Recover exFAT table

Jan 15, 2019
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I have an SD card full of my data, but it is not recognised by my phone or PC.

It is most likely exFAT format (was formatted by Android 6) and it went from fully visible, writeable, readable, to unusable after, I assume, removing during a write operation. If I did remove during a write operation then thankfully this would have been writing to an unimportant file. I haven't touched it since, apart from:

  • Windows 7: "You need to format the disk"
    Windows 7: "...does not contain a recognised file system"
    chkdsk: "CHKDSK is not valid for RAW drives"

Is it possible to reinstate the existing FAT table?

Otherwise, is there a good free software out there, where recovery of files is included in the freeware?

Thanks for any help!
 
Jan 15, 2019
5
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10
Thanks, hang-the-9!

I've had a look at TestDisk and it finds a few files/folders under ext4 partitions. The files are the same as found by EaseUS, which all date back to years before the "useful" data that I've lost. TestDisk shows a number of ext4 superblocks, which I assume must relate to these files. If I follow the instructions for reinstating an ext4 filesystem based on one of these, and it tuns out not to be the one I'm looking for (I imagine quite likely), will this reduce my chances of getting back the exFAT files and folder-structure?

As a separate question: If I use Windows ("full" format, not "quick") or Android (unsure) to format the whole card to exFAT, will this help or hinder? Again, interested in files and folder-structure, if possible.