Help Please help!

[stephberry80]

I recently purchased the Samsung Galaxy S3 (on Verizon). My phone is not rooted. After less than a week, I got the dreaded "Blank SD card" with it asking me to reformat.

I searched the internet for help and ended up purchasing a microSD card reader, which recognizes that there is a card in it, but will not read it (it asks to format it but won't).

Based on a recommendation on another thread, I downloaded ZAR. It will not read the card.

Desperate, I put the card back into my DroidX (I'm not sure why I didn't do this in the first place) and it says it's blank as well.

(I have also tried going into Run>something or other to try to read it)

I have not backed up my card in MONTHS and I have precious videos of my daughter on there.

What is my next step?

 

[john_g]

Do NOTHING else until you have exhausted every opportunity to recover the lost files. I have used Recuva successfully - it's a free Windows program, so you plug the card and card reader into a PC and then run it. There are, however, loads of other free programs which do more or less the same thing so, if Recuva fails, it's worth having a look around to try some of the alternatives. Here's a link:

Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File and Disk Recovery - Free Download

I hope it works for you. Having said that, there are too many threads here relating to lost files, so my advice for the future is twofold:

Firstly, try to keep all precious stuff on your micro SD card. Yes, they do sometimes fail, but at least you stand a chance of recovery with the technique described above whereas, if you store your photos etc. on the internal memory, recovery programs will never be able to access the memory space.

Secondly... and MOST importantly... everyone nowadays can get a chunk of free cloud storage, so it's not difficult to back up your precious content wherever you are. There are loads of Android programs to help with this, and some apps can be configured to do the backup automatically. Then, just for peace of mind, I'd suggest you also always back up all the important stuff from your phone to your computer when you get the chance.

 

[Mittens]

I had the same thing happen to me, and I was using a samsung micro sd card from my old galaxy s. I used Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery and was able to recover my photos and other files. It cost me like 29.00. I also installed Dropbox. I've been hesitant to put an sd card in the phone again.
Good luck I hope you are ale to recover those precious files.

 

[stephberry80]

Thank you for the recommendations. I will try them out. I had planned on installing dropbox or the like this weekend, but this happened before then. Does anyone have any other recommendations for good cloud apps?

Should I try a different card reader? I bought an Iogear stick SD/miniSD card reader. It is able to read other cards.

 

[stephberry80]

I have tried:

Zero Assumption Recovery - Says card is beyond repair
Recuva - parameter is incorrect
PhotoRecoveryPro - won't even recognize it

I am devastated.

Is there ANYTHING I can do?

 

[john_g]

Sorry to say that it sounds like the card is not functioning at all, so it's likely your only option would be to use a professional data recovery company, but I expect that would be prohibitively expensive... might be worth a Google, depending on how important the videos are to you.

 

[GTWalling]

I have tried:

Zero Assumption Recovery - Says card is beyond repair
Recuva - parameter is incorrect
PhotoRecoveryPro - won't even recognize it

I am devastated.

Is there ANYTHING I can do?

First the card has to be formatted for it to be read. Use the PC with a reader and Quick Format. This does not write over the data and then use the recovery tools.

 

[stephberry80]

First the card has to be formatted for it to be read. Use the PC with a reader and Quick Format. This does not write over the data and then use the recovery tools.

It won't reformat. I've tried that several times.

 

[gtgirl88]

Mine did the same thing. I used wifi file transfer app. you leave the card in the phone and it will read it on the computer. I was able to find my lost files and back them up to the computer.

 

[stephberry80]

Mine did the same thing. I used wifi file transfer app. you leave the card in the phone and it will read it on the computer. I was able to find my lost files and back them up to the computer.

No go. Blah!! So super frustrating.

Thank you all for your recommendations!

And to google.