SD Card Formatted and Recorded Over - Recoverable?!

[sharchik]

I have an SD card that was formatted and recorded over. I need the files that were on it before the format. Is this recoverable? Thank you.

 

[Phillip Corcoran]

It depends how many times the card has been written to since the reformat. If a file gets overwritten 3 or 4 times it will generally be unrecoverable in an undamaged condition but you can try free recovery software: http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/free-data-recovery-software.htm

 

[sharchik]

It depends how many times the card has been written to since the reformat. If a file gets overwritten 3 or 4 times it will generally be unrecoverable in an undamaged condition but you can try free recovery software: http://www.easeus.com/datarecoverywizard/free-data-recovery-software.htm

I used a Sandisk 80MB/sec 32GB SD card in a GH4. Recorded full 31GB. Formatted once. Recorded over another full 31GB.

I need what was recorded before that ONE format. I actually bought a copy of EaseUs and it didn't seem to work the way I was doing it. Do you think I'm using the software wrong?

If it depends how many times its been formatted and I only formatted once then it sounds like it could be there. Thoughts?

 

[videogame57]

Nope, if you had just formatted it you could recover it, but since you filled the card again, the old data is completely overwritten and therefore lost forever, no chance of recovery.

To put it simply, when you format a card using quick format, the data is still there, but the FAT tells the computer that the card is empty and allows writing, this is why you can recover a card with a bad FAT or boot sector by formatting it then using recovery software. You, however filled the card again, therefore overwriting all of the leftover data, you can't recover that which does not exist.

Next time back up your SD card before formatting it.

 

[sharchik]

Nope, if you had just formatted it you could recover it, but since you filled the card again, the old data is completely overwritten and therefore lost forever, no chance of recovery.

To put it simply, when you format a card using quick format, the data is still there, but the FAT tells the computer that the card is empty and allows writing, this is why you can recover a card with a bad FAT or boot sector by formatting it then using recovery software. You, however filled the card again, therefore overwriting all of the leftover data, you can't recover that which does not exist.

Next time back up your SD card before formatting it.

Yeah I usually do I was just pressed for time and didn't check correctly before formatting. Lesson learned to always triple check or have someone dedicated to making sure that is all backed up before moving forward on a video shoot. Thank you.