Methods to Fix Corrupted SD Card / Memory Card

Eleanor Reed

Apr 10, 2023 • Filed to: SD Card Solutions • Proven solutions

Summary

Today's world is so that all of us are always in need of more and more storage space. We have all sorts of storage devices such as pen drives and SD cards. Despite that today mobile phones, laptops, and computers come with so much internal storage, one can never seem to have enough of it.

But another persistent problem that mostly tags along with all these storage devices is that they crash. Every one of them at least once in their lifetime will crash, taking alone all your data to a world unknown.

Dealing with a corrupted memory or SD card is no child's play. Since we believe the data inside of it to be important, be it personal or professional, recovering it becomes an important task.

Any online forum that you go to, you will find yourself surrounded with hundreds and thousands of questions about the same thing – how do I fix my corrupted SD card or what the common signs of a corrupted SD card are.

Part 1. What are the common signs of SD card corruption?

Almost everybody you ever happen to come across not only knows what an SD card is but will have used or are still using one of these. And not so surprisingly, some of them must have also faced the problem of a corrupted SD card.

An SD card is more often than not used in mobile phones and cameras to keep a better record of your information. If you are somebody who has a lot of data to store especially in terms of photos and videos, then getting an SD card is probably the best idea.

However, since your SD card is full of so many important things, one can only imagine how difficult it is when your SD card gets corrupted.

Here are some of the most common signs of SD card corruption that you should look out for:

• Black Device Screen

In some cases, when your SD card is almost out or is about to corrupt to its peak, then you will see your electronic device's screen as black. It is like one day you open your device and there is nothing on the screen, except that it is black, then more probably than not, it is the fault of your SD card.

• Miscellaneous Messages of Error

When an SD is corrupted partly and is on the verge of breaking through completely, you will start seeing messages such as 'access is denied' and similar ones.

• Read / Write Failure

In case you are unable to save new files into your SD card, also called write failures, then it might be a sign of a corrupted SD card. Also, if you are unable to read an SD card and not see any of its components, then it also points towards a corrupted SD card.

• Shows Incorrect Information

If you have certain things in your SD card and also some folders, but your SD card does not show anything in the card or shows wrong or incorrect bytes, then your SD card is corrupted.

• Missing Files

When an SD card is corrupted, the most thing you will notice is that your SD card will start missing out on certain files now and then. You might see a file one day but it disappears the next day and returns a few days later, then it is a clear sign of corruption.

• SD is not Recognized

Another common thing that happens in the case of a corrupted SD card is that your computer does not recognize your SD card.

• Unknown Files Appear

If you witness any unknown files in your SD card, then you should know instantly that your SD is corrupt and needs to be fixed.

Part 2. What are the 8 ways to fix a corrupted/damaged SD card?

Here are the 8 ways in which you can fix your corrupted/damaged card:

Fix 1. Change a card reader, adaptor, or a USB port

Many times you will see that power or connection issues cause card problems. The primary thing to do is to exclude exterior factors.

You should try reconnecting a different USB port or a new adaptor or another computer to see where the actual problem lies. If your SD starts to work normally after a few attempts, then it was probably nothing but a poor connection.

To prevent future data loss, you should shift all your data to other safe places such as cloud storage.

Fix 2. Run windows repair tool

If the primary fix did not turn out to be exactly very helpful, then you should try this second fix with the native Window check & repair tool to fix your corrupted SD card:

• Step 1 - Connect your SD card to your PC
• Step 2 - Open Windows Explorer by pressing Windows + E
• Step 3 - Open the SD's properties by right-clicking on it
• Step 4 - Click on the Tools tab
• Step 5 - Click on the Check button
• Step 6 - Let the scan process finish.
• Step 7 - Close the Scan window after completion

Fix 3. Change a drive letter

In case your SD card is not assigned a drive letter by the Windows system or it is conflicted with other drives, then your SD card will start acting like it is corrupted, and as a consequence, becomes unreadable.

Your computer comes with an inbuilt Windows Disk Management program and you can use it to change a drive letter this time.

Here are the steps to how it is done:

• Step 1 - Press Windows + X and click on Disk Management
• Step 2 - Right-click on your SD card
• Step 3 - Click on 'Change Drive Letter and Paths'
• Step 4 - Click on Add & select a new drive letter
• Step 5 - Save all the changes by clicking on OK

Fix 4. Run CHKDSK to check and repair SD card bad sectors

Like any other removable storage device, the SD card has a limited lifespan. Bad sectors tend to grow once it had been used for a long period. A good way to find errors in the SD card file system is through CHKDSK cmd. Also, if you are looking for a way to repair your SD card without formatting it, then these are the steps you should follow:

• Step 1 - Using a card reader, plug your SD card into the computer
• Step 2 - Go to the Start menu and type 'cmd' in the search bar. Hit enter and a list of programs will appear. Find 'cmd.exe' in it.
• Step 3 - Click on 'cmd.exe'. The following command window will appear that will allow you to fic your corrupted card.

