Don't worry if your SD card corrupted or the memory card damaged. How to fix corrupted SD card? Best 9 methods are available here to fix corrupted SD cards without losing any data. Follow to recover data from corrupted SD card and make the SD card readable again in Windows.
How to fix corrupted SD card? What will you do when your SD card is corrupted or not reading? Follow the content navigation, and you'll get a clear guide to fix corrupted sd card on your own:
However, as the SD card is frequently plugged in and out with SD card readers, especially without safe ejection, it is likely to cause file system corruption or bad sectors on the card. Don't worry if your SD memory card becomes inaccessible or the SD card is corrupted & unreadable. Apart from the SD card's improper handle, many other common factors may cause an SD card to malfunction. For example, a virus infection, interruption of data transfer, SD card removal while writing files to it, etc.
However, if you need fix corrupted SD card without losing data, you should resuce data from your corrupted SD card first with professional SD card recovery software.
Here we can collect a chart to help you understand your SD card corruption causes or symptoms, and you can choose a suitable repair plan to fix corrupted SD card. Check the following info, and you'll learn that your SD card is corrupted or damaged, and how to deal with it.
| SD Card Repair Plans | SD Card Damage Scenarios That Can Be Handled | Common Corruption Symptoms | Difficulties |
| Poor contact of SD card, and device compatibility issues causing read errors |
| ⭐⭐ | |
| Loss or conflict of SD card drive letter, resulting in inability to access |
| ⭐⭐⭐ | |
| File system corruption, such as errors in the File Allocation Table (FAT), directory structure damage, etc. |
| ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | |
| File system errors, bad sectors, etc., cause the SD card to be unable to read or write normally |
| ⭐⭐⭐ | |
| System-level issues, such as driver problems, and hardware conflicts, causing the SD card to not work properly |
| ⭐⭐⭐ | |
| Outdated, damaged, or incompatible drivers causing SD card issues |
| ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | |
| Certain attribute setting errors of the SD card, such as the read-only attribute being accidentally set, etc. |
| ⭐⭐⭐⭐ | |
| Severe file system corruption of the SD card, virus infection, situations where data needs to be completely erased, etc. | ⭐⭐⭐ | ||
| Hardware failure of the SD card, such as chip damage, circuit board breakage, etc., which cannot be repaired by software |
| ⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
After defining whether your SD card is corrupted or damaged, you can first try your best to recover data from corrupted SD card, then use the methods in this tutorial to get started fixing corrupted or damaged SD cards.
Once your SD card gets corrupted, the first thing to do is to restore files from the SD card. Data may be lost during the repair process, so getting back files in advance is best.
You may try the following 3 corrupted SD card file recovery solutions for help:
Once your SD card turns to RAW or Windows asks you to format it before you can use it, take it slow. The files are still on the SD card, using EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard software to recover SD card data to another location as soon as possible. It is professional in recovering deleted, formatted, or inaccessible data in various data loss cases.
It's a powerful SD card recovery software; with the help of the EaseUS SD card recovery tool, you can recover deleted or missing photos and videos from a corrupted SD card. If you have to format the SD card, and forget to back up the corrupted SD card in advance, this recovery software can even help you unformat your SD card.
Besides SD cards, it also can recover data from other memory cards like microSD cards, CF cards, and more. Check the following guide to recover data from your issued SD card with EaseUS SD card recovery tool:
Step 1. Connect the corrupted SD card and launch EaseUS SD recovery software on your PC. The SD card will be listed under the Devices section. Select the SD card and click "Scan for lost data" to initiate the search for your lost data.
Step 2. The software will automatically begin a scan. This scan is powerful enough to locate most lost files, even those with lost file names. Following the scanning process, you can find deleted items in the tree-view panel on the left.
Step 3. If you have purchased the pro version, you can directly double-click the files to preview their content. Afterward, you can select the desired files and click "Recover" to restore them to a secure location, do not save the recovered files on your SD card again.
We hope you can share this passage to recommend EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard to more users and help them recover deleted files from SD cards!
