I dropped an SD card - that is now unreadable, along with all the photos that
I was about to transfer from a camera.

I hadn't thought they could be so fragile...

Any suggestions?

Daniele

D.M. Procida <daniele-at-vurt-dot-org@invalid.com> wrote:

> I dropped an SD card - that is now unreadable, along with all the photos that
> I was about to transfer from a camera.
>
> I hadn't thought they could be so fragile...
>
> Any suggestions?

Is it actually an SD-sized adaptor with a Micro SD card plugged into it?
The smaller card could have shaken loose and be making bad contact.

--
~ Liz Tuddenham ~
(Remove the ".invalid"s and add ".co.uk" to reply)
www.poppyrecords.co.uk

On 23.01.24 17:09, D.M. Procida wrote:
> I dropped an SD card - that is now unreadable, along with all the photos that
> I was about to transfer from a camera.
>
> I hadn't thought they could be so fragile...

What do you learn from this experience?

> Any suggestions?

The iCloud is your friend.

> Daniele

Jörg

--
"Roma locuta, causa finita." (Augustinus)

On 23 Jan 2024 at 17:54:21 GMT, "Jörg Lorenz" <hugybear@gmx.net> wrote:

> On 23.01.24 17:09, D.M. Procida wrote:
>> I dropped an SD card - that is now unreadable, along with all the photos that
>> I was about to transfer from a camera.
>>
>> I hadn't thought they could be so fragile...
>
> What do you learn from this experience?
>
>> Any suggestions?
>
> The iCloud is your friend.

Really? How does iCloud help repair SD cards?

Daniele

On 23/01/2024 18:11, D.M. Procida wrote:
> On 23 Jan 2024 at 17:54:21 GMT, "Jörg Lorenz" <hugybear@gmx.net> wrote:
>
>> On 23.01.24 17:09, D.M. Procida wrote:
>>> I dropped an SD card - that is now unreadable, along with all the photos that
>>> I was about to transfer from a camera.
>>>
>>> I hadn't thought they could be so fragile...
>>
>> What do you learn from this experience?
>>
>>> Any suggestions?
>>
>> The iCloud is your friend.
>
> Really? How does iCloud help repair SD cards?

Yeah, not much use unless you've got the data off the card first.

I'm a bit puzzled how this got broken just by dropping it, I would have
thought that was quite a common thing to do (I know I have, and never
had a failure from it). I would have though they don't have enough mass,
and usually float, rather than plummet down, to cause any damage at all.

I wonder of Liz is onto something there. It's possible to buy a Micro-SD
card which usually comes with a standard SD holder (they are quite often
on offer at some online retailers, and not always clear that you're
buying a MicroSD+Holder combination). The micro card just clips in, it's
possible it might have just become dislodged.

Personally I don't use those anyway, unless I need to, as they are
notoriously unreliable for use in a standard SD card application, such
as a camera. I've had some in the past, and found I had to even switch
holders to find a combo that would work at all.

As a result, I tend to avoid them completely.

--
Andy H

On 23 Jan 2024 at 16:09:59 GMT, "D.M. Procida"
<daniele-at-vurt-dot-org@invalid.com> wrote:

> I dropped an SD card - that is now unreadable, along with all the photos that
> I was about to transfer from a camera.
>
> I hadn't thought they could be so fragile...
>
> Any suggestions?

The open-source TestDisk did the trick of recovering the files nicely.

Install TestDisk https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk with brew install
TestDisk.

Use dd to copy the unmountable volume to a disk image.

Launch TestDisk from the terminal and it provides a rather nice text-based UI.

There were plenty of paid-for file recovery options, but I am so disgusted by
the pattern that so much software has fallen into:

A web search using the now-all-crappy search engines yields dozens of supposed
"articles" on recovering files. They are all nothing but targets for search
engines, and their real function is to recommend the "free" recovery
application.

The application isn't actually free. It won't actually recover anything until
you pay for it. The prices shown on the website are inevitably "discounted".

It's all a really sleazy experience.

I'm delighted to pay for good software, but this is enshittification, and it's
almost hard not to run into it these days.

Instead, TestDisk's author gets my donation.

Daniele

On 23.01.24 19:11, D.M. Procida wrote:
> On 23 Jan 2024 at 17:54:21 GMT, "Jörg Lorenz" <hugybear@gmx.net> wrote:
>
>> On 23.01.24 17:09, D.M. Procida wrote:
>>> I dropped an SD card - that is now unreadable, along with all the photos that
>>> I was about to transfer from a camera.
>>>
>>> I hadn't thought they could be so fragile...
>>
>> What do you learn from this experience?
>>
>>> Any suggestions?
>>
>> The iCloud is your friend.
>
> Really? How does iCloud help repair SD cards?

