Have you lost precious photos or videos on your PNY SD card? There's no need to panic; you can recover all files with a reliable PNY data recovery solution.
The key is to stop using the card because overwriting lost files with new entries would render data recovery impossible.
Before exploring the four proven PNY SD card recovery methods, let's peek into the background of these flash memory cards and address the most notable causes of data loss.
Table of Content
Causes of PNY SD Card Data Loss
The most prevalent reasons PNY SD card users lose data include the following:
| Causes | Recovery Possibility |
| 🗑Accidental deletion | Many users mistakenly erase files while moving them to other folders or devices. Fortunately, you can reverse this human error with the methods below. |
| 🧹Formatting | The same goes for formatting your PNY SD card before realizing you haven't created a backup. However, you can salvage data after a Quick Format (unless you overwrite it). On the other hand, a Full Format means saying goodbye to lost files. |
| ➰Interrupted file transfer | You can't control a sudden power outage, but you can ensure you don't eject your SD card while in use. Otherwise, you might cause bad sectors and corrupted data. |
| ☠Malware | Besides copying and extracting confidential data, computer viruses and other malicious software can delete files. The good news is professional data recovery tools can retrieve them once you eliminate the threat. |
| ❗Corruption | Besides malware, forcible SD card disconnection, and abrupt device shutdown, file system errors can cause data corruption. However, eliminating it is a breeze with specialized data recovery software. |
| 🔨Physical damage | We don't need to tell you that breaking your PNY SD card or exposing it to liquids or extreme temperatures will cause data loss. However, that doesn't mean all hope is lost. Professional SD card recovery services might be able to restore your data. |
How To Recover Lost Data From a PNY SD Card
The following tried-and-tested methods are ideal for recovering lost PNY SD card data. One works if you have a backup, one is your only solution to physical damage, and the other two are perfect for nearly all data loss scenarios.
Method 1. Recover a PNY SD Card Using Wondershare Recoverit
Wondershare Recoverit is a world-famous leading SD card data recovery solution that helps users retrieve lost data from over 2000 devices, including SD cards.
It sports a 99.5% success rate in 500+ data loss scenarios, making it excellent for PNY data recovery in case of malware, accidental deletion, formatting, data corruption, and other unforeseen situations.
- Recovers data from 2000+ storage media, including HDDs, SSDs, USB drives, SD cards, etc.
- Enables recovery of data lost due to formatting, corruption, virus attack, and more.
- Works with all popular file systems, such as NTFS, FAT32, HFS+, and APFS, among others.
Here's how to recover lost photos and videos with this PNY recovery tool (the screenshots below showcase a Windows interface, but it doesn't differ from its Mac counterpart):
- Download the OS-specific software from the official Wondershare website, run the installation file, and follow the on-screen instructions to install the program.
- Connect your PNY SD card to your computer.
- Launch the software, click Hard Drives and Locations, and select your PNY SD card under External Devices to initiate scanning.
- Let the program run Quick and Deep scans to find all recoverable data or leverage filters like type, size, and date to uncover specific files.
- Preview the found photos, videos, audio files, presentations, PDFs, emails, and other data and click Recover.
- Browse your computer for the desired destination and click Save. We don't recommend choosing your PNY SD card because you could cause corruption and likely permanent data loss.
Method 2. Recover Lost PNY SD Card Data Using a Backup
The best way to retrieve lost PNY SD card files is to use a backup, assuming you have one. You can quickly restore them from a previously saved version if you've copied them to another folder on your computer, uploaded them to the cloud, or transferred them to an external drive.
We'll walk you through the default backup and restoration options on Windows and macOS. Both require previous backups, so try another method if you haven't backed up your SD card.
Here's how to recover lost PNY SD card data using Windows File History:
- Go to Settings > Update & security > Backup > More options.
- Click Restore files from a current backup.
- Select the desired backed-up files and click the green Restore button to send your data back to the PNY SD card. Alternatively, hit the gear icon (Settings) > Restore to, and pick a new destination.
If you've backed up your PNY SD card to an external drive using Time Machine on macOS, follow these steps to restore lost data:
- Connect your backup disk to your Mac.
- Go to the Apple menu > System Preferences (macOS Monterey or older) or System Settings (macOS Ventura or newer) > Time Machine and tick the Show Time Machine in the menu bar checkbox.
- Hit the Time Machine icon in the menu bar and click Enter Time Machine.
- Open the folder on your backup drive containing lost data and browse the previous versions. Once you find the desired files, hit the Spacebar to preview them and click Restore.
Method 3. Recover Lost PNY SD Card Data Using the Official PNY Recovery Tool
PNY has a proprietary PNY recovery tool for retrieving lost or deleted data from PNY memory cards. Using it may make you feel like you've traveled through time (the archaic interface is ripe for an update), but it's still official (and reliable) software, making it worth a try.
Here's how to recover lost PNY SD card data using the official PNY recovery software:
- Connect your PNY SD card to your computer.
- Visit the PNY Flash Memory Cards Support page, expand the Photo Recovery section, and download the PNY recovery software for Windows or macOS.
- Unzip and run the installation file, follow the on-screen instructions, launch the program, and accept the license agreement.
- Click Next to start the recovery wizard.
- Select the file type and your device's manufacturer and hit Next.
- Choose your PNY SD card and click Next.
- Click the Folder icon under Destination to specify a file path for the recovered data. Hit Next and wait for the software to find lost files.
- Preview the recoverable images, videos, music, or other files and click Next to restore them.
Method 4. Contact a Data Recovery Service for a Physically Damaged or Broken PNY SD Card
Data recovery experts are your only hope if you've physically damaged or broken your PNY SD card. Besides high-tech equipment, they have experience repairing storage media, including memory cards, and can fix yours quickly.
Therefore, take your SD card to a local SD card data recovery service to see if professionals can help. Once they run diagnostics and pinpoint the issue, they'll see if a repair is feasible and address your data loss accordingly. It depends on the extent of the damage, so let's hope for the best.
Remember to ask for a quote beforehand; you don't want to overpay for the service. However, some providers don't charge clients if their devices are beyond repair or if they don't recover lost data.
Conclusion
PNY SD card recovery is seamless with Wondershare Recoverit and the official PNY recovery software. However, the former has more features, an intuitive interface, and broader file, device, and OS support. It also has a free version.
If you don't want to download software and have previously backed up your PNY SD card, leverage your backup to restore lost files. Whether you rely on Windows File History, Time Machine, or a third-party backup manager like Wondershare UBackit, your data retrieval will be smooth.
However, these methods won't bear fruit for broken or damaged PNY SD cards. In that case, a professional data recovery service is your best bet.
