Free SD Card Recovery Software on Mac OS X. Here, a kind of free memory card recovery program will be recommended. Lost data will be easily restored by this free SD card recovery utility. Why data in SD card will be lost? People always find their files lost suddenly and have no idea of the reasons. Here, several common causes are listed for. Mar 29, 2021 Disk Drill can recover Mac data from your memory card even if it was formatted or damaged. Still, as you probably know, there is a chance that your data is gone for good, since free memory card recovery for Mac depends on a lot of variables. When a memory card is manufactured it is formatted in a certain way. When you format the memory card without backing it up then you will lose the files stored on the market and the only way to get them back is to download memory card data recovery software. Fortunately there are free memory card recovery mac programs that can help you do this.

CardRescue is one of the top SD card recovery software especially designed and optimized for Mac computer. It can be used to recover lost photos from SD card, SDHC/SDXC card, CF card, and microSD Card. Almost all SD card brands are supported including SanDisk, Kingston, Samsung, Lexar, PNY, and Transcend. CardRescue software can be downloaded. SD Card Recovery. The world's first SD Card Recovery software for Windows and Mac, Quickly recover photos from any kind of SD card or digital camera. Recover not only photos, but also documents, video, audio, archive or other files. Preview photos before recovery. Easy-to-use interface let you recover data in just 3 simple steps.

Many a time you want to create a bootable device for your new notebook, Netbook, or laptop. Nowadays, most of the electronic devices come with compactness. This gives rise to a number of notebooks that are manufactured without a CD/DVD drive. In such devices, you have to make use of either a flash drive or a memory card with high storage capacity.

Further here, you can learn to make bootable SD/SDHC card or USB drive for your Windows or Mac computer. Some of the SD cards or SDHC cards come with high storage sizes and are compatible with almost all the relevant devices. But many devices are only compatible with the SD card for booting.

ICare Recovery offers 100% free unlimited data recovery software, free download for Windows 10 8 7 Vista XP 2000 together with best data recovery software iCare Recovery Pro for sd card recovery, usb flash drive recovery, external hard drive recovery and mobile phone memory card recovery.

Find out the safest way to create a bootable SD card for Mac and Windows. And also learn how to recover data lost while booting.

How to make Bootable SD/SDHC for Mac?

There are a number of simple steps to be followed to create bootable SDHC cards for your Mac OS but it requires an external application. You can also create a bootable SD card on Mac with the help of the terminal. The terminal method doesn’t need any external sources. It just requires an SD card to boot your Mac.

  1. Connect the SD/SDHC memory card to the computer.
  2. Go to Utility – you can call utility with the help of the finder option of the Launchpad on your computer.
  3. Select on the SD card and click Erase.
  4. In Format, select MSDOS FAT from the dropdown. Enter a name in the ‘Name’ field. This is optional for the user.
  5. Click Erase.
  6. Open the Terminal and go to the location of your system image – enter the appropriate location in command.
  7. In order to find all the disk drives in the Mac, type – SUDO DISKUTIL LIST – this will display all the connected disks with the Mac system.
  8. Make sure about the partitions and the identifiers like disk2, disk3, etc. Try to keep the number of partitions to be just one.
  9. To unmount the drive type; SUDO UMOUNT DISK2
  10. To unmount the subpartitions type; SUDO DISKUTIL UMOUNT DISK2p1.
  11. To make the SD card bootable type in; SUDO DD Bs=4m if= image_name.xyz of dev/disk2

Once you perform the above steps, the command starts executing and then, makes the SD card bootable for Mac operating system.

If you have lost your important data while making the SDHC card bootable. Do not overwrite any information and try to regain all your data from the SD card. Data restoration from SDHC or USB drive is easy with the help of Remo Recover tool.

Utilize Remo Recover software (Windows/ Mac) to easily recover data lost or deleted while booting from SD card or USB drive effortlessly. This tool works with a user-friendly interface and can safely restore more than 300 file formats like photos, videos, raw-images, documents, audio files, Office files, and etc. not only from formatted or corrupted internal hard drive but also from various external devices like USB, external hard drive, SD card, SDHC card and many more. Remo Recover is compatible with all the latest versions of Windows (Windows 10) and Mac (macOS Catalina) operating system.

How to make SD/ SDHC card or USB drive Bootable for Windows?

