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Best SD Card Data Recovery Software for PC and Android
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Sd card (Secure Digital Memory Card) is one of the most widely used data storage devices. It’s compact and can store dozens of gigabytes of digital information. Mobile devices store data mainly on MiniSD and MicroSD cards.
Unfortunately, sd cards are not secured from losing your images, videos and other data. Scenarios for removing data files from an sd card are numerous: erroneous formatting, corruption as a result of unsafe ejection from the card reader or phone or accidentally deleted files and folders. Overall, Android users lose their Gallery photos and videos, sometimes also documents (text notes). This review looks at the best data recovery software for sd card.
Recovery apps to be reviewed:
Table of Contents
- 7-Data Card Recovery - memory card recovery software for android
- Card Recovery – highly-tailored photo and video recovery software for memory card
- Disk Drill – memory card recovery software for pc with a simple interface and wide support of data storage devices
- DiskDigger – inexpensive and professional memory card recovery tool
- Photorec - free sd card recovery app for Windows and Linux
7-Data Card Recovery - memory card recovery software for android
7-Data Card Recovery app is a part of the 7-Data Recovery Suite. It is useful if you formatted your memory card or deleted files on it accidentally. It supports all the standard Android audio, video and image formats. Considering specifics of Android, the list is not that long but long enough for an sd card recovery tool.
7 Data Recovery software
7-Data Card Recovery is the type of sd card recovery software for Android which restores data only from mobile device’s external storage; the most widely used memory card types are SD Card, SDHC, Compact Flash, xD Picture Card, MicroSD and Memory Stick.
7-Data Card Recovery app should be installed on a Windows XP > computer. To search for the deleted files the sd card must be connected to the computer via memory card reader. When that’s done, it will show a list of external storage devices; select out sd card to restore. By the way, this application also works with local disks, which enables this tool to be used much wider than it might seem at first.
7-Data Card Recovery license costs $49.95 (home edition) with annual subscription for $39.95. Demo version is free.
Note. Along with Card Recovery there is an edition Android Data Recovery which works with tablet and smartphone internal memory. The application is compatible with such brands as Google, Samsung, Lenovo, Fly, etc.
Download 7-Data Recovery Suite
Card Recovery – highly-tailored photo and video recovery software for memory card
Among dozens of recovery apps for memory cards and USB only a few can boast of good record and real, not marketed, recovery features. CardRecovery app is considered a pro on the recovery apps market. If you do a bit of research into the deletion scenarios, users’ cases, supported cards, digital cameras producers and file types, it becomes clear that we see a professional sd card reanimation tool.
The latest CardRecovery version is v6.10. Although the product hasn’t been updated for quite a while, it works smoothly with Windows 10 and reads all the known types of memory cards and connected removable devices. In general, this sd card recovery app specializes in recovering data from digital cameras, mobile phones and tablets. The main data types are photo and video. If you need to restore files from the hard drive or specify less widespread file formats you’d better look for a different product.
The key peculiarity of CardRecovery is its SmartScan function due to which one can find photos and videos by format indicator type. It can be especially useful in case the sd card’s file table was disrupted after formatting or corruption. Another application - Recuva – has deep scan function as well, but CardRecovery performs a prompt analysis of multimedia formats in particular.
Disk Drill – memory card recovery software for pc with a simple interface and wide support of data storage devices
DiskDrill 3 - best image recovery software for Windows and Mac OS
Disk Drill is a relatively new application in the category data recovery. A small app houses a complete set needed to work with removable memory devices. There are app versions both for Windows and Mac OS, so the file systems list includes NTFS, EXT, ExFAT and HFS+. It makes no difference for this application what you connect to the computer – a USB, sd card, photo camera or whatever else.
A nice bonus is that 100MB of files are offered to be restored for free, therefore you wouldn’t have to buy a license to restore 5-10 files. The Pro- version of Disk Drill is pricey unless you come across seasonal reductions up to 50%.
DiskDigger – inexpensive and professional memory card recovery tool
The desktop version of DiskDigger supports most external storage devices including pen drives and memory cards. The characteristic specific for this app is its two file recovery modes: Dig Deep and Dig Deeper. Dip Deep scan mode is suitable in most file removal scenarios: formatting, corruption, deleting. DiskDigger easily recognizes file systems of sd cards (ex)FAT and NTFS.
Disk Digger - recovery app for PC
The other scan mode, Dig Deeper, is supposed to recover specific file types. For example, you can limit the search to jpg or DOC. Complete list of the deleted files formats is published on the official website.
Preview feature is available for all multimedia files. Another valuable function allows you to create a virtual image of the sd card in VDI format and then experiment with the recovery safely without risking to rewrite the files on your sd card.
The current price of the complete version of DiskDigger for Windows is $14.99 which is not expensive at all for a professional tool. Be certain, this app is as good as other memory card data recovery software. In any case, DiskDigger lets you scan the sd card, USB or any other storage device, preview the search results and then decide if you want to buy the license. The version of DiskDigger for Linux is free.
Photorec - free sd card recovery app for Windows and Linux
Photorec is a free universal multi-platform app recovering data on sd and microsd cards, digital camera memory. Photorec can find deleted files even in case the file table was corrupted or disk formatted. As the app works only in the reader mode there’s no need to worry that the data on the sd card would be rewritten.
Photorec app for Windows
Photorec app supports Canon, Fujifilm, Nikon, Olympus, Sony and other digital camera models. The file formats are unlimited (unlike in CardRecovery). All that Photorec finds in the file system clusters can be previewed and restored. The app can recover all the data found within the file table as well as metadata, such as file size, name, date and its path on the memory card.
Photorec is not limited by anything and in addition you get a console utility TestDisk, drives and sectors reanimator which also restores the information lost on the hard drive.
Thus if you’re looking for a free memory card recovery app on PC, Photorec is the best sd card recovery software.
Best memory card recovery software - 2018, the comparison table
Platform
Windows
Windows, Mac OS
Windows, Mac OS
Windows, Linux, Mac OS
Windows, Linux
SD card recovery
Video / image recovery
Recovery after format
Mobile version for Android
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Free version
Full version price (USD)
$49.95
$39.95
$89
$14.99
free
Vlad Brown, USA, Buffalo, WY
Vlad is a professional writer. He has expert knowledge in data recovery with 15 years of experience. He started his career as a journalist by reviewing PC and mobile apps. His current responsibilities are to keep track of users' questions and answer them.
His current responsibilities are to keep track of users' questions and provide answers to them, write proven manuals, be the website technical support and also run a Youtube channel.