Device Maintenance un-formatted SD card, and might have deleted everything. How to recover?

[mike777z]

It's been working for years, and then today, when using 'Device Maintenance' to clean up cache, memory, etc... it un-formatted my SD card and might have deleted everything on it. Is there anyway to recover this data? I had about 5k+ photos, etc... on it.

Message: Unsupported SD card, This device doesn't support this SD card. Tap to set up in a supported format.

I've already tried putting the SD card in my wife's phone (same as mine, Galaxy S7 edge) did NOT work. I've even tried using an adapter to the PC (Windows and Linux), both not seeing the card, as if it isn't there.

I really don't want to format the card and then lose all of that data. Anyone have suggestions on how to recover my data?

I know that I might be SOL, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Dngrsone]

Classically, Samsung devices have had issues with non-Samsung SD cards. I've killed several cards in my Galaxy devices over the years and now I only buy Samsung memory for them.

It costs more, but not a single one of them has dies on me over the past seven years.

 

[mike777z]

Yeah, this would be the first time that I've had that happen in all the years that I've use Samsung phones. Starting from S3, S5, and now S7edge. I've never used a Samsung SD in them though. It seems that the issue is more with the software for Android. Did you try and/or were you successful in any recovery on the SDs?

 

[Dngrsone]

Unfortunately, no.

I was lucky in that I was backing things up pretty regularly, though I did lose some pictures on one phone.

 

[mike777z]

My main issue is that I want my data recovered. If there is any possible way

 

[Dngrsone]

If it's only on that card, then I'm afraid it's gone.

 

[Rukbat]

If the data is still on the card, PhotoRec will recover it (but it needs a PC, and if the PC can't even see the card, the chances are that the card isn't formatted any more, so there's no data on it. But try PhotoRec - it doesn't look at the file structure [the PC does], so if only the beginning of the card is gone, you may still be able to recover some data.) Since you're familiar with Linux, you'll be familiar with the interface in PhotoRec - it's Linux-based (sd0, etc.)

 

[mike777z]

Thanks. I've looked into PhotoRec, but it does not see my card on the PC. I've been doing a lot of research online and have also tried reformatting the card, which brings up an error for the partition. (command '26 volume partition disk: 179,0 public' failed with '400 26 Command Failed')

From what I've read in multiple forums and blogs, I might be able to fix this error with 'chkdsk' if I root my phone, which is what I'm working on now.

 

[Rukbat]

1. chkdsk runs in Windows, not on the phone. 2. The computer has to be able to see the card to run chkdsk on it. 3. What happens in the computer has nothing to do with rooting the phone. (You can't run chkdsk in the phone, rooted or not.)

If it was a SanDisk card, they'd replace it with no questions, but anyone else? Good luck. As far as recovering the data that used to be on the card, a company like SanDisk might be able to - but it would cost more than a new Note 10. A lot more.

 

[mike777z]

Thanks. I'm working on a possible solution using Linux. I'll update if successful.

I chatted with SanDisk and they stated that I would have to take it to a recovery company. The one that they recommend was 'https://datarecovery.lc-tech.com/'. The price varies per device and size. Since my card is a 32GB card it would cost me about $275 for the recovery, 'IF' they were able to recover anything. The good thing about this company is that they do NOT charge you unless they are able to recover something. They told me that they had about 85% success rate.

 

[Kizzy Catwoman]

Sorry this has happened. Never rely on a memory card to secure your data. Always, always backup important data to Google drive and Google photos. You get unlimited photo storage at a compressed rate that is still good quality. But this is better than losing everything. I used to back things up to cd or dvd on my computer. But I keep things in the cloud now after a 1TB disc I bought failed after I backed up 10 years of data and deleted it from the computer. Luckily some of the data was on cd but I lost a load and learned then to backup things more than once.

Micro SD cards have failed on me many times and thus I just don't trust them to store data long term.

 

[Rukbat]

For an SD card, the definitive file recovery tool is PhotoRec. If that doesn't recover a file from the card, it's no longer on the card. (Even if you format a card, PR will recover files from it.)