What Is SmartMedia Card - A Complete Guide

Accidentally deleted data from SmartMedia Cards?

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What is a SmartMedia Card—do you remember it? It was released in the early 2000s as a small memory card that could be used to store photos, music, and other data. Considering its age, it's not surprising that this storage device has become obsolete. However, many people still have important data stored on their Smart Media Cards. In this blog post, we'll explain what the card is and how to make SmartMedia Card recovery if you lose data.

1. What Is SmartMedia Card?

what is smartmedia card

SmartMedia is an outdated flash memory card. It was mainly used to store data in cameras and is no longer produced by the original owner, Toshiba.

The card had a storage capacity of 2 MB to 128 MB.

Applications of Smart Media Card

  • Storage for portable devices. Images clicked with Smart Media cards would be stored as image files, and one could access them using a PC.
  • Copy images to PC: With the help of a SmartMedia reader, one can copy all photos to the PC.
what is smartmedia card used for

Technical Specifications of Smart Media Card

The SmartMedia cards are small, light (2g), and fairly rugged. They can also be adapted to work in PCMCIA slots and 3.5" disk drives.

The table below highlights all the necessary technical specifications of the card.

Item
Techspec
Weight 2 g
Capacities 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 MB
Size 45.0 × 37.0 × 0.76 mm
Uses 16-Mbit, 32-Mbit, and 64-Mbit Toshiba TC58-compatible NAND-type flash memory chips
Data transfer rate 2 MB/s
Compatibility

Flat electrode terminal with 22 pins — (32M & 64M compatible)

Compatible with PCMCIA with an adapter

Compatible with CompactFlash Type II with an adapter

Compatible with 3.5" Floppy drive using FlashPath adapter

Advantages and Disadvantages

  • SmartMedia cards are small and thin, perfect for portable devices. Unlike other types of memory storage, like flash or magnetic-based ones, SmartMedia cards use an erased NAND chip that allows it to be fast when writing data onto the card and reading from them.
  • SmartMedia cards offer a significant advantage over other types of removable media because they can read and write data in small blocks. This means you can more precisely select what information deserves to save with this type of technology.
  • The lack of a controller chip makes SmartMedia cards less stable and more challenging to use. They also have lower compatibility with other devices, so you'll need special software or an add-on for your computer system to read them properly.
  • Also, another disadvantage is that the format isn't supported by many devices, which makes storage more difficult for this type of media.

2. How to Read a SmartMedia Card

Your computer cannot read a SmartMedia card unless you use a SmartMedia card reader. Some of the most prominent names include:

  • SanDisk ImageMate Dual Card Reader SDDR-75-07 SmartMedia CompactFlash-NEW
  • National ID Smart Card USB Gemalto CT30 Reader Writer Army tacho Identity CAC
  • Dazzle Universal Multi Media 6-in-1 Media Card Reader Mac Windows DM-21200 New
  • HP SC-0415 USB Smartcard Terminal NEW Bulk 352754-001 NO-ProtectTool Card
  • Kingston FCR-HS4 USB 3.0 High-Speed Card Reader for CF, SD, MicroSD and Memory Stick.
smartmedia card reader

3. How to Recover Lost or Deleted Photos/Videos from a SmartMedia Card

Like all other devices, SmartMedia Cards are prone to file loss. It may happen due to any one of the following reasons:

  • When a device reads the memory card, it may become corrupt and unusable.
  • Ignoring errors and messages such as "memory card full" can cause your photos and videos on the camera to corrupt
  • Improper removal of your card from a digital camera, smartphone, or other devices.
  • Removing cards while the read/write process is still going on
  • The card will appear corrupt if pictures are captured quickly without waiting for it to be written entirely.
  • Inserting the same SmartMedia card in different devices, such as smartphones, cameras, tablets, or other devices.
  • The accidental loss of images and other multimedia contents while transferring pictures to another device or computer.

The quality and type of data you lose will determine what recovery methods are used. If it's only a few pieces, then built-in strategies may suffice. For instance, use Chkdsk to detect the cause of minor loss. But for higher loss, you are advised to use third-party recovery software. Wondershare Recoverit is an easy-to-use tool that is highly effective in restoring lost photos and videos from SmartMedia cards.

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Restore any files from all kinds of storage drives like Digital cameras, camcorders, USB Drive, SD cards, SmartMedia card, SSDs, HDDs, etc.

Besides all popular video formats, such as MP4, AVI, MOV, 3GP, 3G2, M4A, etc., corrupted Ultra HD 4K, and 8K videos are scanned, collected, and matched, ensuring that the majority of your videos are recovered.

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Once you've installed Wondershare Recoverit, you can perform SmartMedia card recovery with the following process:

Step1Select the SmartMedia Card

Connect your SmartMedia card to the computer. Select it under the SD Card tab and click "Scan" button to process.

choose smartmedia card to recover
Step2Scan the SmartMedia Card

Recoverit SmartMedia Card Recovery software will start to scan the photo and video files. It will search mountains of files from the SmartMedia card.

scan photo and video files in smartmedia card
Step3Preview Files and Get Your Files Back

After the scanning process is completed, you can check all recoverable data files. Preview some recovered photos and images, select your videos and click the "Recover" button to retrieve them back.

recover files in smartmedia card
Step4Enhanced Recovery

Sometimes, you might find the video corrupt or unplayable after the preview using the software. This is because video files have a larger file size than documents or photos, and they are stored in thousands to tons of video fragments on storage devices like SmartMedia card. But no worries. Recoverit SmartMedia Card Recovery tool offers the Enhanced Recovery feature with patented technology. It automatically scans, gathers, and matches the video fragments and thus ensures most of your videos are recovered completely from DSLRs, Digital cameras, Drones, Actioncams, camcorders, SD cards, PC, HDDs, or any other source. All you have to do is click "Enhanced Recovery."

recover files in smartmedia card
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For Windows XP/Vista/7/8/10/11

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For macOS X 10.10 or later

Conclusion

So, what is a Smart Media Card? In short, it's a device that helps store and protect your data. If you happen to lose access to your data or the card itself, there are ways to recover the information. We hope this blog has been helpful in informing you about Smart Media Cards and how to restore any lost data.