The steps to make a bootable SD/SDHC card on Windows 10 or its previous versions comprise of some similar steps. This involves the complete formatting of the SD card and then uploading the OS files to make bootable SD card or SDHC card. Follow the below steps to make a bootable SD card or flash drive for windows;

  1. Connect the SD card or USB drive to your computer – make sure the SD card is empty and you do not have any valuable data on it.
  2. Go to Command prompt – In order to do that, go to Start menu and type cmd and hit Enter.
  3. Go to diskpart – To do that, go to start menu and type diskpart and press Enter.
  4. In the new window, type; list disk – the window should be system32/diskpart.
  5. From the list of the disks that your computer has, look for your SD/SDHC card. You can refer to the memory space of the disks to identify your SD card.
    • Type; select diskX – the name of the disk you want to use i.e. the SD card.
    • Type; Clean
    • Type; Create Partition Primary
    • Type; Active
    • Type; Format Fs= NTFS Quick
    • Type; Assign
    • Type; Exit
  6. Now, mount your ISO file of Windows – Right-click on the image and select mount.
  7. Run the following commands:
    • G: CD BOOT – G is the iso file drive letter.
    • BOOTSECT.EXE/NT 60 F – F is the SD card or the drive letter for SD/SDHC card.
  8. Copy all the files from the ISO image to the memory card.
  9. Your SD/SDHC card is now in bootable mode, you can restart your computer and test the bootable SDHC card.

NOTE: While performing any of these steps double-check what you are selecting and what command you are executing. This is because any small mistake can corrupt your SD / SDHC card file system. Sometimes, you can fix your corrupt SD card in easy ways, but not always. There are chances that your card would become useless permanently. Hence, handle your card carefully.

Conclusion

Hope this information on how to boot SD card or USB drive on Windows and Mac operating system is going to help you make bootable SD card. In case of any data loss, you can use the Remo Recover tool to restore data from internal or external devices with ease.

Summary

You will learn 10 best memory card recovery software that can help you recover lost photos, videos, documents from SD card, USB drive, HDD or SSD easily. Among them, EaseUS data recovery software is the most outstanding one that supports most brands including SanDisk, Samsung, Kingston, Sony, Transcend and more. By the way, if the SD card is a corrupted one, you will also learn how to fix it.

Can I Recover SD Card Data for Free

'I lost all my beach holiday pictures due to carelessly formatting the SD card. I asked a lot of people about how to handle lost photos on the SD card. Also searched the internet, still couldn't fix it. Can anybody help me? Is it possible to recover deleted files from SD card and get back SD card photos and other data? Can an SD card be recovered?'

Yes. Whenever an SD card becomes inaccessible or formatted, the stored data gets lost. However, all files remain in the same position on the card and can be recovered by data recovery software. Data recovery software makes data recovery possible and can help anyone with deleted recovery, formatted recovery, RAW recovery, and more.

Quick Access to recover deleted files from SD card:

Also Read:Top 10 Best File Recovery Software for Windows 10/8/7

What Is the Best SD Card Recovery Software

There are countless data recovery programs that allow you to recover SD card data. Every one of them claims to be the best one for you. How can you choose the right one among the various choices? To find the best SD card recovery software, I have listed 10 best free SD card recovery software for you. You can choose the best one according to the pros and cons.

  1. 1. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard
  2. 2. Recuva
  3. 3. Stellar Data Recovery
  4. 4. Disk Drill
  5. 5. R-Studio
  6. 6. Acronis Revive
  7. 7. Remo Recover
  8. 8. Recover My Files
  9. 9. Puran Data Recovery
  10. 10. TestDisk

Top 1. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard

EaseUS free data recovery software is a reliable SD card recovery tool that gives you a full chance of getting your deleted/lost data back. It serves 100+ real-life data loss scenarios like deletion, formatting, RAW, etc. easily and quickly. It is a true lifesaver in getting lost data back from memory cards, Micro SD cards, CF or SDHC cards, etc. It is a must-download if you want a guaranteed card recovery process.

Pros

  • Easy to use. It has a simple interface and the recovery process only takes three steps
  • Supports all file systems including FAT, exFAT, NTFS, NTFS5, ext2/ext3, HFS+, ReFS
  • Supports most of the devices PC/laptop, internal/external hard drive, USB drive, Micro card, Camcorder, Digital Camera, Music Player, Video Player, RAID, CF/SD card, pen drive, and more
  • Search for files by extension or name after the scanning process
  • Repairs corrupted JPEG/JPG photos and damaged MP4/MOV camera videos

SD Card Recovery Software for Windows

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard has the best options for any lost data situation: undelete deleted or lost files, Quick Scan, and Deep Scan. Even if you lost the whole partition, EaseUS knows how to restore your files. If you don't want to think how to recover deleted pictures from SD card, recover them now.

