[2022 Tutorial] How to Recover Formatted SD Card on Windows and Mac

This page covers everything you need to know about formatted SD card recovery. When you accidentally format an SD card, stop using it immediately. Then, follow the solutions provided here to recover your formatted SD card and get all your lost files back right away:

Note that the SD card formatting recovery solution also works for retrieving files from formatted hard drive partitions, external hard drives, USBs, cameras, media players, and such devices.

Can You Recover Formatted SD Card?

Scenario 1: “How can I recover photos from a formatted SD card? I had thousands of photos saved on an SD card in my camera. Yesterday, the camera prompted me to format the SD card. Is it possible to get those pictures back after formatting the SD card?”

Scenario 2 - "How to recover formatted SD card? I mistakenly formatted my SD card on a media player and now all the video and music files are missing. Is there any way to get them back from the card?"

If you've accidentally formatted your SD card, it's smart to look online for “how to recover formatted SD card” methods. However, you might be overwhelmed by the abundance of results on Google or any other search engine. Stay calm if you've accidentally formatted an SD card in your camera, computer, or phone.

If you accidentally formatted your SD card, USB flash drive, external or internal hard drive, here's how to deal with it:

Download the Formatted SD Card Recovery software for assistance

Don't waste your time searching and testing memory card recovery software online, we introduce to you a simple data recovery tool called Tool Data Recovery Wizard. Tool Data Recovery software enables you to recover files from formatted SD cards, memory sticks, USBs, internal/external hard drives, and the likes.

Please download and install this Data Recovery Wizard tool on your computer. Then, use the software to scan your reformatted device – it will find your lost files, such as photos, videos, audio files, Microsoft documents, Adobe files, and more, in just a few simple steps.

Apart from formatted recovery, you can use this software to recover data from unintended deletion, OS crash, partition loss, virus attack, RAW errors, and more.

How to Recover Files from a Formatted SD Card

This part will show you the entire process of how to use a data recovery tool to get files back from a formatted SD card. Let's start the easy way to retrieve all your lost files from a formatted SD card.

# 3-Step Guide to Format SD Card Recovery

You can easily recover formatted SD card following the video tutorial or the detailed steps below:

Step 1: Connect the USB drive to your computer. Launch tools Data Recovery Wizard. Select the formatted SD card, USB flash drive, or USB pen drive from where you want to recover lost files and click 'Scan'.

Step 2: After the scan, all the scanned results will be displayed on the screen. You can use the “Filter” or “File Type” feature to find the target files.

Step 3. Select the files you wish to recover from the formatted external hard drive and click on “Recover.” A new window will pop up, asking you to choose a new location to save the recovered files. Click “OK” to confirm.

Why Can Files Be Recovered from a Formatted SD Card?

This part will discuss two major issues that you may concern: 1. What does “Format SD card” mean; 2. Why can the files from a formatted SD card be recovered?

If you have any doubt about either of these claims, follow the links to learn more.

#1. What does "Format SD card" mean?

Formatting an SD card is the process of preparing an SD card for data storage. During this process, two things happen:

One way is to change the file system of the SD card. For example, if your SD card is formatted as NTFS, you could reformat it to FAT32, exFAT, and so on. The other way is to delete all existing data and restore the SD card's full capacity.

Usually, when you get a new SD card, it's already formatted and ready to use. However, there may be situations where you need to format the SD card manually to use it properly, such as:

• Fix and repair RAW SD card, format corrupted SD card
• Convert RAW to NTFS
• SD card cannot be formatted
• Format 64GB SD card to FAT32

# 2. Why Can Files Be Recovered from Formatted SD Card?

Though formatting leads to loss of files from the SD card, it doesn't mean that the data is erased completely. Formatting just breaks the data structure and marks the device as “empty.” Actually, the data still exists.

Therefore, the answer to “Can I recover formatted SD card?” is yes. As long as you do not write new data to it, you can successfully retrieve files from the formatted SD card.

As mentioned, once your device is formatted, you can immediately restore your files using a reliable data recovery tool such as Data Recovery Wizard.

Additional Tips for SD Card Format Recovery

While using the Data Recovery Wizard tool to retrieve files from a formatted SD card can be useful, it's always better to prevent data loss in the first place. Here, we've compiled some handy tips to help you protect your SD card data from formatting, deletion, and even virus attacks.

You have three options:

Tip 1: Create a full backup of your SD card beforehand

There are three ways you can back up the files on your SD card:

1. Manually back up files via copy and paste 2. Use third-party software to backup your device 3. Backup your SD card to cloud storage

Free backup software like Todo Backup can help you effectively back up files on your device with just a few simple steps. With this software, you can automatically back up your SD card. It even allows you to back up your files to the cloud, saving you a lot of disk space.

• Suggestion 2: Run an antivirus scan to remove viruses or malware

An unknown virus or malware infection can render your device useless, or even lock it up. Data loss is also a common occurrence. It's wise to protect your SD card and other storage devices with antivirus software.

• Tip 3: Eject and use the SD card correctly

Aside from regular file backups, you should also develop good habits in using your storage devices to prevent data loss from an SD card. For instance, if you remove the SD card from your computer without ejecting it first, you might encounter the RAW SD card issue, which would require formatting the card.

Bottom line

With the wide usage of SD cards, data loss from this storage device happens almost every day due to various reasons, mainly accidental formatting. A direct way to recover data from a formatted SD card is by using a third-party software like Data Recovery Wizard or similar tools.

As a safe and virus-free tool with no need for any plugin, Data Recovery Wizard is a good choice for formatted SD card recovery.

Aside from having a reliable data recovery tool, you should also practice prevention by backing up your important files elsewhere. You can find some methods for doing that in the Bonus Tips section below.

People also ask,

Aside from solutions for formatted SD card recovery, based on the “People also ask” section in Google search results, many users have more queries about formatting an SD card.

Here, we have gathered three of the most pressing questions, with short answers to each. If you are worried about any of these issues, read on.

1. Can data from a formatted SD card be recovered using CMD commands?

Perhaps, someone would think of using Command Prompt for data recovery since it is free. However, the cmd command attrib -h -r -s /s /d *.* can only be used to find hidden files on the device but cannot retrieve deleted, formatted, or emptied files.

Actually, the `-h` option removes hidden attributes, the `-r` option removes read-only attributes, and the `-s` option removes system attributes.

In a nutshell, you cannot use CMD commands to recover formatted SD card data. What you need is a reliable data recovery tool like Data Recovery Wizard to assist you.

When do I need to format an SD card?

Here are some common scenarios where you might need to format a storage device:

• Format a new SD card that you just purchased and hasn't been formatted. • Remove viruses from an SD card. • Assign a new file system to your computer. • Solve issues like "You need to format the disk drive", "Drive not formatted", or "SD card showing wrong size".

How can I format and restore my SD card to its original size without deleting files?

As mentioned above, formatting will delete all existing data and information on the SD card. If you don't want to lose any files by formatting the SD card back to its original size, you need to back up all your files first.

Here are some steps you can take:

1. Connect the SD card to your computer. 2. Copy and back up the SD card's files to a secure location. 3. Open File Explorer, locate the SD card, right-click on it, and select "Format." 4. Choose the file system for the SD card - either FAT32 or NTFS - check the "Quick Format" option, and then click "OK" to begin formatting.