Galaxy S3 microSD card died, not recognized

[MNC4mykids]

I was using my S3 today when a message appeared telling me not to remove the microSD card without first unmounting it. I thought that was odd since I had not been doing anything. I restarted the phone, removed and reinstalled the card without my phone recognizing that there was a card present. I thought it might be a hardware issue so I took the microSD card from my tablet and tried it in the phone and it worked. I next tried the phone microSD card in the tablet and again, it was not recognized. I tried it in an adapter with my laptop and it again did not recognize the card.

I am assuming that somehow, the card just "died" for lack of a better term. Is there any way I can recover the pic's / files that were on the card? Is there any way to get the card functional again (hopefully short of re-formatting it)?

Any help is appreciated!!

 

[Rukbat]

It depends on what died in the card. There's a whole computer in there - RAM, ROM and a controller (like a CPU). If the controller or RAM died, the manufacturer can take the storage chip out and recover what's stored on it (for about the price of a nice new car).

If the controller is just not seeing the directory of files, you can try using PhotoRec - CGSecurity Download it (it's free, but worth a fortune), burn it to a CD and boot your laptop with the CD. Plug the SD card into an adapter and plug it directly into one of the USB ports of the laptop (not into a USB hub). If the laptop can find the SD card, PhotoRec can recover any block of data that looks like a file format it recognizes (there's a list of them at the site, and it includes any picture format I've ever heard of).

If the card is completely unrecognizeable, you won't be able to format it - the computer has to see it to format it (and if the computer can see it, so can PhotoRec). If it's that bad, and it's a SanDisk card, try SanDisk device NOT detected by Windows PC first. If that still doesn't let you get into the card (if PhotoRec doesn't find it, it's not a Windows Registry problem, since PhotoRec doesn't use Windows), contact tech support at SanDisk Contact Information (They're pretty good about replacing cards that go bad.)

If it's not a SanDisk card ... well, that's why I only buy SanDisk cards.