SDHC card recovery not possible?

[ronfoster71]

I have had every SDHC and XC card corrupted by WindowsOS.  When I try to use Recuva to recover the files it does not see the microdrive and tells me to format it!  What good is a recovery product that cannot read the files because Windows has corrupted the bogus exFAT file?  Any ideas of a good uSD recovery software that doesn't charge an outrageous fee for using their software?  They even have the nerve to recover files in an encrypted file then want a ransome payment to provide the decoder!  I don't even know for certain that what they recover are intact files!  I intend to reformat all SD cards to NFTS as soon as I either recover or give up trying.  This exFAT is stupid!

[DennisD]

Hi ronfoster, and welcome to Piriform.

 

When the cards have been plugged into the computer, are they being given a drive letter?

 

If not, Recuva, and all other recovery programs I know, will not be able to see them. It isn't a Recuva failing, it's the way Windows works.

 

Formatting the cards, as I've just explained in another topic, is a viable option as long as you just do a "Quick Format" and not a full one. A quick format will initialize the file system without overwriting any files. This would enable Recuva to see the cards and scan them. Of course if you use the card at all before scanning, you will overwrite files.

 

You would have to scan for "Non Deleted" files. Set this up in "Options\Actions".

 

But before you do this, I would suggest making a back up of the card with USB Image Tool.

 

USB Image Tool: (Free, standalone program in a less than 1MB folder)

 

The back up "Image" created could be restored to the card if the quick format didn't yield results and a repair of the card could be tried.

 

For what it's worth, years ago I changed the "policies" settings of all my removable drives and camera cards to "Optimize for quick removal" as opposed to "Optimize for performance" (in other words disabling "write caching"), which makes it possible for them to removed safely without using the "Safely Remove" routine. I've never had a corrupt external drive, flash drive or camera card and I hot pull them all the time.

 

IMHO "Optimize for performance" (write caching), is an accident waiting to happen.

 

Hope that helps.