Ultimate Guide: Recover Deleted Files from SD Card on Windows

An SD card is a common portable storage device that is small in size but large in data storage capacity. SD cards are widely used in digital cameras, smartphones, surveillance devices, and so on. Despite being a mature data storage technology, SD cards are not immune to data loss. It is urgent to recover deleted files from SD card while digging out the data loss reasons matters more.

Data loss can happen in diverse situations. On the one hand, human errors are the major cause of losing files, including unintentional deletion, mistaken formatting, partition deletion, and so on. On the other hand, logical errors and physical damages on the SD card are responsible for the SD card data loss. Logical errors encompass file system corruption, bad sectors, etc., which can be resolved with practical utilities. Physical damage on the SD card might lead to data irrecoverable. The chances of successful SD card data recovery vary from the causes of data loss. The following content shows you how to recover deleted files from SD card easily.

Way 1. Recover Deleted Files from SD Card with MiniTool Power Data Recovery

Although files lost from your SD card are permanently removed, you can still retrieve those lost files with professional SD card data recovery software, like MiniTool Power Data Recovery. This software is designed to restore types of files from diverse data storage devices, including SD cards, USB drives, external hard drives, and more.

No matter whether your files are lost due to unintentional deletion, partition loss, SD card formatting, virus infection, or other reasons, you can run this tool to complete SD card data recovery as long as the data is not overwritten.

MiniTool has developed several editions of this software. You can get MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free for a test to detect and recover permanently deleted files from SD card with the following steps.

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Step 1. Connect the SD card to your computer and scan the target location.

Suppose you have downloaded and installed MiniTool Power Data Recovery, you can connect the SD card to your computer via a card reader and launch the software. In the main interface, here are two sections:

• Logical Drives: All detected partitions, encompassing internal disk partitions and external device partitions, will be listed in this section. You can choose the partition of your SD card and click Scan.
• Devices: This section will display all devices, including the internal disk and connected devices. If you want to recover files from the whole SD card, you can scan the entire SD card from this section, which will take a longer time to complete the scan duration.

Please wait patiently until the scan process is finished. You are not advised to stop the process in the midway in order to find all the files from the SD card.

Step 2. Locate your wanted files with multiple features.

All detected files are displayed on the result page, sorted by their paths into three folders: Existing Files, Deleted Files, and Lost Files. Expanding those folders one by one to locate the target file is the most direct way, whereas the most tiresome and time-consuming choice as well. Here are four other features that assist you in pinpointing files swiftly.

• Filter: As the name indicates, this function allows you to set filter criteria, such as file size, file type, file category, and file last modified date, to exclude unwanted files. However, this feature only performs a general screening of the files. 
• Type: Different from the Path tab, files under the Type tab are classified by their types and, more specifically, file formats. For instance, to find the JPG photos, you can change to the Type tab and expand the Picture selection to find the JPG sort, which encompasses all the JPG photos stored in the scanned partition or device.
• Search: This feature is for a specific file recovery. Type the file name (both the complete and the partial name are acceptable) into the search box and press Enter to allow the software to detect the matched items from the file list.
• Preview: The former three functions focus on filtering and locating files, while the Preview feature is used to ascertain the file content before restoring. This function enhances data recovery accuracy to a large extent.

Step 3. Choose the required files and restore them to a new destination.

Once finding the wanted files, add check marks in front of them and click the Save button. You need to choose a new destination for those files. Saving recovered files is similar to writing new data. If you select the original file path, the data recovery process might fail due to data overwriting.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery will inform you when the SD card data recovery task is completed. You can close the software and head to the destination to check files.

I’d like to remind you that MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free only supports restoring 1GB of files for free. You can get a larger data recovery capacity by upgrading the software to an advanced edition.

Way 2. Recover Deleted Files from SD Card via Backups

Previous backups are always the easiest way to recover deleted files from SD card and other devices. If you have backed up SD card files to other physical devices, such as an external hard drive, USB drive, memory stick, etc., you can connect the backup device to the computer and copy and paste the target files to the SD card.

Some of you may use Windows backup utilities to create redundant SD card files, such as File History. Despite the powerful functions of File History, it requires you to manually enable File History and add the SD card folder to the backup list in advance. With the preliminary conditions, you have a chance to recover files with File History on Windows.

