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SDC / Every card, and where it came from / SD, SDHC and SDXC

SD · SDHC · SDXC · SDUC · UHS-I · UHS-II · V30 · V90 · FAT32 · exFAT · lock switch

SD, SDHC and SDXC card recovery. The card in nearly every camera, and the fault that comes with every one.

The full-size SD card has been the camera card for twenty years and it still carries most of the photographs that arrive here. It comes in four capacity tiers with their own file systems, SD to 2GB, SDHC to 32GB on FAT32, SDXC to 2TB on exFAT, and SDUC beyond that, and in two bus speeds, UHS-I through the one row of contacts at up to 104MB/s and UHS-II through a second row at up to 312MB/s. Inside, it is one of two things: a small circuit board carrying a controller and one or more flash chips, which is the older design and the larger cards, or a single sealed block with both inside it, which is the newer design and most of the cheaper cards. The faults are the same whichever it is. A card the camera says needs formatting after a battery died mid-write; a card the computer offers to format; a card that has locked itself read-only; a card whose lock switch has gone loose and lies to the reader; a card snapped at the corner by a bag zip; a card no reader sees at all. A card a reader still sees is £149 + VAT after the free look, fixed in writing; a card none sees, or one snapped, locked or lying about its size, 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.

SD card symptoms, and how long each gives you.

Not listed? Describe it on the form →
Camera says card error, or needs formattingThe file tables were damaged mid-write. The pictures are still there. Say no.Do not delay
Computer says you need to format the diskWindows cannot read the file system. Everything is still on the card. Say no.Do not delay
Reads in the camera, not on the computerexFAT, a bad reader, or a card too large for an old slot. Usually nothing wrong with the card.Everyday job
Write-protected, and the switch is fineThe card locked itself when its spare blocks ran out. Copy everything off now.Do not delay
Not detected anywhereThe controller has stopped. The flash is read through the test pads.Everyday job
Cracked, bent or snappedThe shell is cosmetic; the board or the block inside decides it.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.

Two insidesOlder and larger SD cards are a small circuit board carrying a controller chip and one or more TSOP-packaged flash chips; when the controller dies, the flash chips are desoldered and read on a programmer directly. Newer and cheaper cards are a single sealed block, a monolith, with controller and flash inside one package; when it dies, the flash is read through test pads on the card's own board. The free look says which yours is.
The lock switch is read by the hostThe slider on the side moves nothing inside the card. A lever in the slot reads its position, and a loose or broken slider, or a worn adapter, reports the card as locked when it is not. SanDisk's own note on adapters says a loose adapter switch can slide to the locked position as the card goes in, and that the adapter should be replaced. A card that is write-protected with its switch open, and in a reader that is known good, has locked itself for a different reason, below.
The read-only lockSanDisk's support note says a card will write-protect itself to prevent data loss when the number of good blocks is lower than the preset threshold, and a Linux kernel patch of 2021 notes that some SD cards set permanent write protection due to lifespan or internal problem. The card is still readable, and that is the point: copy everything off now, because it will never be writable again, and the forum tools that force the lock off are the wrong move.
Battery death and the file tablesA camera writes a photograph in two steps, the data and then the directory entry and allocation table that point at it. A battery that dies, or a card pulled out, between the two leaves tables that no longer describe the data. The camera says card error; the computer says format. The data is intact and the tables are rebuilt on the image.

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
Card error, or format in cameraFile tables damaged mid-writeImage; rebuild the FAT or exFAT tables on the image
You need to format the diskWindows cannot read the file systemImage; rebuild, or carve the photographs by signature
Write-protected, switch openController locked itself at end of lifeImage it now, in short passes; the lock is permanent
Not detected in any readerController stopped, or a dead shortChip-off on a board, test pads on a monolith
Shows the wrong sizeA fake, or a corrupt controller tableImage what is real; carve from it
Snapped at the cornerThe shell split; the board or block may be wholeOpen it; read the board or the block directly

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 what camera it came from and what it said. Canon, Nikon, Sony and Fujifilm each word the same fault differently, and the wording says how far it got.
  • Say whether the computer offered to format, and whether anyone said yes. A quick format leaves the photographs where they were; a full format in Windows writes zeros to the whole card.
  • Send the adapter if the card has only ever lived in one. Otherwise it stays; a worn adapter is the commonest cause of a false write-protect.

One job, followed all the way through.

UK · SDC-2026-0701JOB LOGGED ✓

A wedding photographer's SanDisk Extreme PRO 128GB SDXC that showed a card error during the reception, then offered a format on every computer in the house

Nobody formatted it. The card was imaged whole on the bench; the exFAT allocation bitmap and part of the root directory had been torn when the camera's battery died mid-burst. The directory was rebuilt on the image from the surviving entries and the file allocation chains, the last burst of RAW files carved by signature where the entries were gone, and every file opened before it went on the list.

1,942 of 1,944 RAW files 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 of the camera and leave it out
  • Say no to every offer to format or repair
  • Photograph both sides of the card and the camera's message
  • Send it tracked; the first look is free

What sets us back

  • Formatting it in the camera to get shooting again
  • Running chkdsk, First Aid or a repair tool
  • Trying it in reader after reader, or in another camera
  • Forcing a write-protect lock off with a utility

Questions answered before you commit.

The camera says the card needs formatting. Are the photographs gone?

Almost never. The camera cannot read its file tables; the photographs are still on the flash. Say no, take the card out, and send it. It is the lower band and usually a few days.

The card works in the camera but not on my computer. What is wrong?

Usually nothing with the card. SDXC cards are exFAT, which an old reader or an old operating system may not mount; a 64GB or larger card in an SDHC-only slot will not read at all. Try a UHS-II reader on a current machine before worrying.

What is the difference between a card with chips and a monolith?

Chips on a board can be removed and read on a programmer when the controller fails. A monolith is one sealed block and its flash is read through the test pads on its own board. Both are routine here; the monolith takes longer.

Is it true the card can lock itself read-only?

Yes. SanDisk says a card will write-protect itself when its good blocks fall below a threshold; it is the card's own way of stopping before it loses data. Copy everything off at once and retire the card.

What does it cost?

£149 + VAT if a reader still sees the card after the free look, fixed in writing; £299 + VAT if none does, or if it is snapped, locked or lying about its size. On most jobs no data means no bill.

Begin here if yours is doing the same thing.

You need to format the disk →The disk is write-protected →Formatted, or deleted by mistake →SanDisk →Canon Err 02 →

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.

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Price my jobPacking and posting