform to read the card details. But I hope I don't have to go there as it cost euro 250 (I think) to retrieve a 32GB card.

    I bought the card from an Ozbargain deal (pc.byte) and I assume it was okay…Yes…I do place a lot of trust on Ozbargainers! :)

    Thank you very much for the advise. Really appreciate it!

    The only comforting news is my card is detected by the laptop. So fingers crossed that it's just some partition issues….

  • jzdhgkd on 21/07/2015 - 16:41

    I used DiskDigger which got most of the files off my sd card when I used it.

    The only thing is there is no directory structure and no filenames, so your photos/videos will be a single folder of seemingly randomly named items (named according to the sector they were located on the card I think)

    But it works and it's free!

  • geoffellis on 22/07/2015 - 23:40

    Just a consideration:

    But if you've enabled any sort of encryption on the device or the sd card - don't waste your time or money trying to retrieve the data. If this is the case, and it can't be read by the phone/device, you will never get your data back. unless maybe you wait until theres a breakthrough in quantum computing or something and the encryption method becomes obsolete/broken and is breakable without much effort.

  • KangaBanga on 07/08/2015 - 12:49

    Think you may have bought a fake microsd card. Did you buy it online from Ebay from some HK/China location? Usually the fake ones have reduced capacity and lose data after a couple uses. Check youtube for comparison videos.

  • ST on 27/08/2015 - 09:17

    Hello All,

    sorry for this late update. Thank you once again for your advice!
    I only managed to retrieve half of the photos. I tried the TestDisk and also Diskdigger but the result for TestDisk was better.
    I suppose half is better than nothing!

    @RedKelah
    I bought the card from an Ozbargain deal (pc.byte) and I assume it was okay as quite a lot of people here buy from this company.

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