Maker Pro
Maker Pro

Repairing a faulty SD card

doninwales

Aug 24, 2015
1
Joined
Aug 24, 2015
Messages
1
I have just returned from a lovely 2-week Summer holiday to Egypt.

100’s of photos were taken of the family, all stored to a 32Gb Transcend SHHC Card.

And the card has now failed :-(


I have tried various options, but the card is not recognised by any PC (windows or Linux) or even the original camera itself.
(If the card was at least recognised, I have enough IT skill to perform software recovery if there were any software issues. But the card itself is not recognised.)


From what I have read, the issue is likely to be either related to the processor chip or the memory chip.

Professional companies will charge extortionate sums for attempted data recovery :-(

My data is not critical. I will not suffer if I do not get the files back.
However, I have lost many memories from a wonderful holiday.
In particular, I have a disabled daughter and she is quite depressed that we have lost photos of her on stage and doing various activities.


Hence I would like to at least attempt to recover the data without spending too much money.

A colleague who is an electronics enthusiast has suggested that there may be some experts on here that might be able to offer advice.
Unfortunately my friend does not have expertise in this particular area so unable to assist directly.
But he has explained that he is aware of people who have repaired motherboards and other hardware, and that it might be worth asking around on here.



I’m guessing that some specialist equipment might be needed to remove and read the memory chip from my SD card.
Perhaps I’ll be lucky and someone on here will own such equipment (AND know how to use it… :)


Am currently feeling a bit depressed after a lovely holiday, having lost all my photos and movie clips.
Am hoping someone on here might be able to provide some guidance…..



Cheers,
Don
 

Gryd3

Jun 25, 2014
4,098
Joined
Jun 25, 2014
Messages
4,098
I have just returned from a lovely 2-week Summer holiday to Egypt.

100’s of photos were taken of the family, all stored to a 32Gb Transcend SHHC Card.

And the card has now failed :-(


I have tried various options, but the card is not recognised by any PC (windows or Linux) or even the original camera itself.
(If the card was at least recognised, I have enough IT skill to perform software recovery if there were any software issues. But the card itself is not recognised.)


From what I have read, the issue is likely to be either related to the processor chip or the memory chip.

Professional companies will charge extortionate sums for attempted data recovery :-(

My data is not critical. I will not suffer if I do not get the files back.
However, I have lost many memories from a wonderful holiday.
In particular, I have a disabled daughter and she is quite depressed that we have lost photos of her on stage and doing various activities.


Hence I would like to at least attempt to recover the data without spending too much money.

A colleague who is an electronics enthusiast has suggested that there may be some experts on here that might be able to offer advice.
Unfortunately my friend does not have expertise in this particular area so unable to assist directly.
But he has explained that he is aware of people who have repaired motherboards and other hardware, and that it might be worth asking around on here.



I’m guessing that some specialist equipment might be needed to remove and read the memory chip from my SD card.
Perhaps I’ll be lucky and someone on here will own such equipment (AND know how to use it… :)


Am currently feeling a bit depressed after a lovely holiday, having lost all my photos and movie clips.
Am hoping someone on here might be able to provide some guidance…..



Cheers,
Don
I feel for your loss. I really do, but here's where things get difficult for you.
The processor is responsible for things like wear levelling, which means that although you 'can' technically dump the contents of the flash to a machine, there is no telling if it's actually going to be useful.

Have you carefully inspected the SD card for physical damage or perhaps corrosion?

You may need to buy an identical card and use it's cpu in order to dump the data. This of course is risky.
 

davenn

Moderator
Sep 5, 2009
14,254
Joined
Sep 5, 2009
Messages
14,254
good luck ... hopefully you may do a repair and then a read .... chances are somewhat low unfortunately tho

on a side note ... transcend cards are junk !! NEVER use them


Dave
 

gurrg

Nov 26, 2014
3
Joined
Nov 26, 2014
Messages
3
I have just returned from a lovely 2-week Summer holiday to Egypt.

100’s of photos were taken of the family, all stored to a 32Gb Transcend SHHC Card.

And the card has now failed :-(


I have tried various options, but the card is not recognised by any PC (windows or Linux) or even the original camera itself.
(If the card was at least recognised, I have enough IT skill to perform software recovery if there were any software issues. But the card itself is not recognised.)


From what I have read, the issue is likely to be either related to the processor chip or the memory chip.

Professional companies will charge extortionate sums for attempted data recovery :-(

My data is not critical. I will not suffer if I do not get the files back.
However, I have lost many memories from a wonderful holiday.
In particular, I have a disabled daughter and she is quite depressed that we have lost photos of her on stage and doing various activities.


Hence I would like to at least attempt to recover the data without spending too much money.

A colleague who is an electronics enthusiast has suggested that there may be some experts on here that might be able to offer advice.
Unfortunately my friend does not have expertise in this particular area so unable to assist directly.
But he has explained that he is aware of people who have repaired motherboards and other hardware, and that it might be worth asking around on here.



I’m guessing that some specialist equipment might be needed to remove and read the memory chip from my SD card.
Perhaps I’ll be lucky and someone on here will own such equipment (AND know how to use it… :)


Am currently feeling a bit depressed after a lovely holiday, having lost all my photos and movie clips.
Am hoping someone on here might be able to provide some guidance…..



Cheers,
Don

Hi Doninwales! I'm in Wales too, where are you? Can you tell us how the card may have got damaged? Does it have physical damage, or was it just suddenly not be recognized by your devices? This is important, because if the card is seriously physically damaged, recovery of data is very unlikely. However, as someone has already pointed out, free data recovery tools are available if it is a case of not being read by your devices. Please let us know.
 
Top