Recover Deleted Files From SD Card

Things would go wrong if your SD card became blank all of a sudden. The best SD card recovery software free can scan and recover deleted SD card photos, and files easily.

Find out how to recover deleted photos from SD card>>

Quick Scan & Deep Scan

If you just lost your data and downloaded EaseUS data recovery software right away there is still a chance Quick Scan can help you get your files back. Usually, when the file was just removed, it is in fact just the name that has been deleted or altered by the system, everything else is still there, just not visible. Get it back with Quick Scan! But in case you didn't make it with the Quick Scan, Deep Scan is the way to go. It can scan and find RAW files or files that have lost the file name and path.

The Best Data Recovery for Everyone

We rely on digital data a lot, and sometimes data loss happens for various reasons. When you emptied Recycle Bin and then suddenly realized you didn't mean to delete that exact file, what can you do? You can turn to EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. It provides an easy-to-understand graphical interface, suitable for everyone to use, without any technical requirements. You can get back data with simple clicks.

Cons

  • It results in scanning the whole disk where the folder located when you specify the location
  • Recovers 2GB for free

How to Recover Lost SD Card Data with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard

Disk Drill Sd Card Recovery

With a clear guide, you can recover files from SD memory card. Get this software and follow the video tutorial below to see how to retrieve data on the SD card now:

Step 1. Run SD card recovery software and scan the card.

Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard on your PC and select your SD card. Then click 'Scan' to start finding lost data on your SD card.

Step 2. Check found SD card data.

After the scanning process, you can click 'Filter' to quickly find wanted files.

Step 3. Restore SD card data.

You can check and preview found files by double-clicking each one of them. Then click Recover to save found SD card files to a secure location on your PC or external storage.

Top 2. Recuva

Piriform Recuva is a lightweight freemium SD card recovery software. It helps you recover data from Windows storage media. Its wizard-like interface makes deleted files/ folder recovery quick and is supported by Windows 10 and earlier versions.

Pros

  • Easy User interface
  • Preview screen before final recovery
  • Works both on FAT and NTFS systems
  • Support the email recovery of Thunderbird, Outlook Express, Windows Mail, Microsoft Outlook

Cons

Free
  • No support for the free version
  • The interface isn't really interesting and attractive

Top 3. Stellar Data Recovery

Stellar Data Recovery software is an easy to use Windows data recovery software to get back lost documents, emails, photos, videos & many more from HDD, USB, Memory Card, etc. If you regret your decision to delete recent files, the Stellar Data Recovery tool is here to help you in an effective way. Its simple and clean interface and its powerful data recovery capability attract users' attention and gain their trust.

Pros

  • 4-step recovery process
  • Supports to scan a specific folder and search for files from the scanning result
  • Recovers lost files from all types of Windows devices
  • Has a clear interface and simple recovery guide

Cons

  • Doesn't have the free edition, the Standard edition costs $49.99

Top 4. Disk Drill

Disk Drill is a professional data recovery program that ranks high in the information technology industry. This application, developed by CleverFiles, is able to scan both external and internal storage devices, from your local disk drive to portable USB drives and SD cards. It works well on a Windows computer, which makes it one of the most competitive tools in the field of data recovery.

Pros

  • Organizes files found by category
  • Filters the results by size and data
  • Supports multiple file systems
  • It only takes 4 steps to recover data

Cons

  • Only free for 500MB
  • The scanning takes a longer time compared with the previous equivalents

Top 5. R-Studio

R-Studio is the most comprehensive data recovery solution for recovery files from NTFS, NTFS5, ReFS, FAT12/16/32, exFAT, HFS/HFS+ and APFS. It also scans for known file types for heavily damaged or unknown file systems. This software also supports to recover data from network drives, which makes it outrank most of its equivalents.

Pros

  • Supports network drive data recovery
  • Supports multiple file systems
  • Allows to create image files and recover files from image files
  • File or disk content can be viewed and edited with the advanced hexadecimal editor
  • File previewer to estimate recovery chances.

Cons

  • Doesn't have a free version and costs at least $49.99
  • Old-fashioned and relatively complex interface
  • Longer scanning process

Top 6. Acronis Revive

Acronis Revive is recently released data recovery software in 2019. This powerful utility can help bring back a file that was trashed by accident, removed by a virus, or was intentionally deleted and needed later.

