Taking work now — the first look is freePosted in from anywhere in the UK, or handed in at ten drop-off pointsQuicker still, give us a ring:0800 6890668
SDCSD Memory Card Recovery 0800 6890668 Price my job
SDC / Every card, and where it came from / Drone, GoPro and action camera cards

DJI Mini · Air · Mavic · GoPro HERO · Insta360 · SD ERR · NO SD · V30 · A2 · crash · water · moov

Drone, GoPro and action camera card recovery. Big files, dead batteries, hard landings, and a card that went down with the aircraft.

Drones and action cameras are hard on cards in their own way. They write large video files continuously at high bitrates, they are powered by batteries that die mid-clip, they are formatted in the field to free space, and they crash, into hillsides, into the sea, into the ground at speed, with the card still writing. GoPro's own support page for its SD ERR and NO SD messages says the camera cannot properly communicate with the card and, before suggesting a format, tells owners to back up any pictures and videos first because the format wipes the card clean. DJI's drones are particular about card speed and refuse or warn on cards that cannot keep up, and a card that has been dropped from the sky arrives here cracked, wet or silent. The footage is video, and video has one weakness beyond the card: a clip the camera never finished has no index, and a player will not open it until the index is rebuilt. That is routine on the image, from a reference clip from the same camera. A card a reader still sees is £149 + VAT after the free look, fixed in writing; a card none sees, or one cracked in a crash, is £299 + VAT.

Free first lookOne fixed figure in writingNo data, no bill on most jobsReturn postage paid

Rather talk it through? An engineer answers the bench line
0800 6890668

Take the card out and leave it out. Do not format it, however politely the computer or the camera asks. Do not run chkdsk, First Aid, a repair tool or a recovery program that offers to fix the card. Do not keep trying it in reader after reader, and do not put it back in the camera to see. A card that reads a little tonight may not read at all tomorrow; whatever is on it is recovered from an image, and the image comes first.

Drone and action camera card symptoms, and how long each gives you.

Not listed? Describe it on the form →
GoPro shows SD ERR or NO SDThe camera cannot talk to the card. Do not format; copy what reads.Do not delay
Last clip will not playCut short by the battery or the crash. Rebuilt from a reference clip.Everyday job
Drone says card error, or too slowA worn or counterfeit card, or torn tables. Take it out.Do not delay
Card came down with the aircraftCracked or wet. Dry it; do not power it.Everyday job
Formatted in the field by mistakeTables rewritten; the clips left where they were.Do not delay
Not detected after a crashThe controller or the package. Monolith work.Everyday job
Packing it and posting it: take the card out of the device and leave it out; do not format, do not run a repair, and do not keep trying readers. Put the card in a small anti-static bag or a card case, tape that to a piece of card so it cannot shake loose, and post it in a padded envelope or a small box; a snapped microSD travels with every piece. Send the adapter or the reader only if the card has never worked without it. Use a tracked service and insure it for what the pictures are worth, and know that the posting address is not printed anywhere on this site; it arrives by email in reply to the form, with a booking sheet to print; the sheet inside the envelope is what matches it to your enquiry when it is opened. Or hand the envelope in at one of ten drop-off points, your name on the outside and the sheet inside. We pay the postage home either way. The whole of it is written up on the guide to packing and posting.

What is inside, what fails, and what the bench has to do.

The missing indexCameras write a video's frames as they go and its index, the table that says where each frame is, at the end. A battery that dies or a drone that hits the ground before the end leaves a file full of good frames that no player will open. On the image, the frames are found and the index rebuilt from a reference clip recorded by the same camera at the same settings, and the clip plays. A GoPro may offer to repair the last file itself when it next starts; let it only if the card still reads cleanly.
SD ERR and NO SDGoPro's page for the two messages says the camera cannot properly communicate with the card, and lists a format as the fix after a warning to back up first because the format wipes the card. The message covers a worn card, a counterfeit, a card the camera is too fast for, and torn tables after a dropout. Copy what reads on a computer, and if nothing reads, send it.
Crashes and waterA card that went into fresh water and was dried before anyone powered it is usually readable. Salt water corrodes the contacts and the pads within hours and needs cleaning before the first read. A card cracked in a crash is a monolith job if the flash die inside is whole, and the free look says whether it is.
Chapters and sidecarsGoPro and DJI split long recordings into chapter files and GoPro writes a small LRV preview and a THM thumbnail beside each one; Insta360 writes two lenses to its own container. The bench knows the layouts, puts the chapters back in order, and does not count a sidecar as a recovered clip.

What you see, and what is usually behind it.

Describe yours to us →
What you see What is usually behind it What the bench does
SD ERR, NO SDCard not answering the cameraImage on a computer reader; carve and rebuild the clips
Clip will not playNo indexRebuilt from a reference clip
Card error, write too slowWorn or fake cardImage; measure the real size; recover what was stored
Wet or cracked after a crashContacts, pads, or the packageClean, dry, read the pads if the die is whole
FormattedTables rewrittenImage; carve the clips by signature

From the envelope arriving to your files going back.

