Learn how to recover data on your own in case of memory card corruption

Memory cards are devices which offer an easy, reliable and fast solution to store and transfer digital files. The popularity of memory cards have soared since their usage expanded to various electronic products like digital cameras, camcorders, video game consoles, portable media players, mobile phones etc. A large variety of memory cards include SD (Secure Digital), SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity), MMC (Multimedia card), MMC micro and many others. Regardless of the storage space they provide, one should never trust these cards as permanent storage medium. These cards are prone to corruption and can make your data inaccessible. Therefore, a backup should be maintained in order to compensate the data loss due to corruption. In absence of a backup, one should not lose hope as a card recovery utility can recover all the lost multimedia files.

If a memory card becomes corrupted, a user can get various errors messages which further restricts him/her to access any data stored on to it. One such error is:

"Memory card requires formatting."

The above error is a nightmare for a person who has got valuable data in form of pictures, audios, videos etc stored on the memory card.

Cause:

A memory card can get corrupted if a user handles it carelessly. Therefore, it is very crucial to understand the reasons behind memory card corruption. Some of them are listed below:

• Switching off the computer while the transfer process is on


• Switching off the camera before an image in completely written


• Removing the card from a card reader while the files are getting transferred to the computer


• Using a memory card in two different cameras


• Virus attacks


• File system damage etc

Solution:

After the damage is done, only formatting can make the card reusable. The option of formatting comes with a disadvantage as it erases all the data stored on the memory card. If you have backed up all the data, then formatting the card does not bother you so much. However, if there is no backup available or the back up itself has corrupted, a card recovery software should be used. A card recovery utility employs scanning algorithms to extract files from a formatted memory card.

Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery is a trusted card recovery software which has the capability of recovering lost/deleted multimedia files from all types of memory cards including SD, MMC, XD, MMCmicro, SM, CF and others. The software, which is available for both Windows and Mac users, has a simple graphic user interface to guide a user through recovery in simple steps.

Article By Shaun Pattrik