Bonus Tip: Back up Files Using MiniTool ShadowMaker

In addition to backing up files with Windows utilities, another optimal choice for you to safeguard SD card files is using professional backup software. MiniTool ShadowMaker is worth a try as it is equipped with robust features, which enable you to back up files, folders, partitions, and disks settled with different backup types, modes, and intervals. Download and install MiniTool ShadowMaker Trial to back up SD card files with those features for free in 30 days.

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Step 1. Connect your SD card to the computer and launch the backup software to enter the main interface. Select the Backup option at the left sidebar.

Step 2. Click SOURCE. In the following interface, you can choose Folders and Files or Disk and Partitions. You can choose the data you want to back up and click OK to confirm.

Step 3. Click DESTINATION to select a new location to store the backup. If you want to back up the SD card files to an external device, please connect the storage media to your computer at the very beginning to ensure it is recognized by this backup tool. Click OK.

Step 4. Choose Back Up Now to start the backup process. Furthermore, you can choose the Options button to manage the backup process. According to the backup requirements, you can set the backup types and intervals.

Basic Solutions to Resolve SD Card Issues

As we mentioned in the forehead content, plenty of reasons lead to SD card data loss. Logical errors in the SD card are the main cause. Here are some basic solutions for you to repair the problematic SD card. Handle the issue with the following solutions.

Solution 1. Run the CHKDSK Command Line

The CHKDSK command line is used to check and repair the disk logical issues. If you get error messages like “the file system is corrupted” or other similar error information, you can run this command line to detect the file system issues. Here are the steps to execute the command.

Step 1. Connect the SD card to your computer.

Step 2. Press Win + R to launch the Run window.

Step 3. Type cmd into the dialog and press Shift + Ctrl + Enter to run Command Prompt as administrator.

Step 4. Type CHKDSK X: /f and hit Enter. You should replace X with the actual drive letter of your SD card.

After running the CHKDSK command line, you can close the window and try to access the SD card again. Check if files are lost when the SD card becomes accessible. If files are actually missing, please run MiniTool Power Data Recovery to recover permanently deleted files from SD card immediately.

Solution 2. Format the SD Card

Formatting is always a feasible solution to resolve many disk errors. However, formatting a disk will erase all the saved files at the same time. Performing a format operation after recovering SD card files with MiniTool Power Data Recovery.

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Here are several methods to format the problematic SD card. In different situations, you can choose one that suits your case the most.

>> Format the SD card via File Explorer

If you can’t access the SD card in File Explorer after connecting it to your computer, you can try to format the SD card via File Explorer.

Step 1. Press Win + E to open Windows Explorer.

Step 2. Select This PC at the left sidebar. Right-click on the SD card and choose Format.

Step 3. Set the wanted file system and volume label in the small window and tick Quick Format.

Step 4. Click Start to perform the formatting operation.

>> Format the SD card using Disk Management

In some case, you are unable to find the SD card in File Explorer because of no drive letter, partition loss, disk unallocated, etc. If the SD card is detected by the computer, go to Disk Management to check if the SD card is listed here and format it in Disk Management.

Step 1. Right-click on the Windows icon and choose Disk Management.

Step 2. Find the SD card and right-click on it.

Step 3. Choose Format to select the file system and volume label. Click OK to start.

>> Format the SD card with MiniTool Partition Wizard

Some users may be stuck in such a dilemma that the SD card is not in File Explorer and cannot be formatted in Disk Management. To resolve the SD card issue, you need a partition management tool, like MiniTool Partition Wizard. Apart from formatting disks, MiniTool Partition Wizard also supports disk wipe, partition resize, file system conversion, and more.

MiniTool Partition Wizard FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

Step 1. Connect the SD card to your computer. Download and install MiniTool Partition Wizard on your computer and launch it.

Step 2. Right-click on the SD card and choose Format. You need to set the proper file system and click OK to confirm.

Step 3. You can preview the disk status after formatting the SD card. If there is no error, click Apply to complete the suspending process.

Final Words

This post focuses on ways to recover deleted files from SD card as well as solutions to repair SD card issues. Taking precautionary measures to safeguard files is much more important than seeking methods to recover data after deleted.

If you have any problems when using MiniTool software, please feel free to contact us via [email protected]. Hope this post provides you with some useful information in time.