Pros

  • Supports numerous file types
  • Previews photo/videos
  • Supports to create image files
  • Filters files by file name or extension

Cons

Free Memory Card Recovery Mac
  • You can only recover one deleted file using its free version
  • The interface and introduction make it confusing and complex for users

Top 7. Remo Recover

Remo Recover has been in the data recovery market for quite a long time. Remo Recover can restore files from hard drives, external drives, memory cards, Mac volumes, and even repair files like Word documents, ZIP, and Microsoft Outlook.

Pros

  • Can authorize a user to recover files that have unique file extensions and signatures

Cons

  • Takes a long scanning time which can be a nuisance for those who want quick results
  • Does not allow you to sort by file type or scan by file type
  • The free demo only allows to scan & preview deleted and lost data

Top 8. Recover My Files

Recover My Files recovers deleted files emptied from the Windows Recycle Bin, files lost due to the format or re-install of a hard drive, or files removed by a virus, Trojan infection, unexpected system shutdown or software failure. It allows users to recover files from hard drive, SD card, USB Zip drives, floppy disk, iPod, and more.

Pros

  • Scan the backup (image file) of a partition
  • Sort out files by date
  • Adjust the layout of the viewed items

Cons

  • The free version only allows to scan & preview deleted and lost data
  • Old-fashioned software interface

Top 9. Puran Data Recovery

Puran Data Recovery is a free utility that can help you recover maximum data from damaged media like scratched CDs, DVDs, Blu Rays and damaged pen drives, memory cards, etc. If you are able to see a list of files in any media, data recovery can recover those files. It ignores any bad sector that comes in while copying data from a file and continue copying until the end of that file. Hence, recovering maximum undamaged data.

Pros

  • Skips bad sectors automatically while recovering files
  • Supports optical drives like CDs, DVDs, and Blu Rays
  • Drag and drop is supported
  • Totally free

Cons

Recovery
  • Can't preview the result
  • Can't filter the files you want to recover

Top 10. TestDisk

TestDisk data recovery software is open-source software that was created with an aim to get back lost partitions and fix non-booting disks. It is a portable application. You needn't run an installer. This software is able to recover deleted partitions from hard drives and fix the partition table, recover the boot sector, and more.

Pros

  • Open resource software (totally free)
  • Allows users to recover/rebuild the boot sector
  • Fix or recover deleted partition table
  • Undelete files from FAT, exFAT, NTFS, and ext2 file systems

Cons

  • May not be suitable for some regular users

Also read:Top 5 best file recovery software for Mac

Editor's Recommendation for Best Free Data Recovery Tool

I would personally recommend EaseUS data recovery software to all our readers. With superior scanning speed, an advanced interface, a secure process, and the ability to recover files from damaged Windows or newly formatted devices, EaseUS is undeniably one of the best free data recovery tools. Here is the result of SD card recovery software free scanning the same partition (127GB free of 141GB) searching for deleted/lost files. You can see that EaseUS stands out among them.

Product NameRecover My FilesRecuvaDisk DrillStellar Data RecoveryEaseUS Data Recovery Wizard
Scanning Time1h> 1h> 1h37min27min
Files Found321,297 files111,213 files2,254 files414,170 files784,741 files
File Size13.80GBno size is shown1.92GB19.84GB38.53GB

Frequently Asked Questions to SD Card Recovery

Here are some related questions about SD card file recovery or memory card recovery. If you still have questions, you can read on to find out the answers.

Memory card recovery software download

How to Recover Deleted Files from an SD Card for Free?

To recover deleted files from an SD card for free follow these steps:

Step 1. Download and install EaseUS SD card recovery software for Windows.

Step 2. Connect the SD card to your computer and start the app.

Step 3.Run SD card recovery software and scan the card.

Step 4. Check found SD card data.

Step 5. You can check and preview found files by double-clicking each one of them. Then click Recover to save found SD card files to a secure location on your PC or external storage.

Is It Possible to Recover Files from a Corrupted SD Card?

Yes, it is. If you can get your computer to recognize the SD card, data recovery software can be used to rescue lost files. You may have simply lost access to them though they are still present on the card. Stop using the card as soon as you realize there are dented files for the best chance of recovering them.

What is the best free SD card recovery software?

Top 10 best free SD card recovery software:

  1. 1. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard
  2. 2. Recuva
  3. 3. Stellar Data Recovery
  4. 4. Disk Drill
  5. 5. R-Studio
  6. 6. Acronis Revive
  7. 7. Remo Recover
  8. 8. Recover My Files
  9. 9. Puran Data Recovery
  10. 10. TestDisk

According to the comparison, EaseUS SD card recovery software is the best one. You can download it now and restore SD card data easily and quickly.