Work we have closed →
01

Logged the day it lands, and the first look costs nothing Free

A case number goes on the envelope and a number on the card the day it is opened, with both sides photographed. The card goes into a reader on a hardware imager that controls how long each read may take, never a laptop slot, and what it presents is read first: its capacity, its identity registers, its file system. That decides whether it is a card a reader can see with a fault in the data, or a card whose controller has stopped, and which band it falls in. The first look is free, and you can stop there owing nothing.

Nothing to pay for lookingA single figure, put in writingNo formats, no repairs, nothing written
02

Imaged, sector by sector, before anything else

A card that answers at all is imaged in full on hardware that limits every read and retries on its own terms, weak areas last, with a map kept of what could not be read. A card that is slow, that drops out, or that has locked itself read-only is imaged the same way, in short passes with the power cycled between them. Nothing is written to the card at any stage, and every later step happens on the image.

Sector by sector, weak areas lastNothing written to the card
03

The flash read through the test pads when the controller has stopped

A card no reader sees is a monolith job. The coating is removed to expose the internal test pads, the pinout is matched against a database or mapped by hand, a needle adapter is fitted, and the raw flash is read out around the dead controller. The scrambling, the error-correction layout and the page and block order are then solved in software, and a virtual image of the card assembled from the raw dump.

Pinout, needles, raw dumpDescrambled and reassembled in software
04

The file system rebuilt, or the files carved, on the image

On the image, the FAT or exFAT tables are rebuilt where they are damaged and read where they are not, deleted entries are brought back, and where the tables are gone the photographs and video are carved out by their own signatures. Video files cut short by a dead battery are rebuilt from a reference clip from the same camera. Every photograph is opened before it goes on the list; a file that will not open is not counted.

Tables rebuilt, or files carvedEvery file opened before it is listed
05

You see the file list before you pay

What was recovered is listed for you first, and only then does a bill exist. Approve the list and it is invoiced; turn it down and it is not, and where nothing has come back, most jobs carry no charge at all. The files go home on fresh media with the card, tracked, with the postage paid here, and your case stays open until you have opened them yourself.

No charge until you accept the figureFresh media, supplied with the job3–5 days at the bench

What arrives most often

  • Say the camera and the settings you were recording at. A reference clip at the same settings is how a cut clip is rebuilt; if you have one on another card, send it too.
  • Do not power a wet card. Dry it in air, in its bag, and send it.
  • Say which clips matter. A survey, a wedding flyover, a stunt: extraction begins there.

One job, followed all the way through.

UK · SDC-2026-0708JOB LOGGED ✓

A GoPro HERO 11's 256GB card that showed SD ERR after the camera died mid-clip on a sea kayak trip, carrying the week's footage and refusing every reader with a format prompt

The card read on the bench's imager at full speed with torn exFAT tables; the camera had died with the directory half-written. The volume was rebuilt on the image, the chapter files put back in order, and the last clip, which had no index, rebuilt from the previous chapter as a reference. The LRV and THM sidecars were left off the list.

100% of the clips recovered3 days here, and back by post
Illustrative example — replace with a genuine case

What helps, and what harms.

Do this much first

  • Take the card out and leave it out
  • Say no to the format the camera suggests
  • Dry a wet card in air without powering it
  • Send a reference clip from the same camera if you have one

What sets us back

  • Formatting in the camera to clear SD ERR
  • Letting the camera try the repair on a card that reads badly
  • Flying with the card again to see
  • Running a video repair tool on the originals

Questions answered before you commit.

My GoPro says SD ERR. Should I format it like the help page says?

Not before the footage is off it. GoPro's page itself says to back up first. If a computer reads the card, copy everything; if it does not, send it, and the bench reads it.

The last clip before the crash will not open. Is it gone?

Usually not. The camera never wrote the index. It is rebuilt from a reference clip from the same camera, on the image, and the clip plays.

The drone went into a lake. Is the card dead?

Fresh water, dried before anyone powered it, usually not. Salt water needs cleaning. A card cracked in the impact is read through its pads if the flash die is whole.

What does it cost?

£149 + VAT if a reader still sees the card after the free look; £299 + VAT if none does, or if it is cracked. Fixed in writing, and on most jobs no data means no bill.

Begin here if yours is doing the same thing.

GoPro SD ERR and NO SD →Snapped, cracked, bent or wet →Formatted, or deleted by mistake →microSD →SanDisk →

Nothing gets worse while the card is out of the device.

Looking at it is free. Back comes a list of what opened and what did not, together with a single price to finish, set down in writing while you are still free to say no. On most jobs an invoice only follows the data. Until that list reaches you, leave the card in its bag and format nothing.

0800 6890668

Price my jobPacking and posting