Since it looks like the filesystem structure is damaged (your OSes offer to format the drive because they don't see a valid filesystem on it), you'll have to try to recover the files individually. Example usage ( /dev/sdc being the device corresponding to the card if you don't know which one it is, run cat /proc/partitions and pick the one that seems to have the right size): ddrescue -dr3 /dev/sdc card.image logfile Both tools try to grab as much data as possible from the disk. Don't use dd for this as it'll stop reading on the first error. If the card is merely partly unreadable and not completely unreadable, first try to copy what you can from the card to an image file.

If your data is at all valuable, try to get a brand-name reader with better quality than a bottom-price one. Stop using that reader immediately, and try to recover the card with another reader. I would like to use the second card again, so is there a tool to format a damaged card that doesn't know (or cannot report properly) how large it is?įirst, from your experience with the second card, it seems that your reader is damaged and now damages the cards you insert into it. When I checked another card that was the exact same (save for no files), it 'ruined' the second one. What Linux or Unix utilities are available to recover the files? Can I do it myself or do I need to seek professional help?Įdit: It appears that my card reader has damaged the card in some way, making it unreadable and and unformattable. The card should be formatted as a FAT32 filesystem. I want to recover all of the pictures on the card (there were others before the family pictures) because I don't know how many I took or their exact sizes (but I believe they were all JPEGs).

When inserting back into the camera (a Nikon D60), it says the cards needs to be formatted (as does inserting it into a Windows machine). When I insert the card into my card reader, it shows up as an unknown 32MB device (as /dev/sde) and cannot be mounted. I have a 4GB SD card with some family pictures on it that I need to recover.

Micro sd card data recovery