Recover Fix Corrupted/Damaged SD Card Without Losing Data
5 Ways to Fix Corrupted/Damaged SD Card
To fix different levels of damage, it’s advisable for SD card owners to try troubleshooting methods one by one, from simple to complex. Altogether, there are 5 ways of SD card repair solutions that are widely recommended on websites and forums. Let’s start with a detailed guide for each fix.
Fix 1. Change a card reader, adapter or a USB port
Sometimes, connection issues or power issues are likely to cause SD card problems. First of all, it’s better to exclude exterior factors that can be fixed with a few tricks.
How do you connect the removable SD card to the PC? Take advantages of anything that is available to you, like a different USB port on your computer, a new card adapter or another computer. Try a re-connection for a couple of times. Does your memory card work normally again? If changing a connection device helps remove the SD card errors, take prompt measures to prevent data loss. Try to copy pictures and videos as many as possible from the SD card to cloud storage or other safe places.
Fix 2. Run Windows Repair Tool
Nothing’s changed by performing the primary examination? Continue with the native Windows check and repair tool to repair the SD card.
Step 1: Connect the SD card to your PC
Step 2: Press Windows + E to open Windows Explorer.
Step 3: Right-click the SD card and open its Properties.
Step 4: Click on the Tools tab.
Step 5: Click the Check button.
tep 6: Let the scan process completes. Close the scan window once it finishes.
Fix 3. Change a drive letter
If the Windows system does not assign a drive letter to the SD card, or because its drive letter is conflicted with other drives, your SD card will act as it has corrupted, and become unreadable. This time try to change a drive letter to it with the inbuilt Windows Disk Management program.
Step 1: Press Win + X keys and click Disk Management.
Step 2: Find and right-click on your SD card and select Change Drive Letter and Path…
Step 3: Click Add and select a new drive letter and click “OK” to save all the changes.
Fix 4. Run CHKDSK to check and repair SD card bad sectors
SD card has a limited lifespan, like other removable storage devices. It will grow bad sectors after a long period of use. Chkdsk cmd is good at finding SD card file system corruption errors and removing bad sectors from it. This is also the most applicable way to repair SD card without formatting it.
Step 1: Plug your SD card into your computer with a card reader.
Step 2: Go to the start menu, type “cmd” in a search bar, hit enter and you will see “cmd.exe” in a list of programs.
Step 3: Click “cmd.exe” and then you will get the following command window that will allow you to fix your corrupted SD card without formatting.
Step 4: Type in chkdsk /X /f [sd card letter]: or chkdsk [sd card letter]: /f.
For example, chkdsk /X /f h: or chkdsk h: /f, if your card is in drive letter H.
After finishing all these steps, Windows will begin to check and fix the file system of the SD card. It usually takes several minutes. After that, if you see “Windows has made corrections to the file system” in the command window, then congratulations, the damaged SD card is successfully fixed, and you can see your data again.
If you don’t have any technical know-how and want to minimize data risks, using third-party software could be a better choice. The Command line is suitable for computer professionals since wrong commands can cause severe problems. Therefore, we strongly recommend you to try an automatic command line alternative.
EaseUS Tool M is a practical computer fixing tool that is safe and light-weighted. It’s a perfect alternative to CHKDSK command. Use this one-click tool to solve your computer issues.
To fix file system error or disk error:
Step 1: DOWNLOAD EaseUS Tool M for Free and install it.
Step 2: Open the software and select “File Fixing” on the left pane.
On the right pane, choose the drive and check off the box at the bottom – “Check and fix file system error”. Then, click “Fix” to start repairing the error.
Step 3: Wait until the operation completes. Wait until the operation completes. After the operation completes, click the “View” button to check the drive.
Fix 5. Reinstall the SD card driver
The chances are that the SD card is not recognized by Windows at all, and you cannot see it anywhere in Windows Explorer or Windows Disk Management. You can try to reinstall the driver to make it appear again in Windows Device Manager.
Step 1: Press Win + X keys and click Device Manager.
Step 2: Expand Disk Drives, right-click on the name of your removable disk, and click Uninstall.
Step 3: Click OK. Disconnect the SD card from your computer.
Step 4: Restart your computer. After a while, connect the SD card to your computer again. Windows will install the latest driver automatically and make the SD card detectable.
