Top 5 Best SDHC Card Recovery Software

How do I recover data from my SDHC card?

The SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity) card has a storage capacity of up to 32GB. Although there’re other available SD card products in the market, only the machines labeled as working with SDHC cards can use them.

Standard cameras such as compact cameras and camcorders are particularly well-suited for utilizing these cards. The SDHC card could be an excellent option, especially for individuals venturing into their photography hobby with their first camera.

However, if you’ve accidentally deleted photos or lost precious videos from your SDHC card, what can you do to perform SDHC card photo/video recovery?

Those users without backups might have no choice but to seek help from professional data recovery centers or third-party tools. As you can see, utilizing SDHC data recovery software proves to be a more cost-effective and user-friendly DIY solution.

How to select the best SDHC card recovery software?

But how to select the best SDHC card recovery software among all the available utilities? Perhaps you can refer to the following criteria.

Cause of data loss: Please check whether your needed photos or videos were corrupted, hidden, or deleted before beginning SD card recovery, which can help you select a more targeted solution.

Cost: Budget is an important factor for you to select SD card recovery software: free or paid. For paid ones, determine whether a subscription-based or one-time payment is more suitable based on the volume and nature of your data recovery needs.

Type of data loss: Not all recovery software is capable of restoring every type of data. Identify the software that aligns with the specific files you need to recover. Nevertheless, SDHC card recovery software options are available that can handle a wide range of file types.   

Technical proficiency and usability: Please take your technical or computer skills into consideration. For instance, non-tech users are supposed to select a friendly SDHC card photo recovery utility with an intuitive user graphical interface (GUI) and easy-to-follow operating steps instead of a complicated interface.

Performance: Good performance (high SDHC card recovery rate, short recovery time, easy-to-found results, and so on) usually is the key factor in selecting a satisfactory data recovery tool.   

5 best SDHC card recovery software

According to the above criteria, the 5 best SDHC card recovery software are listed for your reference.

1^st. MyRecover

» Pros:

• Deal with data loss scenarios such as deletion, disk formatting, virus attacks, etc.
• Recover deleted & missing files from SD cards, internal and external hard drives, USBs, etc.
• Run Quick Scan & Deep Scan automatically to search all the recoverable files.
• Preview/filter your needed data according to Name, Document Type, Path, or Date
• Keep the original filename, path, and format for the deleted files.
• Support NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, and ReFS file systems.
• Offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.

» Cons:

• Cannot support MacOS.
• Offer a small image preview.

» Overall experience:

The SD card detection and reading process proved exceptionally stable during the test.  And the automatic Quick Scan & Deep Scan respectively last 2 to 5 minutes and 10 to 30 minutes.

During a specific test case, a comprehensive scan of a 60 GB SD card was successfully conducted within 16 minutes. This scanning process detected 42 GB of deleted data.  

Since the free version of MyRecover enables you to recover 500 MB of files, you can select no more than 500 MB of files to restore.

» Prices & versions:

2^nd. Recoverit

» Pros:

• Recover data from SDHC Cards, USB drives, external hard drives, etc.
• Offer video repair in the Premium version.
• Create bootable disks.
• Filter and preview scanning results before file recovery.

» Cons:

• The free version only enables users to recover 100MB of files in total without paying.
• Products only can be refunded in 7 days.

» Overall experience:

Recoverit can support file systems such as NTFS, FAT, HFS+, and APFS. It also can successfully recover files in over 1000 different file formats.

» Prices & versions:

3^rd. Disk Drill

» Pros:

• Offer an intuitive GUI (graphical user interface).
• Support APFS, HFS+, FAT32, exFAT, EXT, and NTFS file systems.
• Recover photos, videos, documents, and so on from various devices.
• Recover selected specific file types.
• Support 18 languages

» Cons:

• The free version allows users to recover approximately 500 MB of data at no cost.
• No refunds are supported.

» Overall experience:

Disk Drill provides an intuitive GUI and a high data recovery rate with users. But it could take 1 hour or more time to finish scanning your chosen drive.

» Prices & versions:

4^th. Recuva

» Pros:

• Quick Scan is fast.
• Support customized scans of different places.
• Low price.

