Guide · SD, microSD and CF cards
How to recover deleted files from an SD card on Windows
Files deleted from a memory card skip the Recycle Bin, so they look gone for good. In most cases they are still on the card. Windows only marks their space as free, and the photos stay there until something new is written over them.
Do this first
- Stop using the card. Take it out of the camera or phone. Every new photo or video can land on top of a deleted one.
- Don't format it, even if Windows says “You need to format the disk before you can use it”. Click Cancel.
- Recover to another drive. Never save the recovered files back onto the same card.
Why the files are usually still there
SD cards use the FAT32 or exFAT file system. When you delete a photo, the card's file table marks its entry as deleted and its space as free, but the photo itself stays where it was. Windows normally leaves the free space of a memory card alone, unlike the SSD inside your computer, which it tells to wipe deleted data within minutes.
That is why the chances on a card are good as long as nothing new has been written to it. They drop with every photo you take afterwards.
Check these first – they are free
1. Are the files really deleted, or only hidden?
If the card was in a computer with a virus, the files may have been hidden and replaced with shortcuts. Open Command Prompt and run this, with your card's letter instead of E::
attrib -h -r -s /s /d E:\*.*If the folders appear again, you are done. If nothing changes, the files really were deleted.
2. The phone's or the app's own trash
On Android, the Gallery app and Google Photos keep deleted items in a Recently deleted or Bin folder for a while, often 30 days. Check there before anything else, and check whether the photos were backed up to Google Photos, OneDrive or iCloud.
3. Microsoft's free Windows File Recovery
Microsoft offers a free command-line tool, Windows File Recovery, for Windows 10 (2004 and later) and Windows 11. For a memory card you use its extensive mode, for example:
winfr E: D: /extensive /n *.jpgHere E: is the card and D: is another drive where it creates a recovery folder. It works, but you type commands, there is no preview, and you only see what came back after it finishes. For a few photos that is fine. For a whole holiday it gets slow to sort through.
Recover the files with NicoVault File Recovery
- Put the card in a card reader and connect it to the PC. A USB card reader is more reliable than a phone connected by cable.
- Download and install File Recovery on the computer, not on the card. Scanning and previewing are free.
- Choose the card and scan. The quick scan takes seconds: on FAT32 and exFAT, deleted photos come back with their names, folders and dates, like
DCIM\100CANON\IMG_3136.JPG. The deep scan then searches the free space by content, which is what finds photos on a formatted card. - Look through the results. Photos are grouped by type, and you can open any of them as a preview. Each file shows its chance: Good, Partly overwritten or Lost.
- Tick the files and recover them to a folder on your computer. The program refuses to save onto the card it is scanning, so nothing else gets overwritten.
Saving the files needs a license: €7.99 for a single recovery (7 days on one computer, as many files as you need) or €24.99 for lifetime use on one computer. If files shown as Good do not come back and we can't solve it together, you get your money back within 14 days.
If the card was formatted, or Windows wants to format it
A camera's normal “Format” and a Windows quick format only clear the file table. The photos themselves usually stay. The deep scan finds them by what is inside the file: JPEG, PNG, HEIC and camera RAW photos, MP4, MOV and AVI videos, and more. The original names are gone after a format, so photos are named after the date they were taken.
If Windows says the card needs to be formatted, or shows it as RAW, don't format it. In File Recovery, choose the card under Whole disks and scan it from there.
What the chances look like
| What happened | Chance |
|---|---|
| Photos deleted, card not used since | Very good – names and folders usually come back too |
| Card quick-formatted in the camera or in Windows | Good – found by content, without the original names |
| New photos taken after deleting or formatting | It depends – some files will be partly overwritten |
| “Low-level format” in the camera, or a full format in Windows | Usually gone – these write over the whole card |
| Card not detected by any reader, or physically cracked | Not for software – only a data recovery lab can help |
Questions people ask
Do files deleted from an SD card go to the Recycle Bin?
No. Windows only uses the Recycle Bin for internal drives. Files deleted from a memory card or a USB stick are removed straight away, but their data usually stays on the card until it is overwritten.
Can I recover photos after formatting the SD card in my camera?
Usually yes. The normal format in a camera only clears the file table, so the deep scan can find the photos by their content. If the camera has a separate “low-level format” option and it was used, the card was overwritten and the photos are gone.
The card came from an Android phone. Will it work?
Yes, if the phone used it as portable storage (photos you could also open on a computer). If the card was set up as internal storage, Android encrypted it, and the files cannot be read in another device.
Is it safe to scan the card?
Yes. Scanning only reads the card and changes nothing on it. Recovered files are always saved to another drive.
Scan the drive for free
NicoVault File Recovery shows every deleted file it finds, with its name, folder, a preview and an honest chance of recovery. You only pay if you decide to save them.
Windows 10 / 11 · signed installer · about 6 MB · recover from €7.99