These three get grouped together because they’re the larger cards used in higher-end cameras. They are not the same thing, and they fail in different ways.
What causes problems on these cards
CompactFlash (CF). The older, thicker card. It connects through two rows of small holes that slide onto pins inside the camera or reader. The weak point is those pins. A card pushed in crooked can bend one, and from then on the slot damages or misreads every card put into it. The card often gets the blame for what is a camera problem.
CFexpress. The current high-speed card. Inside, it works much like the SSD in a computer. That makes it fast, and it also means it can behave like an SSD when files are deleted, which is not good news for recovery.
XQD. The card that came before CFexpress and shares its shape. Some cameras accept both. It is a different card, and it needs its own reader.
All three are often very large, and they hold large files: high-resolution RAW photos and long, high-bitrate video.
What to do right now
- Stop using the card, and don’t format it.
- If more than one good card has failed in the same camera, stop inserting cards. Look into the slot with a light for a bent pin.
- Check that your reader is made for this card type before deciding the card is dead.
- Don’t force a card that won’t slide in smoothly.
- Tell me the camera model and the card’s size and type on the intake form.
What’s realistically recoverable
A card that reads, with a damaged file system or one that asks to be formatted, is recovered the same way as any other card. It is Standard when the files come back intact.
Size is the thing that pushes these cases into Complex. A very large card takes much longer to copy and to search, and long video files are more likely to need rebuilding from pieces.
When it isn’t
- Deleted or formatted CFexpress and XQD cards. Because of how these cards manage deleted space, a delete or format may be final on some camera and card combinations. I’ll look, and you’ll know before you pay anything.
- A card that isn’t detected at all, in a reader made for it. That’s a physical case. Some of these I can do at my bench, quoted after evaluation. The rest I refer out, at no charge.
- Bent pins in the camera. That’s a camera repair. I don’t do those. The card that was in the slot when it happened may be fine, so check it in a reader.
- Overwritten files. Gone, as on any card.