Bring it to a specialist. An SD-card is so light and has no moving parts
that it is not very probable that it breaks by simply falling to the floor.

--
"Roma locuta, causa finita." (Augustinus)

On 23 Jan 2024 at 20:43:29 GMT, "Andy Hewitt" <thewildrover@icloud.com> wrote:

> On 23/01/2024 18:11, D.M. Procida wrote:
>> On 23 Jan 2024 at 17:54:21 GMT, "Jörg Lorenz" <hugybear@gmx.net> wrote:
>>
>>> On 23.01.24 17:09, D.M. Procida wrote:
>>>> I dropped an SD card - that is now unreadable, along with all the photos that
>>>> I was about to transfer from a camera.
>>>>
>>>> I hadn't thought they could be so fragile...
>>>
>>> What do you learn from this experience?
>>>
>>>> Any suggestions?
>>>
>>> The iCloud is your friend.
>>
>> Really? How does iCloud help repair SD cards?
>
> Yeah, not much use unless you've got the data off the card first.
>
> I'm a bit puzzled how this got broken just by dropping it, I would have
> thought that was quite a common thing to do (I know I have, and never
> had a failure from it). I would have though they don't have enough mass,
> and usually float, rather than plummet down, to cause any damage at all.
>
> I wonder of Liz is onto something there. It's possible to buy a Micro-SD
> card which usually comes with a standard SD holder (they are quite often
> on offer at some online retailers, and not always clear that you're
> buying a MicroSD+Holder combination). The micro card just clips in, it's
> possible it might have just become dislodged.

No, I tried it in a couple of holders.

It seems hard to imagine that the drop could have damaged it, but there you
are.

Daniele

D.M. Procida <daniele-at-vurt-dot-org@invalid.com> wrote:
> On 23 Jan 2024 at 20:43:29 GMT, "Andy Hewitt" <thewildrover@icloud.com> wrote:
> > I'm a bit puzzled how this got broken just by dropping it, I would have
> > thought that was quite a common thing to do (I know I have, and never
> > had a failure from it). I would have though they don't have enough mass,
> > and usually float, rather than plummet down, to cause any damage at all.
> >
> > I wonder of Liz is onto something there. It's possible to buy a Micro-SD
> > card which usually comes with a standard SD holder (they are quite often
> > on offer at some online retailers, and not always clear that you're
> > buying a MicroSD+Holder combination). The micro card just clips in, it's
> > possible it might have just become dislodged.
>
> No, I tried it in a couple of holders.

I would normally use a card reader with a micro SD slot, rather than a
fullsize SD slot plus an adapter. The signal integrity is better in the
slot than using the adapter.

(yes I know your Mac may give you a fullsize slot, but if there are reading
troubles I'd try a USB microSD reader for a second opinion)

> It seems hard to imagine that the drop could have damaged it, but there you
> are.

Something doesn't add up here: if you dropped it and physically broke
something, you wouldn't be able to read the card at all - it wouldn't be
detected when plugged in, wouldn't show in Finder.

That TestDisk worked suggests the card was reading fine but the filesystem
was corrupted - eg it wasn't properly ejected the last time it was used.

I suppose it's possible the card was marginal and TestDisk tried a bit
harder to read it - there are tools like ddrescue and dd_rescue (different)
which do the same for media which is failing, like dying hard drives.

Theo

On 23 Jan 2024 at 22:33:30 GMT, "Theo" <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk>
wrote:

> D.M. Procida <daniele-at-vurt-dot-org@invalid.com> wrote:
>> On 23 Jan 2024 at 20:43:29 GMT, "Andy Hewitt" <thewildrover@icloud.com> wrote:
>>> I'm a bit puzzled how this got broken just by dropping it, I would have
>>> thought that was quite a common thing to do (I know I have, and never
>>> had a failure from it). I would have though they don't have enough mass,
>>> and usually float, rather than plummet down, to cause any damage at all.
>>>
>>> I wonder of Liz is onto something there. It's possible to buy a Micro-SD
>>> card which usually comes with a standard SD holder (they are quite often
>>> on offer at some online retailers, and not always clear that you're
>>> buying a MicroSD+Holder combination). The micro card just clips in, it's
>>> possible it might have just become dislodged.
>>
>> No, I tried it in a couple of holders.
>
> I would normally use a card reader with a micro SD slot, rather than a
> fullsize SD slot plus an adapter. The signal integrity is better in the
> slot than using the adapter.
>
> (yes I know your Mac may give you a fullsize slot, but if there are reading
> troubles I'd try a USB microSD reader for a second opinion).

