[GUIDE] Using chkdsk to fix a corrupted SD card

[Phil Gz]

I lost all pictures and videos from my 64g Mini SD card and did a Google search for free recovery. Out of six programs I downloaded only two showed the items to be recovered and then only about 80% of content. Then to have the full recovery they wanted $70 for the full version.

Following your instructions word for word all of my pictures and videos were recovered in 20 mins.
Great job guys, thank you for saving me time, money and a lot of frustration. Phil Gx

 

[Arturo Flores]

Its asking me to convert lost chains to files? What do i press?

 

[Esprix]

Its asking me to convert lost chains to files? What do i press?

I'm getting the same error:

View attachment SD card error 9-14-15.bmp

I'm also getting a "convert lost chains to files?" prompt and am unsure if I should say yes or no:

 

[Jasmine Lilley]

I did this and it's been running for TWO whole days now! The log is just filling up with "Corruption was found while examining files in directory ....". Help! What do I do?? this has highjacked my laptop and I'm afraid to remove the card for fear that I'll never get my files to wok.

 

[Krissie Pionilla]

My computer can read my sd card when I inserted it with adapter but why does my phone keep on saying that it's damage when I'm inserting it to my android phone? I tried this CHKDSK but it says that "cannot open volume for direct access" even though I make sure that my adapter is lock up just like what you said. Can you help me fix this, please?

 

[Rickajho]

For anyone wondering if the card is damaged beyond "at home" recovery - i.e.: those cases where chkdsk reports "Cannot open volume for direct access." and/or Windows shows the capacity of the TFcard, but also reports zero bytes available:

Mozey over to lc-techDOTcom/pc/filerecovery/and download the trial copy of FileRecovery Standard. (This is the company SanDisk foists on you for data recovery services. You don't need to pay for anything - the trial version will work fine to run this test. Install and run the program:

Choose media type: memory device.

Select volume to scan: the drive letter Windows assigns to your memory card.

Select disk diagnostics, run the scan.

If FileRecovery is reporting all blocks on the memory card marked as bad - you have a dead memory card that won't be recoverable by home user methods.

Despite the small size there is a lot of technology inside those tiny cards and if FileRecovery reports all blocks marked bad, chances are that either the memory core interface or ECC controller has failed. You have two options at that point: Toss it, or pay big bucks for profe$$ional data recovery.

The truth may hurt, but there is no point beating on a defective card looking for a solution that cannot be had. :'(

 

[95_mtn_mover]

If I used an adapter for my micro sd the computer didn't detect it. If I used the USB card reader that came with the micro sd card then the computer detected it as removable drive G. I did a disk check on removable drive G and got a messgae that thefile could not be accessed directly. Any help for that?

 

[Otto Werse]

Okay, I've got this 64GB SanDisk Ultra microSD card, which got corrupted when I updated to Android Lollipop. I tried this method multiple times now, on Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 and, but I keep getting this error alongside with a weird Pop-Up that tells me something about a Multi-Volume set, as if this were a Floppy Disk set or something like that. I can access all information on my card, on my PC, so backing up any information on there was easy to do, but Android doesn't recognize it at all. I'm not able to format it, neither using the CMD method from this thread, Disk management, DOS formatting or the regular Windows Explorer Format (Quick and regular) nor can I delete anything from it or write to it, at first it appears as if it deleted/written correctly, but every time I eject and re-insert it, it is back in it's original state, filled with data from my phone. I tried everything I mentioned multiple times already, which took a good couple of days already, since DOS formatting is awfully slow. So, is there anything else I could try to fix this darn thing, or am I just going to have to destroy it to finally delete my data and then throw it away?
I know SanDisk has some sort of warranty on these high-tier cards, but I can't seem to be able to find any receipts for it.

 

[Melyneec]

I did exactly what you directed, everything went smoothly. But when I try to access it on my PC it says it is corrupted so I have no way to access any files it may have recovered. HELP!

 

[Andrew Simmons]

Hey guys thought I'd share my experience with this problem and the steps I took since this idea helped solve it:

1. Overview
I put my corrupted sd card in the sd card adapter and the adapter in the computer. It came up as something like this
View attachment 207964
without the size measurement beneath meaning whenever I clicked on it, I got an error message basically saying I couldn't access the drive.

I tried to find it in Control Panel > Disk Management and found that it read as RAW data:
View attachment 207965
I pretty much gave up on explorer by then and moved on to cmd...

