2022-10-14
SD card (Secure Digital Memory Card) is one of the most popular storage devices. It is compact and can hold tens of gigabytes of information. Most mobile devices store data on MiniSD and MicroSD.
Unfortunately, sd cards are not protected against losing photos, videos and documents. The deletion scenarios for /files on an sd card are varied. These include erroneous formatting, corruption due to unsafe removal from the card reader or phone, and accidental deletion of /files and folders. Mostly, Android mobile device users lose videos and photos from Gallery, less often documents (text notes). This review presents the best sd card data recovery tools.
Participants of the review:
- DiskDigger
- 7 data android recovery
- Photorec
- Disk Drill
- Getdataback
- Card recovery
- DMDE
DiskDigger is a professional Windows and Mac OS card recovery program. A special feature of the program is the presence of two file recovery modes: Dig Deep and Dig Deeper.
The Dig Deep scan mode is suitable for most file deletion scenarios: formatting, damaging, deleting. DiskDigger recognizes sd card file systems such as FAT, exFAT and NTFS without any problems.
The Dig Deep scan mode is designed to recover specific file types. For example it is possible to limit the search to pictures in jpg format or to documents in DOC format.
The full list of file formats for deleted /files is available on the official website.
The results window is accessible for all multimedia file types.
Another useful feature is that you can create a virtual clone of an sd card in VDI format and then safely recover the sd card without the risk of overwriting its contents.
The current price of the full Windows version of DiskDigger is $14.99, which is not much for a professional tool.
In any case, DiskDigger allows you to scan an sd-card, flash drive or other media, perform a preview and then think about buying a personal license. The Linux version of DiskDigger is free.
Download DiskDigger for PC
Photorec - free flash and memory card reanimator for Windows and Linux
Photorec is a universal, free and multi-platform application. It recovers data also from sd cards and digital cameras. Photorec can detect deleted /files in cases where the file table is corrupted or the disk is formatted. Since the program works in read-only mode, there is no need to worry that the data on the sd-card will be overwritten.
Photorec supports Canon, Fujifilm, Nikon, Olympus, Sony and other models of digital cameras. There are no file format restrictions when scanning (like in CardRecovery). Anything that Photorec finds among the file system clusters will be suitable for preview and recovery. The program will help you restore everything it finds inside the file table as well as metadata: file size, name, date and location (path) on the memory card.
There are no limitations in Photorec; in addition you get TestDisk console utility - reanimator of deleted partitions and sectors, also for recovery of lost information on hard disks.
So if it's the free program you need, Photorec is the best microsd card recovery software.
Download Photorec free
7-Data Card Recovery - sd and microsd information recovery software
The 7-Data Card Recovery software is part of the 7-Data Recovery Suite. It will help those users who have lost /files on sd-card by formatting or unintentional deletion. All standard Android file formats for audio, video, images are supported. Considering the peculiarities of Android, the list is not very long, but it is more than enough for an sd-card recovery program.
7-Data Card Recovery recovers data from the external memory of a mobile device only. The most popular card types are SD Card, SDHC, Compact Flash, xD Picture Card, MicroSD, Memory Stick.
The 7-Data Card Recovery application is installed on a Windows XP > computer. To find and recover the microsd you need to connect it to the computer via a card reader. Once connected, a list of removable storage devices will be displayed, you need to select the sd-card from the list. By the way, the program works with local drives too, therefore the area of application of this tool is much wider than it seems at first sight.
The cost of a license for 7-Data Card Recovery is $49.95 (home edition), a one year subscription is $39.95. The evaluation version can be downloaded free of charge.
Note . Besides Card Recovery, the Android Data Recovery edition is also available. It works with the internal memory of tablets and smartphones. The program is compatible with popular mobile brands like Google, Samsung, Lenovo, Fly and others.
Card Recovery is a highly specialized sd card photo and video recovery program
Although there are dozens of memory card and flash drive recovery programs, not many can boast a good track record and real, not marketing recovery features. CardRecovery is considered a "veteran" in the recovery application market. If you study the list of deletion scenarios, user cases, supported cards, digital camera manufacturers and file types - in general, it becomes clear that we're facing a professional sd-recovery tool.
The latest version of CardRecovery is v6.10. The product hasn't been updated for quite a while, at that it works under Windows 10 without any problems and reads all known sd-memory types and connected removable devices. Generally speaking, Card Recovery specializes in data recovery from sd cards of digital cameras, phones, tablets. The main types of data are video and photo. If you need to recover /files from the hard drive or specify specific file formats for searching, it is better to turn to other products.
The key feature of CardRecovery is the SmartScan feature that allows you to find photos and videos by their signatures. This can be especially useful if the file table of the sd-card has been destroyed after formatting or damage. Recuva has a deep search function, but CardRecovery makes a fast analysis specifically for multimedia formats.
Download CardRecovery
Disk Drill - recovery software with a simple interface and extensive storage device support
Disk Drill is a relatively new application in the data recovery category. In a small program, a complete kit for working with removable storage devices is assembled. There are editions of the program for both Windows and Mac OS. Correspondingly, the list of file systems includes NTFS, EXT, ExFAT and HFS+. It does not matter if you connect a USB key, an sd-card, a camera, etc.
A nice bonus - Disk Drill can recover up to 100 MB of /files for free. So if you only need to recover 5-10 /files on your sd-card, you don't have to buy a license. The Pro version of Disk Drill is not cheap ($89), but seasonal discounts up to 50% are possible.
DMDE - professional recovery from memory cards, flash drives and HDD
We included this program in the review despite the fact that the free version is limited. DMDE is used in professional circles as a convenient and efficient recovery tool. The program is cross-platform - you can use it under Windows, Linux, Mac OS and DOS - via the command line.
First of all the limitations. The free DMDE version allows to recover up to 4000 items.
Some other versions of DMDE (Express, Standard, Professional) remove limit of /files, license price starts from €16.
In addition the basic tools are available in the free edition:
- Disk editor - allows to modify manually the disk structure, file tables deep search for deleted /files,
- Creation of disk images for further recovery from a full copy of the original.
The list of compatible storage devices includes HDD, RAID, usb flash, sd and microsd cards. The file system can be nearly any known file system. As a rule, it is NTFS, exFat or FAT for memory cards. Linux and Mac OS FS are also supported.
DMDE download
Which sd card recovery program to choose?
- Recuva is a free recovery application, fully working without any fees (hopefully it will always be so). This is why this program is the most popular on the market.
- EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard in its free version is limited to 2 GB of recoverable data - which is enough for the first time. It is very user friendly and includes a step-by-step wizard.
- 7-Data Recovery and DiskDrill are now one and the same program. It has some nice features like pause scan and raw search.
- Glary Undelete is a rather simple program. Good enough for recovery of /files on a memory card, but lags behind all of the above in terms of functionality.
- DMDE - Arguably the best professional tool, not too expensive for this list of features. Fully searches for /files on a memory card, though for the most part it is used for data recovery on a hard drive.
- Photorec is best for finding lost photos and recovering them on any desktop platform. Memory cards are claimed to be supported and can be handled through a card reader.