• Step 4 - Type 'chkdsk /X /f (SD card letter) Though it will take some time, you will see 'windows have made corrections to the file system.'

Fix 5. Reinstall the SD card driver

If you cannot see your SD card mentioned anywhere in your Windows Explorer or your Windows Disk Management, then the chances of your SD card not recognizing it is high. To counter this, you can try to reinstall the SD card driver to make it reappear in your Windows Device Manager.

Here are the steps you can follow to carry out the same:

• Step 1 - Press Windows + X and click on Device Manager
• Step 2 - Expand Disk Drives
• Step 3 - Right-click on the name of your removable disk, then click Uninstall
• Step 4 - Click OK
• Step 5 - Disconnect the SD card from the computer
• Step 6 - Restart your computer. Try to reconnect your SD card to your computer. The driver will be automatically installed by Windows.

Fix 6. Format a RAW SD card

If you see your card displayed as RAW in Windows Disk Management, then you need to format your card with a proper file system like FAT32 or NTFS.

Fix 7. Format a half capacity SD card

There are times when you will see that your SD card is showing only half of what its actual capacity is. In such a case, you will have to restore it to its full capacity by formatting the half capacity SD card.

You can do so by going with Disk Management or Windows File Explorer.

Fix 8. Create a new SD card partition on unallocated space

Sometimes a RAW SD card does not show up on your computer. This might also happen when your SD card turns empty. If you want to make your SD appear normal on your computer, then you have to create a partition manually. This partition will make Windows recognize it.

Part 3. How to recover and repair data from corrupted SD Card using Recoverit Data Recovery Software?

Recoverit Data Recovery tops the list of the most powerful data recovery software. The software aims to help you get back all your valuable data such as photos, emails, videos, audio files, and documents speedily and effortlessly from external storage media, internal hard drive, recycle bin, laptop, and even a crashed computer.

With Recoverit Ultimate, you can also recover a fragmented, corrupt, damaged, or broken video and repair it efficiently.

All you have to do is follow the steps written below:

Step 1. Select a location from where you want to start recovering your corrupted files.

Step 2. Scan the location for all the corrupt files. You can select multiple files at once.

Step 3. Wait for the scanning process to complete. Once the process is completed, click on the 'Got it' tab to close the pop-up.

Step 4. Preview the file/files that have been scanned. Once you preview your file/files and are satisfied, click on the recover tab.

Introduction to Advanced Video Recovery function of Recoverit

There are various types of data and one of them is Video files. However, it is very common for a video file to get corrupt. You either see parts of it missing or see a black screen or sometimes it won't even load.

The Advanced Video Recovery feature is one of the many features of Recoverit Data Recovery Ultimate. With this feature, you can scan, gather and match the fragments of your corrupt videos, and thus ensure that most of your videos are recovered from Digital cameras, DSLR, Action Cameras, Drones, camcorders, Dashcams, PC, SD card, HDD, etc.

Here are some of the things the Advanced Video Recovery feature can do:

• Scan and match your video fragments
• Merge the fragments from the same video
• Recover your videos and keep 95% of them intact
• Recover unlimited video files without corruption

Just click the Advanced Video Recovery option to recover fragmented video files easily.

Steps to Repair Corrupted Video with Recoverit

The top on the list of the most powerful video repair software for repairing damaged, broken, or corrupt M2TS, MOV, MTS, MP4, MKV, FLV, 3GP, and AVI file formats is Recoverit's Video Repair.

Recoverit Video Repair supports two repair modes:

• Quick repair – It is used to repair various video errors.
• Advance repair – It can repair your corrupt videos by analyzing the data and technology of the sample video shot by the same device.

Here are some of the benefits of repairing corrupted video with recoverit:

• Repair multiple formats of videos simultaneously
• Free scan for corrupt videos and preview repaired videos before saving them
• No limitations on the size of Video files for repair
• Repair any number of corrupt Video files

Follow the below-written steps for an unfailing data recovery process:

Step 1: Add your corrupted videos
Launch the application on your computer. To repair your corrupted video files, you can add it through clicking the Add button or "Add video and start repairing" area.

Step 2: Repair your videos
As soon as you have added all the corrupted videos, click on the Repair option to start the video repair process.

Step 3: Preview the videos
It will take some time to repair and once it has finished the repair process, a reminder showing info of successful fix will pop up on the screen. Press OK to close the operation.

Step 4: Advance mode for severely corrupted video (optional)
If the videos are severely corrupted and not repaired successfully, please go to the advanced repair mode. Just click the Advanced Repair button.

Then add a sample video and repair it now.

Step 5: Save repaired video
The advance repair will perform the repairing process and prompt a success message when the process is completely done. Now, you can play these videos and you will not see any error on the screen.