Have you mistakenly formatted your SD card and lost all your precious data? If you wish to know the solutions or ways to unformat SD card and recover your data, read through this article to learn more.
- Can You Unformat an SD Card?
- How to Unformat SD Card for Free (3 Methods)
- How to Unformat SD Card Using a Paid Tool
- How to Unformat SD Card on Phone without Computer
Can You Unformat an SD Card?
It is possible to unformat an SD card and recover your data provided that all files you lost are not already overwritten by newly created files.
This is because the formatting process is divided into 2 options: the Quick format and Full format. If you choose Quick format during the formatting process then the boot sector on your card will be written to a partition. This means your files are not entirely deleted, your SD card will have more unoccupied space up until it gets overwritten with new files. Because of that, if you stop using your card immediately after formatting, then you can easily unformat the SD card that was formatted using the Quick format method.
With full format, the formatting process erases data permanently. As such the lost files can not be recovered when you try to unformat your SD card. In most cases, it is a Quick format.
How to Unformat SD Card for Free
There are various simple yet helpful methods that you can use to unformat your SD card for free. Below are some of those:
#1. Unformat SD card using cmd
This feature was designed to help one to perform all needed commands in order to effectively complete all necessary operations in Windows. This feature can only help you unformat your SD card provided you still remember the file names and types. If you don’t remember the file names then this method will not be possible. To do this:
- On your computer, gently connect the SD card that you wish to unformat.
- Make sure your computer can recognize your SD card.
- Click on Start and then proceed by typing “CMD” in order to run the Command Prompt.
- From there, right-click cmd.exe, then Click Run as Admin.
- In the Command prompt Window type your memory card volume number plus “:”. For example, X: (Make sure you substitute X with the letter assigned to your USB drive).
- Then type the following command line” recover + file name”. For this, you have to write the exact file name.
- Wait for the procedure to end. You will see a new folder on your SD card with all your deleted files.
#2. Unformat SD card using Recuva
This is a data recovery tool. Make sure that you do not use the SD card immediately after formatting it. This is to avoid overwriting the lost files. Recuva can not unformat your SD card if you have already overwritten the lost files. To use this recovery software:
- Download and then run Recuva on your computer.
- Choose the types of files you want to recover. For example, whether you want to recover all files or just videos, pictures, etc.
- Then Choose your SD card.
- Follow the onscreen steps to start the Scan process.
- Choose the preferred files and tap on Recover in order to save them.
#3. Unformat SD card using PhotoRec
PhotoRec is another data recovery software that can be used to recover and unformat SD cards, hard disks, and many others. This program is safe to use as it uses the read-only principle.
To use this program to unformat SD card:
- Use a card reader to connect your SD card to your computer.
- Then download and run PhotoRec on your computer.
- Choose your SD card from the given list of disks and click on Enter.
- Choose the Partition and click Enter to continue.
- Choose file system and click on Enter.
- Choose a destination for your recovered files.
- Click on C to launch the PhotoRec recovery procedure.
How to Unformat SD Card Using a Paid Tool
You can also use different paid data recovery tools to help you unformat your SD card. One of these is the Wondershare Recoverit program.
Why should you try paid software?
This is because recovery tools such as Wondershare Recoverit program offers users value for their money. The program can help you recover all file types and formats without any struggle. It also has advanced features to help you repair corrupt and broken videos.
You can use the Wondershare Recoverit program to recover 100MB data size for free. With this free program, you can recover various types of data from different storage devices and also preview your data before restoring it. However, you cannot use the Bootable Toolkit and the Advanced Video Repair features under the Free version.
To enjoy more benefits you can purchase the Essential version for only $69.99 per year. With this version, you can enjoy recovering data of unlimited sizes and formats from different storage devices.
How to use Wondershare Recoverit
The user experience of paid software is much better. You don’t have to buy the free version if the data you want to recover is less than 100MB, but the recovery feature and process are the same as the paid version. To use the Wondershare Recoverit tool:
- Download and launch the Wondershare Recoverit program on your computer.
- Select your SD card to start the data recovery process.
- Click on Scan to search for the lost data on your storage device.
- Click on Preview to see your results and then tap on Recover.
- Wait for the program to restore all your lost data files to your device.
How to Unformat SD Card on Phone without Computer
You can easily unformat your SD card on your Android devices without a computer. You just have to use Google Play to download the applications that can help you unformat your SD card easily. Here we introduce this SD Card recovery tool.
- Download and run the SD card recovery application on your Android device.
- Click on Scan in order to search for the formatted files on your card.
- Preview your recovered files and choose your preferred ones.
- Tap Restore to recover the lost data.
Accidentally formatting your SD card can be very frustrating especially if you did not have any backup for the lost files. Therefore, it is important to always remember to back up your data. Hopefully the outlined methods above helped you unformat your SD card.
