PhotoRec · Recuva · Disk Drill · EaseUS · Stellar · Recoverit · R-Studio · DMDE · RescuePRO Deluxe · Image Rescue · RecoveRx
Recovery software, or a laboratory: which, and when. Software is the right first step for one kind of card and the wrong step for every other kind.
This is the page we would want to read before paying for a download. Recovery software does one thing well: it reads a card that the controller still presents to the computer as a drive, and finds in it the deleted, formatted or orphaned files that the file tables no longer point at. On a card that reads cleanly at its correct capacity, with a fault in the data rather than in the card, it is a fair first step, and the free programs are as good at it as the paid ones. On a card that drops out, reads slowly, shows the wrong size, has locked itself read-only and is failing, or is not seen at all, it is the wrong step: every scan is thousands of reads of the weakest blocks, the repair options write to the card, and no program on earth reads flash behind a dead controller. This page says which tools do what, how to run them without harm, and where the line is. A card a reader still sees is £149 + VAT on the bench after the free look, if you would rather the first attempt were the right one; a card none sees is £299 + VAT, and software is not an option for it.
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What the tools do, and how to run them without harm.
The free ones. PhotoRec, with its companion TestDisk, carves photographs and video from a card by their signatures and does it as well as anything sold; it ignores the file system entirely, which makes it blunt and dependable, and it loses names. Recuva reads the file system and restores deleted entries with their names where it can. Both are free, both are run from a computer against a card or an image, and both are the right first step on a readable card.
The paid ones. Disk Drill, EaseUS, Stellar, Wondershare Recoverit, R-Studio and DMDE do the same two jobs, file-system repair and carving, with better interfaces, previews, and in R-Studio's and DMDE's case tools a laboratory would recognise. Their advertising is broader than their reach: none of them reads a card the controller does not present, and a scan that finds nothing on a card showing 0 bytes has found nothing because there is nothing to read, not because the next program will do better.
The makers' own. SanDisk supplies RescuePRO Deluxe, from LC Technology, free with Extreme and Extreme PRO cards on a two-year licence activated with a key from the packaging; SanDisk's support note says SanDisk itself does not provide installation, configuration or troubleshooting of it. Lexar has supplied Image Rescue with its Professional cards. Transcend publishes RecoveRx free. Each is a fair carving and undelete tool for a readable card, and none is a way into a card no reader sees.
How to run any of them safely. First, make an image: a sector-by-sector copy of the whole card to a file on another drive, with a tool such as ddrescue on Linux or a Mac, or a raw-copy tool on Windows. Then run the recovery program against the image, not the card. Save what it finds to a third place, never back to the card. Decline every offer the program makes to repair, fix or rebuild the card itself; those write to it. If the image cannot be made because the card errors or drops out, stop; that is the sign the card needs the bench rather than the program.
When software is the wrong step.
A card that reads slowly, drops out, or shows a different size from one insertion to the next is a card whose controller or flash is failing, and a recovery program scans every sector of it, often several times, which is thousands of reads of exactly the blocks that are weakest. The card that would have imaged once on hardware with controlled retries may not survive the third scan. A card locked read-only by its own controller at the end of its life is in the same state: it will give one careful read, and a scan is not careful. A card showing 0 bytes, no media, or 30MB where 128GB should be is presenting nothing the program can read. A card not detected at all is the same with nothing to click. For all of these, the bench images first, in short passes if it must, and reads the flash through the pads if the controller will not present it.
What no software can do.
Read flash behind a dead controller, on a board or in a monolith. Measure a counterfeit's real capacity and recover from what is really there. Rebuild a video's index from a reference clip so that a cut clip plays. Clean a card that has been in salt water. Open a card adopted as internal storage by a dead Android phone, which is encrypted to the phone, or a BitLocker drive without its key, which nobody can. Recover what a full format on Windows wrote zeros over, or what a dashcam's loop has overwritten.
Where that leaves you.
If the card reads cleanly at its right size and the fault is deleted, formatted or corrupt files, image it and run PhotoRec or whichever you prefer against the image, and you may well not need us. If you would rather the first attempt were the right one, or the files are video, RAW formats a program does not know, or the only copy of something, the bench does the same job with better tools for £149 + VAT after the free look. If the card does anything else, send it; the free look costs nothing, and a card no reader sees is £299 + VAT.
The questions that come up first.
Which free software is best for SD card recovery?
PhotoRec for carving photographs and video from any readable card, and Recuva for restoring deleted files with their names. Run either against an image of the card, never the card.
I ran software and it found nothing. Will a different program?
If the card reads cleanly, a second carving tool rarely finds what the first missed. If the card showed 0 bytes, the wrong size or dropped out, no program will; the card needs the bench.
Is it safe to let the software repair the card?
No. Repair options write to the card, and on torn tables they write the wrong thing. Decline them and save the results elsewhere.
What does the bench charge for a card software could have read?
£149 + VAT after the free look, fixed in writing, with every photograph opened before it is listed and cut video rebuilt. The free look is free either way.
If the card reads cleanly, try the free tools on an image.
If it does anything else, or if the files matter too much for a second attempt, send it. The first look is free.