Micro SD card: A cry for help!

[jeff]

Afternoon all,

I'm hoping the more tech savvy may be able to help me out.

I have a MotoG4 on which I have been happily storing photos etc to a micro sd card (Sandisk Ultra 32GB class 10) for the past year or so.
Up until yesterday it has been faultless. While reviewing some pictures the 'ever spinning circle' appeared on screen and it took an age to move to the next photo. After a few episodes of this the E.S.C. returned and remained constantly.

Using my vast technical skills I turned the phone off then on again. On powering back up the message 'unsupported sandisk sd card appeared.
The phone invited me to format the card to prepare it for use which I declined.

I removed the sd card (powered down 1st) and plugged it into my laptop (win7) via the adaptor and selected view folders/files option. Clicked on the sd card and the pc hung for ages. Removed the sd card (followed the safely remove prompts) and re-inserted. Now the card is not recognised by the pc in the list of drives etc when 'computer' is selected in the start menu. However, SD card did appear in the LHS under 'computer' in the same pane. Right clicking didn't give any options though to open or view etc.

Any ideas as to where I may go from here? I'm guessing the sd card had developed a fault or could there be some other reason for the failure?

I do store quite a lot on the card as it's handy for me to refer to some pics (pdfs work stuff etc) and I would guess there's approx 15 gb of files in total. I do back up the photos onto the pc (but not cloud) but last did so about 3 weeks ago.

Is there any practical way to recover the contents of the card (specifically the last photos etc since the last backup) or is the card (and its contents) now toast?

Any help or suggestions would be gratefully received.


jeff

[Phil Lee]

Since you're using Android is there a chance they may have been auto uploaded to Google Photos?

[Mr Pointy]

I had the same issue with the Sandisk SD card in my Moto G2 & it seems it's a common problem. I found that if I turned the phone off & on again then for a short period the card could be seen & over enough cycles I managed to email myself the photos I needed. I had to bin the card & buy another - Lexar this time. I wondered if it was a temperature issue but I didn't have any freezer spray to try & test the theory.

You could try Recuva & see if it can find anything on the card:

https://www.piriform.com/recuva

[jeff]

Since you're using Android is there a chance they may have been auto uploaded to Google Photos?

Unfortunately not as I'd not set the phone up back up to the cloud :-(

[jeff]

I had the same issue with the Sandisk SD card in my Moto G2 & it seems it's a common problem. I found that if I turned the phone off & on again then for a short period the card could be seen & over enough cycles I managed to email myself the photos I needed. I had to bin the card & buy another - Lexar this time. I wondered if it was a temperature issue but I didn't have any freezer spray to try & test the theory.

You could try Recuva & see if it can find anything on the card:

https://www.piriform.com/recuva

Thanks. I'll have a look at the link. Have tried cycling the phone a few times but so far no luck :(
Maybe I could pop the card in the freezer for a while if all else fails?

[jcm3]

Thanks. I'll have a look at the link. Have tried cycling the phone a few times but so far no luck :(
Maybe I could pop the card in the freezer for a while if all else fails?

[Scepticalist]

It has to be said here that SD cards, USB sticks etc do have a finite lifecycle. The memory degrades over time according to how many write operations are made. Although the better manufacturers estimate 10 years average use, if you write data a lot then this will be dramatically shortened.

[CliveG]

An illuminating thread, thanks, as I'm just looking for a card for my Moto G3 (so will go for a decent brand). Hope you resolve your issues. Cheers

Sent from my MotoG3 using TZ-UK mobile app

[UKMike]

File recovery programs work well and Sandisk have their own (RescuePro) which is on an annual subscription basis. Not sure if this works any better than the free ones but some of these turn out to be not-so-free when you actually want to save your data to another storage medium.

This might be a good time to mention backing up files.......................

[RobDad]

Not that it's that helpful but I had 2 sandisk sd cards do the same thing on an Htc one m8. I got so fed up with it I invested in an iPhone with lots of memory and I've given up on android and sd cards altogether - just can't be bothered with an unreliable platform


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[jeff]

Small update:

I tried the recuva but unfortunately it seems the sd card is no longer being recognised when plugged into the pc. Deep scanning the drive results in a message to the effect that no card is inserted etc. Have tried the card in a few different devices with similar results.

Seems like toast is the diagnosis :-(

Luckily I had recently backed up and have lost just the past 3 weeks or so of photos, some of which had been shared via 'whatsapp' with family/friends and could, therefore, be sent back to me and recovered.

I have a replacement card and will be more careful to back up and will have to look at an automatic cloud based solution.

Thanks again for your suggestions and input.


jeff

[Grandiloquence]

Not that it's that helpful but I had 2 sandisk sd cards do the same thing on an Htc one m8. I got so fed up with it I invested in an iPhone with lots of memory and I've given up on android and sd cards altogether - just can't be bothered with an unreliable platform


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I don't think the platform is the issue here, just dodgy memory cards. I have run android phones for years with no issues whatsoever using the phone's built in memory.

[Filterlab]

Hi Jeff,

I do professional data recovery as part of my repertoire. Post it to me and I'll run it through my recovery system for you.

PM me.

Any help or suggestions would be gratefully received.


jeff