SD and microSD are the cards most cameras, action cameras and drones use. Most problems with them are the ordinary ones: deleted files, an accidental format, or a card that asks to be formatted. This page covers what’s particular to these two card types.
What causes problems on these cards
- The lock switch. Full-size SD cards have a small sliding tab on the side. If it’s in the lock position, or it’s loose and slides there on its own, the camera reports the card as write-protected. That’s not a fault and nothing is lost. A tab that has broken off can cause the same message.
- The adapter. A microSD in a full-size adapter adds a second set of contacts and a second lock switch. Adapters are cheap and fail often. A “dead” microSD is sometimes a dead adapter.
- Counterfeit cards. Fake cards are built to report more space than they really have. They work until they’re filled past their true size, and after that new files are silently lost or written over old ones.
- Wear. Flash memory wears out with use. Cards in devices that record constantly wear fastest. A worn card can start returning errors, or stop accepting new files.
- Handling. These cards are small and thin. Bent cards and worn or dirty contacts are common.
What to do right now
- Stop using the card, and don’t format it.
- On a full-size SD, check the lock switch.
- If it’s a microSD in an adapter, try a different adapter, or a reader that takes the microSD directly.
- Try one other reader.
- Don’t clean the contacts with anything abrasive, and don’t bend the card to “reseat” it.
What’s realistically recoverable
If the card still reads, the card type doesn’t change much. Deleted or formatted cards are usually Standard. Fragment reconstruction, video repair and very large cards are Complex.
A worn card that reads with errors can often still be copied, slowly, and recovered from that copy. The result may be partial.
When it isn’t
- A card that isn’t detected at all. MicroSD cards, and many full-size SD cards, are a single sealed piece. There’s no separate part to repair or swap. One that no reader can see is a physical case, and the work is on the chip itself. Some of these I can do at my bench, quoted after evaluation. The rest I refer out, at no charge.
- A counterfeit card. The files that went past the card’s real size were never stored. No one can recover data that was never written. Whatever fit within the real size may still be there.
- Cracked or snapped cards. If the break goes through the body of the card, it’s a physical case.
- Overwritten files. Gone, as on any card.