How to Recover Formatted SD Card [Tested on Windows]

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 formatted SD card and get all your lost files back right away:

Note: The SD card formatting recovery solution also works for recovering formatted hard drive, external hard drive, USB devices, camera, media player, and more.

Can you recover formatted SD card?

Scenario 1: "How can I recover pictures from a formatted SD card? I had thousands of photos saved on the SD card of my camera. Yesterday, the camera prompted me to format the SD card. Is there any way to get those pictures back after formatting the SD card?"

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

When you accidentally format your SD card, it's wise to search online for “how to recover formatted SD card”. However, you may get overwhelmed by the abundance of results on Google or any other search engine. Stay calm when you mistakenly format 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 what you should do:

Recover Formatted SD Card with SD Card Recovery Software

Stop wasting your time searching and testing for free memory card recovery software. We introduce a simple data recovery tool called Tool Data Recovery Wizard. Tool Data Recovery enables you to restore files from formatted SD cards, memory sticks, USBs, internal/external hard drives, and more.

Please download and install the Data Recovery Wizard Pro tool on your computer. Then, use this software to scan your reformatted device. In just a few simple steps, you can locate and recover lost files like photos, videos, audio files, Microsoft documents, Adobe files, and more.

• In addition to format recovery, you can use this software to retrieve data from accidental deletion, system crash, partition loss, virus attack, RAW errors, and more.
• Recover videos from formatted SD cards. This tool can also locate missing family photos, screenshots, music, documents, and more.
• Supports data recovery from various file systems, including FAT32 recovery, exFAT recovery, NTFS recovery, and more.

3 Steps to Recover Files from Formatted SD Card

This part will demonstrate the entire process of how to use a data recovery tool to restore files from a formatted SD card. Let's begin with the step-by-step written tutorial to easily retrieve all your lost files from the formatted SD card:

Step 1. Launch tools Data Recovery Wizard Professional and connect your formatted SD card to the computer. Select the formatted SD card and click "Scan".

Step 2: Using the filter options, you can quickly locate the lost files from the formatted SD card. If you want to retrieve deleted photos from SD card, choose "Pictures".

Step 3. If you're unsure whether the files can be opened normally after recovery, you can preview them first. Check all the files you need and click “Recover”. But do not save the recovered files to the formatted SD card.

You can use the Tools Data Recovery software to restore formatted SD card by following a video tutorial or the detailed steps below:

01:44 Visit the official website of Data Recovery Wizard 05:09 Launch the Data Recovery Wizard tool 05:36 Select the target drive and click "Scan" 06:53 Choose the files and click "Restore" to recover the desired files

If you find this tutorial (and the video) helpful, please consider sharing the article using the buttons below!

# Using a Backup to Restore after Formatting the SD Card

When you accidentally format your SD card, you can easily retrieve the lost files from the recent backup. If you have stored the backup on the formatted SD card, you cannot restore files from it. In this case, you need an SD card recovery tool to get back your lost files.

How to recover SD card without formatting? Please check the following:

• ⭐Restore files from backup disk: You can easily move files from the backup disk to the formatted SD card using copy and paste shortcuts.
• ⭐Restore files with Backup and Restore option: This method works only if you've backed up your SD card to your computer. Windows might have automatically backed up these copied files.
• ⭐Restore formatted SD card from the cloud: If you have backed up your files on a cloud platform, visit the cloud website and download the files to your formatted SD card.

Restoring data from the latest backup is an effective way to recover permanently deleted files from any storage device, including an SD card.

Why Can Files Be Recovered from Formatted SD Card?

This section will address two questions of particular interest to you:

1. What does "Format SD card" mean? 2. Why can files be recovered from a formatted SD card?

If you are not sure about either, follow me as I explore them.

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

Formatting an SD card prepares it for use as a data storage device. There are two things that happen during this process:

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

Typically, when you get a new SD card, it will already be formatted and ready to use. However, there may be times when you need to format an SD card manually in order to use it, such as:

- Repair and fix RAW SD card, as well as format a corrupted SD card - Convert RAW to NTFS - Unable to format SD card - Format SD card to FAT32

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

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

Therefore, to the question “Can I recover formatted SD card?” the answer is yes. As long as the data has not been overwritten by new content, you can recover files from a formatted SD card.

As mentioned above, once your device is formatted and turned into a formatted PC recovery tool, such as Data Recovery Wizard, you can retrieve your files right away.

Additional Tips to Avoid SD Card Data Loss

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 practical tips to help protect your SD card data from formatting, deletion, and even virus attacks.

There are three ways to do this:

⭐ Tip 1: Create a Full Backup of Your SD Card事先

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

1. Manually backing up files through copying and pasting 2. Using third-party software to back up the device 3. Backing up the SD card to cloud storage

A free backup software like Todo Backup can help you effectively back up files on your device in 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 ton of space on your drive.

⭐Tip 2: Run an antivirus scan to remove viruses or malware

An unknown virus or malware infection can render your device inoperable, or even lock you out of it. Data loss is also common. It's a good idea to use antivirus software to protect your SD card and other storage devices.

⭐Tip 3: Properly Eject and Use SD Cards

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

Feel free to share these useful tips on social media to help more users avoid data loss on their SD cards.

Bottom line

With the wide usage of SD cards, data loss happens almost every day on such storage devices due to various reasons, with accidental formatting being the major one. A direct way to recover data from a formatted SD card is to apply to third-party software like Data Recovery Wizard for assistance.

As a 100% safe, virus-free and plugin-free tool, Data Recovery Wizard is a good choice for formatting SD card recovery.

Aside from getting a reliable data recovery tool, you should also practice prevention: back up your important files elsewhere. Methods on how to do this are provided in the Bonus Tips section below.

Frequently Asked Questions on Formatting an SD Card Recovery

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

Here, we have gathered three of the most common ones, with short answers below. If you want to know more about any of these topics, click through now for the full story.

1. Can you recover formatted SD card data using CMD commands?

Some people may think of using cmd to recover formatted data from hard drive for it is free. But the cmd command "attrib -h -r -s /s /d *.*" can only be used to find the hidden files on the device but cannot retrieve the deleted, formatted or emptied data.

Actually, the `-h` option clears the hidden attribute, `-r` clears the read-only attribute, and `-s` clears the system attribute.

In short, you cannot use CMD commands to recover formatted USB drive data. You need a reliable USB drive format recovery tool like Data Recovery Wizard to help you out.

2. When do you need to format an SD card?

Here are some common scenarios where you might format your storage device:

• Format a brand new, unformatted SD card. • Remove viruses from an SD card. • Assign a compatible file system to your computer. • Fix issues like "You Need to Format the Disk Drive", "Drive Not Formatted", or "SD Card Shows Wrong Size".

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

As mentioned above, formatting will remove all existing data and information from the SD card. If you do not want to lose any files by formatting the SD card back to its original size, you must back up all your files first.

Here are some steps you can take:

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