Once I got the files off the card, I reformatted it in the MacBook (via the
slot) and tested it, but I could not get the camera to recognise it or format
it ("card error").

In a third holder - that worked just fine in both.

So at least one holder's going in the bin.

>> It seems hard to imagine that the drop could have damaged it, but there you
>> are.
>
> Something doesn't add up here: if you dropped it and physically broke
> something, you wouldn't be able to read the card at all - it wouldn't be
> detected when plugged in, wouldn't show in Finder.
>
> That TestDisk worked suggests the card was reading fine but the filesystem
> was corrupted - eg it wasn't properly ejected the last time it was used.

It did seem so, except I dropped it just after removing it from the
(turned-off) camera.

I don't get it either.

> I suppose it's possible the card was marginal and TestDisk tried a bit
> harder to read it - there are tools like ddrescue and dd_rescue (different)
> which do the same for media which is failing, like dying hard drives.

TestDisk was reading the copy I'd made with dd.

I expect that iCloud would have helped, though.

Daniele

On Tuesday 23 January 2024 at 16:10:03 UTC, D.M. Procida wrote:
> I dropped an SD card - that is now unreadable, along with all the photos that
> I was about to transfer from a camera.
>
> I hadn't thought they could be so fragile...
>
> Any suggestions?
>
> Daniele

I'd try it in another type of holder as it could just be coincidence .
About 40% on the time I can't read a SD card when I plug it in to the reader slot on my iMac.
Take it out and try it again a few times and it works, but now I tend to put it in one of those USB sticks that has a slot
for a SD or smaller cards, the whole stick then plugs into the more relible USB A ports on the iMac.
Seems to work 99% first time.

On 23/01/2024 22:58, D.M. Procida wrote:

[..]

>> (yes I know your Mac may give you a fullsize slot, but if there are reading
>> troubles I'd try a USB microSD reader for a second opinion).
>
> Once I got the files off the card, I reformatted it in the MacBook (via the
> slot) and tested it, but I could not get the camera to recognise it or format
> it ("card error").
>
> In a third holder - that worked just fine in both.
>
> So at least one holder's going in the bin.

Does that confirm you're using Micro-SD card in an SD holder? Now you
have the images rescued, I'd bin the whole card and replace it.

I'd also consider standard SD cards, rather than the Micro-SD in a
holder arrangement, they have been something I found unreliable (almost
predictably), and often needed trying in different holders to find a
combo that worked.

You can buy quite decent sized SD cards quite cheaply now (I use Sandisk
if I can, but also have some Integral's which have been OK for some time).

>>> It seems hard to imagine that the drop could have damaged it, but there you
>>> are.

I agree, I wonder if it was just a coincidence here.

>> Something doesn't add up here: if you dropped it and physically broke
>> something, you wouldn't be able to read the card at all - it wouldn't be
>> detected when plugged in, wouldn't show in Finder.
>>
>> That TestDisk worked suggests the card was reading fine but the filesystem
>> was corrupted - eg it wasn't properly ejected the last time it was used.
>
> It did seem so, except I dropped it just after removing it from the
> (turned-off) camera.
>
> I don't get it either.

I'd be surprised if it was the drop, I think it's just a duff card,
that's simply shown a failure point at this moment.

>> I suppose it's possible the card was marginal and TestDisk tried a bit
>> harder to read it - there are tools like ddrescue and dd_rescue (different)
>> which do the same for media which is failing, like dying hard drives.
>
> TestDisk was reading the copy I'd made with dd.
>
> I expect that iCloud would have helped, though.

Not really, you still need to get the images off the card first.

--
Andy H

On 24 Jan 2024 at 16:23:37 GMT, "Andy Hewitt" <thewildrover@icloud.com> wrote:

>> I expect that iCloud would have helped, though.
>
> Not really, you still need to get the images off the card first.

I was being sarcastic.

Daniele

D.M. Procida <daniele-at-vurt-dot-org@invalid.com> wrote:
> On 24 Jan 2024 at 16:23:37 GMT, "Andy Hewitt" <thewildrover@icloud.com> wrote:
>
>>> I expect that iCloud would have helped, though.
>>
>> Not really, you still need to get the images off the card first.
>
> I was being sarcastic.

LOL, that just passed me by, sorry.

--
Andy H