» Cons:

• Its original filename, directories, and file information may be lost.
• Cannot offer a full-resolution image preview.

» Overall experience:

Although the user interface of Recuva may not be as modern as some of the other tools we’ve viewed, it also serves as an affordable way to perform SDHC card photo recovery.

» Prices & versions:

5^th. PhotoRec

» Pros:

• Support Windows, Mac, Linux, and Sun Solaris operating systems.
• Support FAT, exFAT, NTFS, MFT, ext2, ext3, and ext4.
• Recover files over 480 file extensions.
• Free.

» Cons:

• Users need to type CMD to interact with this software because there’s no GUI.

» Overall experience:

As an exceptional open-source data recovery utility, PhotoRec can help users to retrieve lost files from various storage mediums (hard disks, digital camera memory cards, and CD-ROM drives).

How to recover deleted files from SD/SDHCcards?

Now, you can select your preferred SD card data recovery software from the above data recovery tools.

Here, it’s highly recommended that you select MyRecover because this software offers a cost-effective, efficient, and comprehensive approach to recovering deleted & missing files from SD cards.

With MyRecover, you can expect a seamless and satisfactory data recovery experience.

Step 1. Connect the SDHC card to your Windows. After launching MyRecover,  hover the mouse over the SDHC card saved deleted files before, and click Scan.

Step 2. MyRecover can scan your SDHC automatically and display all the recoverable files on your selected drive.

You can also preview/filter your needed data according to Name, Date, Document Type, or Path.

• Name: Type the filenames of your desired files in the search bar to quickly locate your desired RSV files.
• Date modified: Set the date (today, yesterday, last 7/30 days, and so on) according to your situation.
• Size: Filter the file size (<128KB, 128KB~1MB, 1MB~ 512MB, etc) based on your needs.

Step 3. Select your desired files in the Other Missing Files folder. Then click “Recover x files” to begin the SDHC card recovery process.

After recovery, you’d better store your deleted & missing files in another drive instead of the original SDHC card.

What is the success rate of data recovery?

Regrettably, not all SD card recovery yields successful results. To maximize the chances of successfully retrieving all recoverable files from SDHC cards, meeting the following prerequisites is crucial.

1. No overwritten data

Please ensure the data on the SDHC card has not been overwritten because the space of the deleted files will be designated as free space, which is ready for new data.

The data recovery rate can decrease if your desired SDHC files have been overwritten. To maximize the chances of successful recovery, please avoid adding new data to your SDHC card and begin data recovery using professional data recovery software as soon as possible.

2. No physical damage

Physical damage, such as broken connector pins or a flash memory chip, cannot be repaired using SDHC card recovery software.

In this case, you’re advised to send them to professional SDHC repair centers to recover data from physically damaged SDHC cards, but they may not be able to handle all data loss scenarios caused by physical damage.

3. Reliable data recovery software

Reliable data recovery software can improve your SD card data recovery rate and save precious time.

How do I prevent data loss on my SD card?

If you want to avoid data loss and prevent further damage, there’re some pertinent suggestions for your reference.   

Handle SDHC cards with care: SDHC cards are delicate and can be easily damaged by extreme temperatures, dust, or water. Thus, please store them in a protective case when not in use and avoid carrying them loosely in your pocket.

Frequently back up your data: Regularly back up the data on your SDHC cards with freeware-AOMEI Backupper to make file backups/disk backups as you prefer.   

Install reliable antivirus software: Protect your computer and SDHC cards from viruses and malware by installing reputable antivirus software with real-time scanning. This helps prevent malicious software from infecting your system and potentially causing data loss.

Switch between multiple SDHC cards: Instead of storing all your data on a single SDHC card, consider using multiple cards and distributing your data across them. Then you won’t lose all your data if one card becomes corrupted or lost.   

Avoid using no-name SDHC cards: Purchase SDHC cards from reputable manufacturers with high-quality control standards. While cheaper no-name cards may seem appealing, they often have lower reliability and higher failure rates.

While SDHC card recovery software can be helpful, it’s not guaranteed to recover 100% of your data. Therefore, you’re advised to take preventive measures like file backups to protect your important files.