Cards rarely fail at rest — they fail during specific operations: mid-burst, on an in-camera format, or in a cheap reader. Which one it was tells you what state the data is in, and in most of those cases every image is still physically on the card.
$ mdr diagnose /dev/sdb → Device: SanDisk Extreme · 128 GB SDXC → Status: CORRUPT — card asks to be formatted → Client: confidential · Manchester, Greater Manchester $ mdr engineer-working → Read-only image: taken · card untouched → File system: rebuilt from image → Photos + video: carved · CR3 + MP4 $ mdr verify → ✓ RAW photos — 2,140 files → ✓ video clips — 318 files → ✓ card recovered — memories back
The next frame you shoot is written into the space your missing images occupy, and a burst can cover dozens in seconds. Cameras also offer to repair or format a card the moment you power on with it inserted — and photographers accept out of habit.
Cards rarely die at rest. They fail during specific operations, and knowing which one tells you what state the data is in.
This is why card recovery diverges from every other device on this site.
Almost every SD and microSD card is monolithic: controller and flash fused into a single package with nothing separable inside. There is no board to work on and no chip to lift. If the card still reads and the fault is logical, none of that matters — the images are recovered by rebuilding the index or carving them out by signature, and it is quick work.
Where the controller has failed and the card is electrically silent, the only route in is through internal test points on the package itself, which requires the correct pinout for that exact part. That is the difference between a card that will not mount and a card that is not detected at all: the first is usually days, the second can be considerably longer.
Every format that has passed through a camera, drone or recorder.
SD, SDHC and SDXC from cameras, camcorders and audio recorders. microSD and microSDXC out of phones, drones, dash cameras and action cameras — the smallest format and the most frequently damaged. CompactFlash and CFexpress from professional bodies, including older CF cards out of equipment long since retired. XQD, Memory Stick and xD where the reader itself is now hard to find.
On the file side, every major RAW format carves back reliably — CR2 and CR3, NEF, ARW, RAF, ORF, DNG — along with the video containers those bodies produce. EXIF survives carving, so even where filenames are lost the set can be put back in shooting order by capture date.
One price for cards and USB media alike.
Memory cards are from £250 +VAT, confirmed after a free 48-hour diagnostic, with most jobs no fix, no fee. If the diagnostic finds a counterfeit card where the material was written past the real capacity, or a card that has been shot over since, we will tell you that rather than bill you to discover it.
Send the card on its own in a small rigid case — not still in the camera. Tell us roughly how many images are missing and when they were taken; on a partial recovery that is what confirms the right material came back rather than simply a large amount of it. Drop-off at Peter House on Oxford Street, Manchester, or post insured.
Get the card to us, and tell us a brief note on what happened. The diagnostic that follows costs nothing, and one figure goes in writing before any work begins.
Nothing starts until the card to us is on the bench. Pack it properly and put your contact details in with it. The diagnostic that follows costs nothing, and one figure goes in writing before any work begins.
Posting it? Use something tracked and insured — whatever is on the drive is worth considerably more than the postage. Bringing it in? Weekdays, 9am to 5:30pm, and it still wants packing as above for the journey.
Not sure it is worth sending? Tell us about the card and fault, plus anything already attempted — an engineer reads every one of these and comes back with an honest view of the odds and a price band, before you post anything.
We’ll be in touch shortly. If it’s urgent, call 0161 871 0788.
The technical questions we get most about failed memory cards.
Usually, if nothing has been written since. Cameras use quick formats because the card must be usable again in seconds, so the images remain physically present and only the index is rewritten. Take the card out and stop shooting.
Remove it and decline every offer to repair or format. That message usually means the allocation table was left half-written — pulled mid-burst, or the battery died — while the images themselves are complete.
Somewhat. Try a different reader first, because built-in laptop slots fail often. If it is still undetected the controller has probably failed, and because cards are monolithic that means reading through test points on the sealed package.
Often not, and it matters less than you would think. Where the index is gone, images are carved by signature and return correct but numbered. EXIF survives, so the set can be sorted back into shooting order by capture date.
Suspiciously cheap for the capacity, and sudden catastrophic corruption once a lot of data is on it. Fakes report more space than they hold and discard writes past the real limit — recovery is confined to whatever landed on genuine flash.
From £250 plus VAT, fixed in writing after a free 48-hour diagnostic, with most jobs no fix, no fee.
Nearly all modern cards are monolithic, meaning the controller and memory are one sealed package with no chip to lift. Recovery is through the card’s own test points, and the make determines where those sit.
Names with an arrow have a guide of their own — brand-specific faults, and what they mean for a recovery.
£250 +VAT per card, fixed at the diagnostic. Take it out of the camera now rather than at the end of the shoot: on flash the window closes on its own, whether or not anyone is using the device.