How to Fix a Corrupted SD Card?

When it comes to the word 'corrupt', it’s mostly associated with pen drives, SD Cards, and some special category of humans. If your SD card, pen drive, or flash drive stops working you can lose a lot. To fix your corrupted SD card, I have the following 8 tips:

Also read:8 Ways to Fix Corrupted/Damaged SD Card

  1. 1. Change a card reader, adapter or a USB port
  2. 2. Run Windows Repair Tool
  3. 3. Change a drive letter
  4. 4. Run CHKDSK to check and repair SD card bad sectors
  5. 5. Reinstall the SD card driver
  6. 6. Format a RAW SD card
  7. 7. Format a half-capacity SD Card
  8. 8. Create a new SD card partition on unallocated space

Best Sd Card Recovery For Mac

So, they are the short tips on how to fix or repair a corrupted SD card. You can use them to revive your external drive or any internal logical volume. If you found this helpful or you have any suggestions to make, drop your thoughts and feedback.

Best Sd Card Recovery For Mac

Why is my SD card not showing up?

100% Free Sd Recovery Software

Due to an outdated memory or SD card driver, your computer may not be able to read or detect the memory/SD card properly. If nothing is wrong with your memory card or SD card, you'll be able to read and find all your personal data on the card by using another mobile phone or PC. If the memory card or SD card is still undetectable, fix the memory card not detected an error with EaseUS.


Recover SD card Android Phone/Camera

Table of Contents

  • 5 Free memory card recovery software for Windows- totally freeware
  • Best 3 professional sd card recovery software for Windows/MAC - paid tools
  • Best 2 free sd card recovery software for MAC - freeware

Notes

All types of memory card used in phones, cameras, smart medias, mp4 players, video recorders, and more digital devices are convered in this solution including

  • MicroSD card, Secure Digital Cards (SD card), CompactFlash card, SDHC, SDXC, MiniSD, xD-Picture Cards, SmartMedia Cards(SSFDC), CFexpress, MicroSDHC, Memory stick, MultiMediaCard...

And all brands of memory card are also included in the article as following

  1. Sandisk SDHC Memory card, Samsung sd card, Toshiba memory card, PNY microSD memory card, Kingston Digital memory card, Lexar sd card, Sandisk Micro SDHC, Kodak, Lenovo, Kingston, Manhattan, Marainbow, Motorola microSD card, Nikon sd card, Original S.W.A.T., Panasonic, Silicon Power, Sony sd card, Transcend, Unirex, Verbatim and more...

How may you need memory card recovery?

  1. I have accidentally deleted photos/videos from sd card (android phone or camera?)
  2. The sd/microSD is not readable, cannot be recognized by phone or computer?
  3. SD card in raw file system, sd raw format asks formatting
  4. I formatted sd card by mistake, format recovery on sd card is urgently needed
  5. SD card is affected by virus, how to fix it, or antivirus utility removed folders in memory card
  6. SD memory card cannot be formatted, Windows was unable to complete the format on sd card
  7. SD card has IO device error
  8. SD card file or directory is damaged
  9. SD card write protected error cannot format, delete nor write data
  10. Bad sectors on sd card...

No matter what error takes place on your sd card, you may try the following methods to fix or recover them and get your data rescued at the same time. Keep on reading, the ways to fix sd card are coming.

Recommend: how to fix corrupted sd card in 12 ways free

5 Best Free SD Card Recovery Software for Android Phone/Camera on Windows

No matter what happened to your memory card, if there are photos, videos or other formats of files stored inside of it, you need to stop using it for further data storage, never find a tool to repair the error since it is risky for the inside data that any change would make permanent data loss.

The whole urgency is to rescue the inside images, video record files or other types of data from your sd card or other types of memory card that you used on your android cellphone, camera, video recorder or more.

Memory Card Recovery Freeware#1 - iCare Recovery Free

iCare Data Recovery Free is a completely memory card recovery free tool that asks for nothing to pay and you can use it as your best memory card recovery freeware. The undeleting can be easily performed by this free tool together with some other complicated memory card corruptions or damages such as memory card inaccessible, not detected, io device error, memory card is blank and has unsupported file system, memory card in raw file system with 0 bytes in space, memory card asks for formatting...

Verdict: It works efficiently if you have just recently deleted photos or videos from your android phone memory card, or camera memory card no matter what type of memory card you use.

Just go ahead download this free tool and then let it help rescue files free from sd, microSD, tf, sdhc that was used on your Android phone or camera...

