How can I recover formatted SD card? Please help!

ian_00

Hoping I chose the right tags, I really need advice. I formatted my SD card without thinking. It finished in like 5 seconds I couldn’t cancel anything. Didn’t back anything up first. There were some really really important videos on it.

I always thought formatting means everything is permanently deleted. But now I’m seeing guides online saying you can sometimes recover formatted SD cards? I don’t know what to believe.
Do I actually have a chance or is it BS?

ps: It’s an SD card from my DJI and I have a Windows 10 laptop.

HopeInSleep

ian_00 No, you read that right (in most cases) it IS possible to recover files from formatted storage.

Did you format the SD card directly in the DJI device or did you format it using your laptop? If you formatted it in the drone and it only took a few seconds, that’s was just a so called quick format. That doesn’t actually erase the data itself, it just removes the file table. The files are often still physically there until something overwrites them.

If you didn’t choose any special “secure erase” or other formatting option, your chances are still good. All you need to do is download some recovery app and scan the card. Personally I’d go with Disk Drill. It hasn’t let me down yet in similar cases.

Just launch the app -> select your SD card from the list -> Run the scan ( since it’s DJI footage I’d use Advanced Camera Recovery mode in the main menu (much better with video files) > preview what it finds > recover the files to your laptop (not back to the SD card).
That’s it If the data hasn’t been overwritten by other footage there’s a very real chance you’ll see all your files show up in the scan results.

bibi

ian_00 There’s software that can recover deleted files. That’s when you just hit delete. But format is different.
Format = wiped. It literally erases the card so you can use it again as new.
That’s the whole point of formatting.If you formatted it the data is gone.

roman-demian

Let’s clear this up because there’s a misunderstanding here. Formatting does not automatically mean wiped beyond recovery. In fact, in most real-world cases it’s a quick format (you can read what it means here). Recovery from formatted SD cards is often more doable than people think.

@ian_00 If it was a full format or secure erase, that’s a different story. I’d strongly suggest everyone read our detailed breakdown on the main site:

👉 How to recover data from formatted SD card (guide link).

If you formatted it normally on your DJI device, your chances are still solid. Just don’t use the card further and scan it properly with recovery software.

Rofa

Listen to @HopeInSleep this is absolutely doable. Since you’re on Windows just try Recuva. It’s free, takes like 5 minutes to set up. I’ve pulled files off a formatted card with it before.
BUT when it asks tick the Deep Scan box. If you don’t it’ll probably show nothing and you’ll think it’s hopeless.

ian_00

@HopeInSleep it was formatted directly in the DJI drone, not on my laptop. I just went into Settings and hit ‘Format SD Card’. I might have shot for like a minute after it happened before I realized I accidentally formatted Sd card but I haven’t used the card at all since then. It’s just sitting on my desk right now.

Thanks everyone for the links and suggestions. I’m going to read through everything first. I’ve never done anything like this before and when I rush I usually just make things worse 😅😅

HopeInSleep

ian_00 There’s really nothing complicated about this. It’s a pretty straightforward recovery job. If you don’t feel like reading guides all day there are literally 5- minute YouTube tutorials that walk through the whole process step by step. Here’s one that explains it clearly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJZTb0buKeY

KindnessCatalyst

@Rofa Idk man I wouldn’t put too much faith in Recuva for a formatted SD card. Even with ‘Deep Scan’ enabled, when I used it in the past like morre then half of the recovered files were broken, wouldn’t even open. It’s decent for simple deleted JPGs maybe. But @OP is talking about videos..

Video files are bigger (and often fragmented). Recuva isn’t exactly known for strong video reconstruction.
If it were me, I’d go with something more serious from the start: Disk Drill, R-Studio, maybe PhotoRec.The first two are freemium tools, so you can scan and recover a limited amount of data for free. PhotoRec though is completely free. (You can get it as part of the TestDisk package.) All of those have much better support for multimedia file types scanning. I’d bet any one of those will do a better job here than Recuva. Just my two cents.

Fair warning on PhotoRec: it isn’t the easiest tool to use out there. The interface 9or the lack of one) can can be confusing at first. But if you follow a step-by-step guide like this one, you’ll be fine: https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec_Step_By_Step

KindnessCatalyst

Oh and as far as I know some cameras (and I think a few drones too) can actually do a kind of TRIM when formatting. Not all of them, but it’s a thing.

roman-demian

@KindnessCatalyst That’s true. Some cameras use something called SD-ERASE, which is sort of the SD card world’s equivalent of TRIM. One of our writers actually covered this in detail here.

The short version is:
TRIM is an ATA command used by SSDs. SD cards don’t use ATA so they can’t use TRIM the same way. SD cards support their own command set defined by the SD spec. The closest equivalent is SD-ERASE (CMD32 / CMD33 / CMD38), which can mark blocks as available for reuse at the controller level.

BUT most consumer cameras and drones do not fully zero out the SD card by default. Some models (certain Sony cams and ones that offer “low-level format”) can behave more aggressively. But most consumer drones (including DJI models) use a standard quick format by default.

So unless @ian_00 selected something specifically labeled as low-level format / full format / secure erase, chances are this was a quick format scenario.

By the way, some DJI models can automatically sync footage to cloud storage or even a NAS setup. I saw a demo of that on YouTube not long ago.

KindnessCatalyst

roman-demian Thanks for linking that! It actually clears things up. I’d heard bits and pieces about sderase before, but never really had the full picture of how it differs from TRIM.

Rofa

By the way some DJIs can automatically sync footage to cloud storage or NAS setup. I saw a video of that on YouTube(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFg97CHkQmk) not long ago.
@ian_00 if you had something like that configured auto-sync to DJI Cloud/NAS or just your phone/tablet files you might actually be in luck.

ian_00

@Rofa no, nothing like that on my model unfortunately.

I already scanned the SD card with Recuva and MiniTool. Recuva pulled a few small clips, but nothing important. MiniTool didn’t really add much more then that. Right now I’m running Disk Drill. If that doesn’t turn up anything useful, I’ll probably try EaseUS next just to be sure. After that I think I’ll call it and move on.
Appreciate the suggestion tho.

UPDATE:

I finally found all the formatted files from the SD card!!!What did it was Advanced Camera Recovery mode in Disk Drill like someone here suggested earlier. I almost skipped that option the first time because I just ran the regular scan first, but once I switched to the camera mode it pulled up way more clips.

I did have to buy the license to actually recover everything tho. I hesitated for a bit. Wanted to try a couple more tools first. maybe run Recuva again or give PhotoRec a shot. I even downloaded it and stared at it for a while trying to make sense of what I was supposed to click. But I was just tired at that point. I’d already spent hours scanning and geting broken files, waiting for progress bars. At some point I just wanted my footage back and to move on. So I stopped with Disk Drill. Thanks to everyone who pointed me in the right direction. Peace ✌️

7nationArnie

Use Disk Drill.