SD cards are portable memory cards used primarily as expandable storage to store digital media, such as photos, audio, and videos. Unlike other electronic devices, SD cards are not immune to errors. One such error is “missing files from the SD card” due to corruption, formatting, or human errors. Usually, you can restore lost or deleted SD card data from a backup, if available. When there’s no backup, you can utilize an SD card data recovery software.
However, choosing the right recovery tool from the many available options is difficult. Here’s a list of top 7 SD card data recovery software for recovering deleted, lost, or corrupted SD card data.
Factors to Consider While Choosing SD Card Data Recovery Software
Before reviewing the list, consider various factors when choosing the ideal recovery software.
- Reliability
A reliable data recovery tool from a trusted brand offers a high chance of data recovery success.
- File type support
The best SD card data recovery tool can recover popular formats of any file type, including photos, videos, and audio.
- Preview function
It allows you to view recoverable media files before saving, ensuring their quality is intact.
- Ease of Use
It has a user-friendly interface so that users with limited technical knowledge can easily navigate it.
List of the Best SD Card Data Recovery Software
Let’s look at some of the top 7 SD card recovery tools available.
1. Stellar Photo Recovery
Stellar Photo Recovery remains the best software for recovering photos, video, and audio files lost or deleted from different types of SD cards remains. We’ll tell you why.
The tool is safe to download and offered by a trusted developer. It recovers media files from various SDXC, SDHC, CF cards, microSD cards, SD Express cards, memory sticks, etc. Stellar Photo Recovery works in all data loss scenarios, such as deletion, formatting, virus infection, and corruption.
This SD card recovery software is compatible with all popular formats, including JPEG/JPG, RAW, HEIC, MOV, MP4, etc., and restores the media files with their original name and date timestamp. Moreover, Stellar Photo Recovery previews recovered media files before saving them at any desired location.
This tool supports SD cards from popular brands like Lexar, SanDisk, Transcend, Kingston, Sony, and others. It can also recover files from SD cards of UHS, VHS classes, and high-speed Class 10. Stellar Photo Recovery can thoroughly scan and retrieve data from SD cards up to 1TB capacity.
Pros –
- Recovers a wide range of deleted/lost data like photos, videos, and audio file formats
- Restores deleted media files from different SD cards
- Recovers files from formatted SD card
- Supports recovery from SD cards of smartphones, drone cameras, dash cams, and CCTV
- Provides simple and clean user interface
- Preview the recovered files before saving them
- Get the option to save scan information and resume recovery
- Shows scan results in three ways: File Type, Tree View, and Deleted List
- Manually and automatically adds your file type for recovery
- Offers two modes of scanning: Quick Scan and Deep Scan
Cons –
- It can’t be installed directly onto the phone.
2. SanDisk RescuePro
RescuePRO Standard version by SanDisk is a handy SD card recovery tool that efficiently retrieves deleted photos, videos, music, etc., from camera SD cards, flashcards, etc., used in digital cameras, smartphones, and other devices. This software can also recover files lost due to formatting, deletion, or corruption of SD cards.
Pros:
- Recovers from all SanDisk memory cards
- Shows a preview of the recovered data
- Supports Mac and Windows systems
- Works with SD cards of popular brands, including Lexar, Sony, etc.
Cons:
- The demo version doesn’t let you save any files.
3. EaseUS Photo Recovery
EaseUS Photo Recovery software is best known for retrieving lost or deleted multimedia files from SD cards, CF cards, SDXC, SDHC, and other storage drives. It has an intuitive interface and advanced features like RAW file recovery and Preview files.
Pros:
- Supports recovery from all popular SD card brands
- Supports RAW memory card recovery
- Retrieve media files lost/deleted from formatted, corrupted, or lost SD card
- Preview option available before saving the file
Cons:
- Slow scanning
- Preview options are available only for files smaller than 100 MB
Files are not recovered with their original name
- Doesn’t let you scan the drive for specific files
4. Disk Drill
Disk Drill is an SD card recovery software used to restore deleted photos, audio, and video files from digital cameras, drones, and Android phones. This software can recover data from formatted, virus-infected, and corrupted SD cards. It supports recovery from all types of memory cards, SDHC, SDXC, Picture Cards, and flash cards.
Pros:
- Simple interface with a better user experience
- Recover data from formatted and corrupted SD cards
- Preview your recovered files before saving
- Supports 1000+ file formats
Cons:
- The preview file feature is limited to only a few image file formats
- Several duplicate files in the scan results
5. Hetman Photo Recovery Software
Hetman Photo Recovery software is another easy-to-use tool for recovering lost or deleted photos from all types of memory cards, including SDXC, SDHC, memory sticks, CF cards, and others. The software can also recover missing or deleted images from formatted, corrupted, or inaccessible memory cards.
Pros:
- Easy to install and user-friendly GUI
- Show a preview of the recovered files before saving
- Recovers from all types of camera memory cards
Cons:
- Cannot recover video and audio files
- Not available for Mac system
- No support for HFS, HFS+, and Linux file system
6. MiniTool Photo Recovery
MiniTool Photo Recovery is a comprehensive SD card recovery tool for recovering files from all kinds of SD cards, including SDXC, SDHC, microSD cards, etc. This software is capable of recovering photos, videos, and other media files types from popular SD card brands, such as SanDisk Extreme PRO SD UHS-II, Transcend SDXC UHS-II U3, Lexar Professional 633x SDXC UHS-I, etc.
Pros:
- Supports recovery of multiple file formats
- Shows a preview of the recovered files before saving
- Free version recovers up to 1 GB data
Cons:
- Lacks advance features found in other SD card recovery tools
- Not available for Mac system
7. Disk Doctor Photo Recovery
Disk Doctor Photo Recovery is a handy SD card software for Android, digital cameras, and drone cameras etc. It can recover almost all types of deleted, lost, or missing data from SD cards. You can even recover files from formatted, corrupted, and virus-infected memory cards of all types.
Pros –
- Recover files from formatted or corrupted SD cards
- Create disk image to recover files from corrupted SD card
- Sleek and simple interface
Cons –
- Limited file type support
- Recovery is limited to image and photo files
Bottom Line
This guide lists the top 7 best SD card recovery software for recovering lost or deleted photos, videos, and other media files from all types of SD cards. However, before choosing the best SD card recovery software, it’s important to consider a few factors, such as ease of use, file type support and reliability.
While numerous SD card data recovery software programs are available, we recommend Stellar Photo Recovery. The software is easy to use and can effectively recover deleted or lost media files from memory cards of all popular brands.