Free memory card recovery software - iCare Data Recovery Free

Video Tutorial - how to use iCare Free

Freeware #2 - Recuva Free

The second freeware we would like to recommend is Recuva, which is an old tool with a free version available that offers no tech support. It was developed by Piriform back to more than 15 years ago. This company offers some other free tools too and Recuva is the one that was made for undelete files from digital media such as memory card, usb flash drive, hard disk drive, computer laptop and it works on Windows platforms Windows 10/8.1/7/Vista/XP.

Step 1: Download and install it on your PC. Do not download it onto the memory card to avoid data overwritten.

Start recuva

Step 2: Select file types that you want to recover

Select recovery options

Step 3: Set the path for the destination to save data found on your memory card.

Set place to save data

Step 4: Recuva needs some time to scan data on the memory card.

Wait for data

Step 5: Save found files by select found files and then click 'Recover'.

Card

Save data

Video - how to use Recuva Free

Freeware#3 - iObit Undelete

iObit Undelete, another totally free sd card recovery utility that costs no money for recovering data from memory card if your device is just in need of data recovery after your memory card is damaged, ie logically damaged or you have removed important photo&video on the card that you don't want to let it go.

Free sd card software - iObit Undelete

It is easy to use that only may take a few steps for the whole sd card recovery to be finished. The good advantage of this freeware is that it is a portable version that does not require any installation for the memory card data scanning and recovery that could avoid further damage on your device.

Again, do not download it on the drive where you lose your data even thought it does not require any installation, it does need your downloading its portable package onto your disk.

Freeware #4 - Wise Data Recovery

Wise Data Recovery provides totally free sd card recovery utility that can help rescue files when you deleted data by mistake, formatted memory card on your phone, or camera by accident, or files lost due to some other data loss scenarios.

It works on the Windows platforms with both 32bit&64bit OS compatible in Windows 10/8/7/Vista/XP. It is developed with a portable version that does not require an installation that makes the data recovery safe if you do not download it on the drive where you lose your data. Well, we believe you won't download it onto your memory card as a download destination.

Free sd card software - Wise Data Recovery

Freeware #5 - PhotoRec

PhotoRec is provided by Cgsecurity.org and it is combined with TestDisk, another free tool provided by the same developer. The advantage of this freeware is that it is totally free and is compatible with many platforms including Mac, Linux since it is open source software with free license and use for all users.

Verdict: It is recommended by many advanced tech professionals who are mostly with some sort of advanced computing knowledge. The only disadvantage is that this open source freeware is not user friendly since it is with a black dos command line that requires some basic knowledge of operating DOS command lines.

Free sd card software - PhotoRec

Part 2 - Professional sd card recovery software download - Paid tools

Here are some professional memory card recovery tools that you may try when the freeware are weak for your data loss scenarios. To be frank with you, these tools need a pay if you want to save data from your device when you found them useful for you. Usually it is under the condition that it scans for free and you can preview found data before the purchase. (Mostly photo and office format can be previewed.)

Professional Tool#1 - iCare Recovery Pro

The sd card recovery tool is capable of recovering memory card or memory stick of exfat file system, fat32 file system, ntfs file system that hold large capacity of data with 'Deep Scan' inside of the utility that could recover every single possible file on memory card.

This tool offers 1GB free recovery as trial for users to determine whether it could find data for you.

Professional sd card recovery tool - iCare Pro

Professional Tool #2 - Easeus Data Recovery Wizard Free

Data Recovery Wizard is developed by Easeus for recovering data from many data loss scenarios including the data loss that happened to your memory card. It is built with simple to use yet user friendly interface that users can easliy use this professional tool for recovering photo video from sd card.

It is compatible with almost any kind of memory card available on the market and it scans fast. The another advantage of this program is that it lists found folders and files when it is scanning your data. You may judge directly from the found files and folders whether this program would work for you.

This program can also save 500Mb files free of charge as trial for the recovery. It's 500MB free version is only provided in its free version, if you download its trial, there is no Mb free recovery at all. Here is a link that we found on Cnet that hosts its free version.

Easeus Data Recovery Wizard

Professional Tool #3 - Stellar Data Recovery

Stellar Data Recovery has two editions that can recover sd card, microSD etc. various types of memory cards when they had suffered logical data loss, or damages. It is user friendly with clean outlook and step by step guide that users may operate a DIY sd card recovery easily.

It is fast in scanning and accurate in finding files from memory card that worth a trial before the purchase.