If your SD card suddenly shows empty or the SD card only displays partial data after fixing the corruption error, the data might get hidden. The other way is to find hidden files on SD card:
Step 1. Connect the SD card to the PC and press Windows + E to bring up Windows Explorer.
Step 2. Open "This PC" and double-click your SD card.
Step 3. Go to the View tab in File Explorer, and choose "Show" >"Hidden items".
If EaseUS SD card recovery software fails to scan and find your lost data on the SD card, don't worry. You still have the option to try turning to EaseUS data recovery services.
Consult with EaseUS Data Recovery Experts for one-on-one manual recovery service. We could offer the following services after FREE diagnosis:
| 🚩Applies to: Fix SD card corrupted, SD card not reading, SD card not detected/recognized, error. |
Check out the symptoms and pick up the right fixes for corrupted/damaged SD card repair immediately. This video has provided you with five advanced tips for you to follow.
The listed fixes are applicable to fix different levels of SD card corruption, and it's advised for SD card owners to try each method one by one, from simple to complex.
Altogether, the 9 ways of SD card repair solutions also work to fix corrupted memory cards, USB, external, or internal hard drives. Now, let's start.
| 🚩Applies to: Fix SD card corrupted, SD card not reading, SD card not detected/recognized, error. |
Sometimes, connection issues or power issues are likely to cause SD card unreadable problems. First of all, it's better to exclude exterior factors that can be fixed with a few tricks.
Step 1. Unplug and reconnect your SD card to the PC.
Step 2. If your SD card fails to show up, try the following 3 tips:
After this, check if your SD card shows up or is readable. If yes, jump to the corrupted or damaged SD card recovery section at the end of this page to bring back all your important files immediately. If nothing shows up, continue with the following fixes.
| 🚩Applies to: SD card not readable, not showing up error. |
Connect your SD card to your computer. If you didn't see the drive letter of your SD card in Disk Management, it's because its drive letter is conflicted with other drives. In this case, the computer will not detect the SD card, and the SD card will act as corrupted or become unreadable.
Changing or assigning a new drive letter to the SD card in Disk Management will resolve this error. Add a new drive letter to your card with the following steps:
Step 1. Press the Win + X keys and click "Disk Management".
Step 2. Right-click on your SD card and select "Change Drive Letter and Paths...".
Step 3. Click "Add" or "Change" and select a new drive letter for the SD card. Click "OK" to confirm.
| 🚩Applies to: Fix SD card file system corruption or bad sectors issue. |
SD card has a limited lifespan, like other removable storage devices. It will grow bad sectors or the file system may corrupt after a long period of use.
The CHKDSK command will find SD card file system corruption errors and remove bad sectors. This is also the most applicable way to repair a corrupted SD card without formatting.
Step 1. Plug your SD card into your computer with a card reader.
Step 2. Type cmd in the search box, right-click Command Prompt and select "Run as Administrator".
Step 3. Type chkdsk C: /f /r /x and hit Enter.
Step 4. Type exit when the checking and fixing process completes.
After finishing all these steps, if you see "Windows has made corrections to the file system" in the command window, congratulations. The corrupted SD card is successfully fixed, you can view and use your data again.
| 🚩Applies to: Fix SD card not openable or inaccessible issue due to device error. |
Another practical way that can fix SD card corrupted errors is to run Windows Error Checking. Follow the steps below to repair corrupted SD card on your own:
Step 1. Connect the SD card to your PC.
Step 2. Press Windows + E to open Windows Explorer.
Step 3. Right-click the SD card and open its Properties.
Step 4. Go to the Tools tab, and click the Check button.
Let the scan process complete and closes the scan window once it finishes.
After this, you may be able to open and view your SD card files again. If you have fixed SD card corrupted issues, please share this method with more users.
| 🚩Applies to: Fix issues that are related to hardware and drivers on the SD memory card. |
Windows Troubleshooter can find and fix problems that are related to hardware and drivers. If the SD card contains a similar problem, Windows Troubleshooter will do:
Step 1. Connect the SD card to your PC.
Step 2. Go to Windows Settings > Update & Security > Troubleshoot.
