Photo Recovery

How to Avoid Memory Card Errors & Recover Data

Written By Oliver Powell
Approved By Rohit Arora
Updated on 22 Aug, 2022
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Summary: This post shares that whenever you face error messages like 'memory card error', 'Read/Write error', 'card could not be read', 'card is corrupted' and so on, the best way is to format the card. But in the course if you lose any data then memory card recovery software is the only answer

A memory card (Flash Drive) is an electronic data storage device that’s rewritable and reprogrammed, used in several electronic devices such as digital cameras, mobile phones, computers, or laptops. A memory card uses the NAND type to store and transmit the data from one device to another. With the growing needs, the storage capacity of memory cards is increased up to 16 GB, and that’s why the risk of memory card error or failure is highly increased these days.

Memory cards are mostly used on cameras and mobile to store different types of media such as songs, images, videos, etc. There are various types of memory cards are available in the market such as SD Card, CF Card, and XD Picture cards ranging from MB to GB of capacity. A memory card is one of the cheapest and most convenient ways to store data and can be easily adjusted to almost any type of camera or mobile.

Each card will need to use properly and if not, it can be corrupted at any time.

Possible reasons behind this could be:

Removing the data while saving or deleting any file.
Prematurely inserting/removing the memory card from the camera or mobile phone.
Due to physical or logical damage to the memory card.
Unknown Causes that happen accidentally after taking all the precautions.

See here: Detailed information about memory card corruption

Whenever any of the above-mentioned conditions happen, the User will get the error messages like ‘memory card error’, ‘Read/Write error’, ‘card could not be read’, the card is corrupted, and so on. The best available option to overcome these situation(s) is to format the memory card but with one drawback which causes to lose the data and user will lose their memorable images or other valuable data that can’t be created back again from anywhere and at any cost. Only a memory card recovery tool can help you to recover your deleted files.

How to Avoid Memory Card Error(S)

If a user follows the standard ways of using a memory card, memory card errors could be avoided such as:

Don’t remove the memory cards while the read/write operation is in progress.
Don’t insert the memory card into virus-infected devices such as computers or laptops.
Avoid using any memory cards that get formatted repeatedly a number of times.
Avoid purchasing any local brand memory cards; always prefer to buy the memory cards from SONY, KINGSTON, SANDISK, or similar quality brands.

Recover Data from Memory Card

‘Prevention is better than the cure‘, this line is the best fit for memory card error problems because whenever the errors occur, it’s too difficult to fix those. So it’s better to take precautions while using the memory card, however below are some important steps that help to fix minor issues with memory cards:

Connect the memory card with a proper card reader to the PC or laptop.
Make sure that the memory card is readable by the PC because if the memory card fails permanently, the PC will show the messages like ‘USB Device not recognized ‘.
Open My Computer and use the various disk utility option available in the properties of your removable media drive and from those you have to choose the ‘check disk’ option which will automatically check the disk and repair it if possible.
If this fails to recover, try to look into your PC to check whether any backup of the memory card is stored or not.

If none of these can help to fix the problem, then the user has to switch to the format option or data recovery by using memory card data recovery.

In any of the above conditions, the memory card needs to be formatted before taking further pictures or storing any other data. But the user should agree to lose their precious data. However, if someone needs to recover their data even after formatting the memory card, they can switch to memory card recovery software which gives the lost data back after investing the minor cost.

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About The Author

Oliver Powell

Oliver Powell is a Data Recovery Expert at Stellar®. He is a passionate technology blogger & content creator, He explores new applications and has deep understanding of data recovery. He has experience in Windows & Mac data recovery domain.

14 comments

Selena says:

April 28, 2022 at 11:14 am

I use my card in three different cameraa, will that corrupt my data?

Reply
1. Sumona Chatterjee says:
  
  April 29, 2022 at 5:21 am
  
  You should know that even cameras of the same brand have different file structures and requirements, so try not to use the same card on different devices. If you do then it’s advisable to format the card before using another.
  
  Reply
Emese Ivan says:

February 18, 2019 at 10:18 am

Well not sure how it happened, I didn’t find my 4k shoot video on my 64 GB SD card. I used some of free software but didn’t see the files. Could you offer any suggestions?

Reply
1. Sumona Chatterjee says:
  
  February 19, 2019 at 9:45 am
  
  Hi Emese, I suggest, you can try our software demo version and see the preview your lost files.
  
  Reply
Sally says:

July 18, 2018 at 2:55 am

My nemory card is write protection.so i can’t format or deleted it.i tried everything that google said to un-write it.but failed.what should i do

Reply
1. Sumona Chatterjee says:
  
  July 19, 2018 at 4:59 am
  
  Hi Sally, remove write protection on the memory card by this way:
  Open the command prompt (cmd.exe). Type “diskpart”.
  1. Type “list disk” to show the list of available disks in the system.
  2. Find your USB flash drive on the list; type “SELECT DISK n” where n stands for your memory card with the write protected partition.
  3. Type “clean”.
  4. Type “create partition primary” to create a new partition on the memory card.
  5. Type “select partition” to select the partition on the disk.
  6. Type “active” to activate the disk.
  7. Type “format fs=ntfs” to format to NTFS (make sure you selected the right memory device!).
  
  Reply
Daniel Vojtěch says:

June 7, 2018 at 10:38 am

I have an Issue with my GoPro SD card read and write speeds aren’t fast enough. Could someone shed some light here! Much appreciated!

Reply
1. Sumona Chatterjee says:
  
  June 8, 2018 at 5:29 am
  
  Sometimes these issue occur even after you’ve used the card a few times. It’s easy to fix: Check your card to see if it is among GoPro recommended cards for your model by using the chart on the GoPro site. If not, proceed to another new SD card put on the GoPro which will be recommends by GoPro Site and it’s compatible with your version.
  
  Reply
Sg says:

May 22, 2018 at 9:16 am

sony a 7sII exfat partition memory card
when i change photo mode to video mode automatically card formatted
contents 4k video
stellar phoenix photo recovery 7 it is not possible
if 8 or any other software

Reply
1. Sumona Chatterjee says:
  
  May 28, 2018 at 3:22 am
  
  Hello Sg,
  
  May I know, after using our software stellar phoenix photo recovery 7. What’s the actual message showing on your system/PC? So we can provide a better solution.
  
  Reply
Rob Schreiber says:

April 24, 2018 at 10:11 am

A couple of months ago, I had lost my data from my GoPro camera SD card. I capture some event photograph with my GoPro camera and after completion. I back to home and save data on my Mac OS drive. Today I have seen the data did lose. Then I found your blog and used your software. It’s helped me a lot!

Reply
1. Sumona Chatterjee says:
  
  April 26, 2018 at 6:08 am
  
  Hello Rob,
  
  Glad that our software helps you. Thank You
  
  Reply
Catherine says:

March 14, 2017 at 10:22 am

Please advise me on the correct format for the camera’s memory card. I mean FAT32 or ExFAT?

Reply
1. Sumona Chatterjee says:
  
  March 15, 2017 at 4:40 am
  
  Either FAT32 or ExFAT ….. both must be 32 based.
  
  Reply