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Last time I want to bring my photos from SD-card (Sandisk Ultra SDHC 32 GB) to my computer (windows), my computer said that there is no file system on the card and I should format the card. Also my camera can´t read the card anymore.

When I open the format-dialog it said that card has 30,6 MB (not GB).

I do a backup of the card one day before so I lost "only" one day of photography, but unluckily this is the first birthday of my daughter :-(.

I use a Canon 70D and raw-format so file extension is CR2.

So I try some tools to recover, but doesn’t work. In the end I tried testdisk, but also without luck. So here is my procedure with testdisk I tried, maybe you know a better way which can bring my photos back.

  1. testdisk_win says card has 32 MB (MB not GB).

  2. I chose partition table type none

    -> No pictures were found.

  3. So I changed geometry based on another 32GB-SD-card

    • cylinders changed from 3 to 3905
    • heads (255), sectors (63) and sector-size (512) stay without changes

    -> Search takes longer, but nothing found.

Is there anything else what I can do before I think about to go to a data-recovery-company?

I think about to format the card and try search again, but I'm not sure I this would bring the final death to the pictures.

Micha
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  • **Do NOT format the card**: it's a write operation, and previous content can easily get overwritten. In fact, you should make sure the physical LOCK switch is slid down so the card becomes read-only. TestDisk allows you to [create a whole disk image](http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/Image_Creation). This way you get a copy you can mess with without risking losing even more data. TestDisk also comes with [PhotoRec](http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec), a file scavenging tool which can be useful if you can't repair/recover the file system. – and31415 Aug 06 '14 at 07:57
  • @and31415: Tahnks for your quick response. I tried PhotoRec also, but doesn`t bring me a step ahead. Can you recommend some configuration for the tool? I'm aware of the "write operation"-problem, the thought was "better get some of the images is better then none" - a taste desperation :-/ – Micha Aug 06 '14 at 08:05
  • possible duplicate of [Recover data from SD card](http://superuser.com/questions/40058/recover-data-from-sd-card) – and31415 Aug 06 '14 at 08:05
  • @and31415: problem with the diskimage is that it doesn`t give me a 32GB image - only 32MB (as far as I remember). Therefor the "possible duplicate link" doesn`t fit well. – Micha Aug 06 '14 at 08:11
  • Well, it's still worth trying. If you can't get a full image you might still work the actual card (as long as it's write-protected). For what is worth, if you were to try to format the card, what would the reported capacity be? – and31415 Aug 06 '14 at 08:15
  • @and31415: "what would the reported capacity be" - good question. I will try it when I be back home. – Micha Aug 06 '14 at 08:50
  • Let us [continue this discussion in chat](http://chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/16240/discussion-between-and31415-and-micha). – and31415 Aug 06 '14 at 09:38
  • Before you do anything, you should create an image of the card using a tool like `dd`. Make sure it images the entire card, and not just the reported partition(s). Then work on the image file to recover the data. –  Mar 07 '17 at 09:00

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