Step 3. Under the Hardware and Devices section, click "Run the troubleshooter".
Wait for the troubleshooting to complete, and then restart the PC. The SD card not openable or unreadable error shall be resolved.
Applies to: Fix SD card not detected or not recognized error due to outdated drive driver.
When the SD card is not recognized by Windows at all, you can neither see it in Windows Explorer nor Windows Disk Management. A highly possible reason is that the SD card driver is outdated.
You can try to reinstall the driver or update drivers on Windows 11/10 to make it appear again in the Windows Device Manager:
Step 1. Press Windows + X keys and click "Device Manager".
Step 2. Expand Disk Drives, right-click on the name of your SD card, and click "Uninstall".
Step 3. Click "OK". Restart your computer.
Step 4. Disconnect and reconnect the SD card to your computer.
After this, Windows will install the latest driver automatically and make the SD card detectable again.
| 🚩Applies to: Fix SD card is locked, read-only, or write-protected issue. |
Sometimes, your SD card may get locked, or become read-only, write-protected/encrypted by third-party encryption software.
A fast way out is to run DiskPart clear read-only command. Here are the steps:
Step 1. Connect the SD card to your PC. Press Windows + X, then click "Command Prompt (Admin)".
Step 2. Type diskpart and hit Enter in the command prompt window.
Step 3. Type the following command lines and hit Enter each time:
You should replace 1 with the disk number of your SD card.
Step 4. Type exit to close the DiskPart window when the process completes.
After this, you should be able to open your SD card and access the saved files again.
| 🚩Applies to: Reset the SD card file system to FAT32 or exFAT, repair raw SD card. |
If the card displays as RAW in Windows Disk Management, or the file system of your SD card is not supported by the Windows computer or camera devices, you need to change the file system of the SD card to a supported one.
Formatting the SD card to NTFS, FAT32, or exFAT can be the best way out. This method also works to restore SD card's full capacity if the SD card only shows partial or half capacity.
You can use File Explorer to format the SD card as shown below or apply an SD card formatter for help:
Step 1. Connect the SD card to the PC and open File Explorer.
Step 2. Right-click on the corrupted SD card and select "Format".
Step 3. Select a proper file system among NTFS, FAT32, or exFAT. Tick "Quick Format" and click "Start".
Note that formatting data will result in data loss. You can turn to SD card recovery software - EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard to recover lost files after formatting.
| 🚩Applies to: Fix or resolve SD card malfunction error from SD card manufacturers. |
Powerful SD card manufacturers like Seagate, WD, Sony, Samsung, etc., also provide services to help users fix SD card corruption or malfunction errors.
If your SD card is with a similar error, and you can't fix the error with the former 9 fixes, turning to the SD card manufacturer can be your last chance.
If you have fixed corrupted SD card already, share these useful methods on social media to let more users know!
Here is a list of possible fixes that you can follow and try if you can repair the damaged SD card:
Tip 3 and 4 are most effective in repairing a physically damaged SD card.
On this page, we listed some common symptoms that help you define whether the SD card is corrupted. And you don't need to worry about losing data on the corrupted SD card.
We collected 10+ methods to fix the corrupted SD card and also presented 3 reliable SD card data recovery solutions to help you get lost data after SD card repair. For a fast and secure data recovery process, take EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard as your best try.
Don't worry about losing your data. Take action to bring your corrupted SD card back to life again.
This is the last part of this passage, and we hope you can learn more about damaged SD card recovery in this part:
1. Can I recover data from a corrupted SD card?
Yes, the best solution for corrupted SD card data recovery is by applying a data recovery utility. You will only need three steps to recover a corrupted SD card with EaseUS Dat Recovery Wizard, and its software can also recover data from corrupted hard drive.
2. How do I know if my SD card is damaged or not?
Usually, there are some signs that you can know your SD card is damaged:
3. How to perform an SD card repair?
You can repair your SD card with the following methods:
4. Can you format a corrupted SD card to fix it?
It is one of the available solutions to fix a corrupted SD card. If the SD card is damaged physically, formatting it will not be very helpful.
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