2. Command Prompt: DiskPart
CAUTION! THIS STEP IS UNNECESSARY FOR SOLVING THE ISSUE AND IS RECOMMENDED TO BE SKIPPED! Go to Step 3

So pretty much what I had done was run the DiskPart application within to see whether the sd card was even still functioning since I had kinda given up hope at this point.

Listing the volumes I found the card was still read as healthy
View attachment 207968
but it was still seen as just RAW data... Any tech guy will tell you that means the drive is corrupt or unreadable at this time and you should probably format it.

Next I took a look at the disk and volume details just to know what the computer could see
View attachment 207969
Soon I just decided to leave DiskPart

and run the chkdsk utility...

Commands
Options

3. The Chkdsk Utility

Here's the important part! Run the chkdsk utility on the volume of the sd card by typing the following { chkdsk <"drive letter":> /f } and standby for questions it may ask.

Bare in mind all these processes have taken me over half an hour to complete.

Commands
Resolving tasks that windows ran (for the geeks)
MUST DOs! Monitor for these IMOPORTANT promptings and type {Y} for yes


Here are some extra commands to run if needed



And that's all. Hope this helps!

 

[gvkrocks]

Gret Support and Help

 

[sjhoch7]

I tried this with my micro SD card and I get the message that it will not work because the card is write protected. Is there any way to fix that>

 

[Bennith]

Top man - thanks for the advice - worked a treat

Make sure the SD car is not swtiched to "lock" or "write protect" - there should be alittle switch on the side of the SD card (that the micro SD car is in)

 

[Andrew Simmons]

Make sure the SD car is not swtiched to "lock" or "write protect" - there should be alittle switch on the side of the SD card (that the micro SD car is in)

yes, make sure to check that

 

[Graham Sayles]

I ran the cmd chkdsk. It's been going for about an hour now. It says, "Corruption was found while examining files in directory. \System Volume Information\ <2275>" And it just keeps repeating that message counting up, <2276>, <2277>, <2278>, etc... Is this normal? How long does this normally take? Cause I have the feeling like its going to count to infinity and beyond.

Ok well it finally stopped at <4095>. Then said it an error occurred while examining the volume bitmap. So Im guessing it didn't work because now Windows is telling me I have to reformat the card. Before I ran this chkdsk cmd I could open the SD Card, it was just one folder that was corrupted. Now I guess the whole thing is erased after running that command.

 

[Andrew Simmons]

I ran the cmd chkdsk. It's been going for about an hour now. It says, "Corruption was found while examining files in directory. \System Volume Information\ <2275>" And it just keeps repeating that message counting up, <2276>, <2277>, <2278>, etc... Is this normal? How long does this normally take? Cause I have the feeling like its going to count to infinity and beyond.

That's the command correcting the errors. It could take up to a few hours depending on the size of the card and the amount of damage done.

 

[Graham Sayles]

It didn't seem to correct anything. Actually seemed to make it worse. I use to be able to look at the folders in it. After using the chkdsk command I can't even open the SD card. Wish I'd never used the chkdsk and just stuck to software.

 

[Andrew Simmons]

Chkdsk is made to fix these issues. I would only recommend running the command again as "chkdsk /f" if you haven't already done so with the [/f] function. I'm not entirely sure what the scan had done differently on your end but it should have made the card accessible again. If not the card may have gone bad from the problem. Especially considering the number of corrections it'd made and the error of the volume bitmap. I'm sorry that I probably can't help precisely beyond this point without more information on the way an sd card functions. It wouldn't hurt to Google the error message real quick and if all else fails: I'd resort to "EASEUS MobiSaver for Android" which can get you your data back after formatting the card if you require the stretch.

 

[Silvita34]

Ok, I have been trying cmd chkdsk for while, but my computer cannot find nor read my SD card as well as my phone. It was working perfect yesterday... I have lots of pictures I would like to retrieve...

 

[Twearne]

All, firstly thank you for being smarter than I am...

I have an issue I haven't seen anyone else post exactly. It goes like this...

I found my microSD card to be failing in my LG G2 mini after installing an update. I found a forum similar to this that suggested a similar use of chkdsk to recover my files. Several people had reported success so I gave it a crack. It ran very quickly and now I can access my card on the computer BUT, there are now no folders, just 8 files with weird symbol filenames.

The command prompt looks reads like:

Any ideas what I can do? As with lots of other people I've lost photos etc. which I'd really like to get back... Any help appreciated.