Professional sd card recovery - Stellar Data Recovery

Best Free SD Recovery for Mac OS

If you are looking for sd card recovery software for Mac, here are some choices for you and we would like to share some free mac sd card recovery tools at first to help you try to save money and get data recovered.

SD Card Recovery Mac #1 - PhotoRec

The PhotoRec is an excellent mac data recovery program which you may use on no matter Windows OS or Mac OS. This is the #1 must try program if you ever want a free tool used on Mac.

Free sd card software - PhotoRec

Download link:

https://www.cgsecurity.org/Download_and_donate.php/testdisk-7.2-WIP.mac_intel.tar.bz2

If the above link does not get you the zip file, then you may visit its home page to get the lastest download zip file.

Here are two video tutorials that for using PhotoRec on Mac

And another one is kind of same tutorial

And here is the photo tutorial that you may want to know how to use it.

SD Card Recovery Mac #2 - Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery

Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery is completely a free mac recovery utility that does not have any limitation inside of the program. It is a must try freeware since it provides better user interface than the first PhotoRec that provides DOS black command lines which is more difficult for users to get started. Then the 100% freeware Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery is the saver at this time if you are with a Mac.

Free sd card software - Lazesoft Mac Data Recovery

Freeware Memory Card Recovery

It is compatible with most Mac OS such as Mac OS 10.9 Mavericks, Mac OS 10.8 Mountain Lion, Mac OS X Lion 10.7, Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6, Mac OS 10.5 Leopard and Mac OS Server 10.5 Leopard. iPad Nano is also supported too.

Supported file systems: HFS, HFS+, HFSX, FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, NTFS5, EXFAT.

2 Ways to Recover photo/video from sd card without software/PC

Many users may inquire whether there was a way that could do the sd card recovery without any software or even without using the computer? Here in this paragraph we would tell some simple ways that you could get lost photos or videos from your memory card.

All this trick shall based on the previous backup you have made, or your device has a backup copy somewhere that you could get the backup copy to your device alive.

Way#1 - 'Cloud Backup' like Google Drive, Media Fire, Sync.com, Dropbox? Did you ever used such service?

Way#2 - Software backup copy or backup disk?

You may get some time to think over and over and find out whether you have backuped the data by some cloud backup service or backup software? If no, then you may ignore this part and go backup to the free sd card recovery tools.

Repair Damaged SD Card with Free Repair Tool or CMD Diskpart

It shall be on the condition that you haven't got any important file on the sd that needs rescuing since any kind of repairing is kind of making damages to the inside data. Or you need to make sure you have all the vital files rescued before any repairing.

Repair Tools for SD/MicroSD Card

Free Tool#1 - File System Repair Tool

What's to do if your memory card is blank, cannot be recognized, not reading on your cellphone, camera, nor the PC? Or when the memory card shows RAW in its file system property and 0 bytes in space while you have been using it for saving data?

First step of resuce the memory card is to get the data out from it with free sd card recovery tools that are mentioned in the head of this article, and then you may use the following repairing tool to fix its damaged parts.

How to repair damaged SD Card?

Step 1. Right click your sd in your PC ->Property -> Tools.

Step 2. 'Check' file system errors on the memory card.

Repair damaged SD - step 1

Step 3. Click Check and then get all options selected for repairing the damaged SD card. And then click 'Start'

Repair damaged SD - step 2

It would not only fix possible file system errors on your sd card but also get bad blocks on the sd card repaired too.

You may go to this page to know more methods if you want to fix damaged sd card

Repair damaged sd card with CMD Diskpart

You may try the following methods if your memory card is not working any more by using cmd diskpart to repair corrupted memory card.

Step 1. Click on Start->Cmd. Type Diskpart and press enter.

Step 2. Type list disk.

Step 3. Type select disk 1

Step 4. Now type “attributes disk clear readonly” and press enter.

Remove readonly at first

And then the next step is to use the same cmd diskpart to format it to be exfat, fat32, or ntfs.

Firstly, use Windows icon+R on your keyboard to start Run

And then : type 'Diskpart'.

Step#1: type 'list volume'

Step#2: type 'select volume 4' (This may change according to what your sd is labled on here this list)

Step#3: type 'format fs=fat32 quick'

Step#4: type 'exit'

format sd card fat32 with diskpart

You may go to this page that introduces 3 free mthods to format sd card.

SD Card Recovery Android App Free

This part is spcially written for these users who need an Android app that could recover sd card on Android phone without a PC

The best way for recovering the Android sd card is using it on a Windows PC or Mac and it is not advised to use Android sd card recovery app since any further operation on your memory card is writing data onto the memory card ie overwrite the lost data that could make the lost data totally/partially overwritten and become damaged even you get them restored.

WHY? If you have settled your memory card to be the place for downloading and installing any app, then it is writing data onto the memory card - RISKY!

DiskDigger photo recovery - a useful tool if you don't have any PC nor Mac but just an Android mobile. It is free to recover photos and videos from Android and it is free of charge. This one can be the Android phone saver if you accidentally deleted your important stuff on android.

Android sd card recovery app - recommended

App download url: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.defianttech.diskdigger&hl=en_US

How to use DiskDigger for recover deleted files from Android

Free Memory Card Recovery Mac

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Avoid this one - Memory Card Recovery Software Help developed by SendGroupSMS.com since it has a large volume of negative users' feedbacks.

Not this one - Memory card recovery software help

Not this one - Memory card recovery software help

Why sd card was damaged - the causes

Here are some causes that may lead to your sd card damages.

  1. bad sectors since life cycle
  2. human improper operations: deleted files, formatted phone/camera memory card, factory resettings...
  3. potential damages brought by virus attack, third party software failure if you make an attempt on the memory card with the software and it ends an failure...

Recover damaged SD card

These are the most frequent damages that may take place on your sd, miniSD, cf card or what ever memory card you have for your digital devices.

What's the principle if your sd card is damaged, corrupted? => Do not try to repair it, it's nessessary to use the free sd card software mentioned in the front part of this article as the first aid, and then you may repair the damaged memory card with the methods we included on this article too.

Online SD Card Recovery

Online sd card recovery is often of high cost. If you are looking for online sd card recovery service, we would recommend you try the free memory card recovery tools for a DIY recovery by yourself at first since online data recovery is usually priced $200-2000 or even more. That's the reason we inlcuded photos guide together with video guide for using the software that could guide you easily do an sd card recovery all by your own.

If you sd card cannot be restored by any program mentioned above, here are some online sd card recovery service for you.

Please note: most online recovery service is done remotely that requires remote access to your computer to get your memory card fixed, and if your sd card is seriously damaged, the online service may ask you to mail your memory card to them for an recovery and sometimes your memory card can no longer be repaired even you mailed it or send it to a local service if it suffered a life cycle damage or physical damage.

#1 Seagate Recovery Service

#2 Ontrack Data Recovery Service

#3 Datarecovery.com

https://datarecovery.com/

#4 Data Recovery Group

https://www.datarecoverygroup.com/

#5 Salvage Data

https://www.salvagedata.com/

Or you may Google 'data recovery + your location/city' to get the nearest available service.

Best Free Sd Card Recovery Mac

Software Scan - Different types of memory cards determines the scan consumption

We recommend you use free tools to do a DIY recovery on your memory card. You may have a question: how long does an sd card recovery software need to finish scanning my memory card? Here are some estimated consumption time cost.

  • 1GB memory card - 2 minutes
  • 128GB - 30 minutes or an hour
  • 256GB - around 40 minutes or more

The time consumption depends on what types of memory card is. The earlier memory card are mostly class2, class4, class6 (or what are called C2, C4, C6) and C10.

Free Memory Card Recovery Mac Download

  • Class 2 mini read-wirte speed 2MB/second (Note: 1MB=8Mb)
  • Class 4 mini read-wirte speed 4MB/second
  • Class 6 mini read-wirte speed 6MB/second
  • Class 10 mini read-wirte speed 10MB/second

As the speed has increased, the class standard has been eliminated, and replaced with a more advanced statement, UHS, there are the following.
new standard:
UHS-1, UHS-I, is divided into two levels, U1 and U3, with a maximum transmission rate of 104MB/sec.
UHS-1 U1 can read up to 104MB/sec, write speed is at least 10MB/sec, and now many U1 cards are printed with the word class 10 UHS-1 U3 reads up to 104MB/sec and writes at least 30MB/sec.
UHS-2, UHS-II, with a maximum transfer rate of 312MB/sec
UHS-3, UHS-III, with a maximum transfer rate of 624MB/se

What is the difference between SDHC and SDXC?
SDHC is a large-capacity SD card, SD High Capacity, which supports a maximum capacity of 32GB. The 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB cards on the market now fall into this category.
SDXC is a larger capacity, SD eXtended Capacity, which was released in 2009. It supports a maximum capacity of 2TB, such as 64GB and 128GB.

Last updated on Jan 27, 2020

Related Articles

External Resources

  • Different types of memory cards on Webopedia https://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Computer_Science/Memory_card_types.asp