Dead SD card

[vuzedome]

R-Studio fails?
Interesting.
I'll take note of this.

[Lupin]

Hard disk data recovery tools won't work on reformatted flash-based memory. These data recovery tools rely on the fact that data deleted on hard drives aren't deleted but the space allocated for those are declared free. When you deleted something from flash, the memory blocks are replaced with 1s.

[vuzedome]

But I was able to recover stuff from flash cards easily.

[fohfoh]

But I was able to recover stuff from flash cards easily.

Concur. While I don't really have experience, Lupin's statement does somewhat make sense though.

[Freedom Kira]

R-Studio fails?
Interesting.
I'll take note of this.

Weird, huh? It freezes for a while, and then reports that the size in my SD card reader is -1MB.

I also don't doubt anymore that stuff can be recovered from flash memory, seeing all the tools available to do it and the reviews from users who were successful in doing so.

Hard disk data recovery tools won't work on reformatted flash-based memory. These data recovery tools rely on the fact that data deleted on hard drives aren't deleted but the space allocated for those are declared free. When you deleted something from flash, the memory blocks are replaced with 1s.

I thought so too, kinda like a stack, where the data stored above the stack pointer is declared free, and to "delete" data you simply move the pointer down but you don't actually delete the data there. It just gets overwritten when something else uses the stack. Similarly, when data is "deleted" on a hard drive, the space the data was occupying is simply marked as free space and can be overwritten.

But even if the case you described is true, there are tools available that have proven their ability to recover deleted data from flash memory. How it works is (currently) beyond me.

But I was able to recover stuff from flash cards easily.

I wish I could say the same... Maybe the card is actually physically damaged somehow (no signs of it though), which would definitely make the data irrecoverable. I'd hate it if that was the case, as I hardly have any copies of the data on it, but it's possible.

Anyway, I think I'm going to try dd tonight. Give me a few hours. My only option with Linux right now is to use my torrenting box and the Rosewill USB reader. I guess I could boot into Linux on my laptop, but I'm not sure about drivers...

Edit: It seems I'm forced to boot into Ubuntu on my laptop, as the USB reader isn't picking up the card... Actually the reader on my laptop isn't picking it up too well either... Hmm. I think I will have to try something different if the laptop doesn't work. Gonna try this later because I'm tired and want to sleep. Before I go, though... how do you tell what device name is given to the inserted device under /dev/? I'm not too sure what to search for on Google for that, and the results I'm getting aren't helping. Or maybe I'm just too tired to make sense of it...
The exact command would be nice too, if you're willing to help a n00b.

[kyanwan]

Ye know - with cards that are used / moved a shitload ... I see one thing that was overlooked.

Cleaning the card.

I have a pocketpc that has a SD card - the thing always gets shit inside it.   Ditto with the 20ish SD cards that go thru the camera here - they get shitty & also break eventually.  Get a cotton swab & some 90% alcohol - wipe off all the connectors.  Give it another fly.

If it's been this much trouble so far - with all the stuff you've done - might be time to just give up on it.  ( From the looks of what you've gone through so far, I'd have given up on it myself - and redone the work. )

[Freedom Kira]

Ye know - with cards that are used / moved a shitload ... I see one thing that was overlooked.

Cleaning the card.

I have a pocketpc that has a SD card - the thing always gets shit inside it.   Ditto with the 20ish SD cards that go thru the camera here - they get shitty & also break eventually.  Get a cotton swab & some 90% alcohol - wipe off all the connectors.  Give it another fly.

If it's been this much trouble so far - with all the stuff you've done - might be time to just give up on it.  ( From the looks of what you've gone through so far, I'd have given up on it myself - and redone the work. )

Yeah, though the card was always kept inside the phone. Hidden underneath the battery cover. So it's clean, most definitely. To be sure, I wiped it several times, with firm pressure, with my shirt... not exactly alcohol, but the connectors are quite shiny. Metallic shiny, not oily shiny.

Well I'm pretty stubborn, heh. In addition, I ordered something a while back, and it came in today, and surprisingly it comes with a MicroSD card reader. So it looks like I unexpectedly have another option to try.

I'll be trying more stuff tomorrow, but I'm just about ready to quit, and maybe let it sit for a while and see if I can recover anything later. Not holding my breath though.

And the files on it are files like images, videos, etc. that I took on my phone or transferred from a computer. I could just re-edit all the images and put them on a new card, but all the data I took with my phone is lost, without backup too. I guess I'm one of those people who find sentimental value in that kinda stuff, and yet too lazy to back it up... >.>

Edit: New reader isn't working either. And actually the card gets excessively hot when it's connected. Like, ridiculously hot, almost too hot to touch. So I'm guessing there's a short in the card somehow.

Edit: So I searched slightly different terms and came up with suggestions for ZAR (Zero Assumption Recovery). The name sounds rather promising. It's payware, but the image recovery part of the program is free. So I'm going to give it a shot.

Edit: No luck, ZAR sees 0B in the card. The few results I found seem to think that ZAR is among the best, if not the best. So I guess I'll try dd, and if that doesn't work, I'll leave it be for a couple weeks. Thanks everyone for the help.

[Freedom Kira]

(Double post for bump)

Alright, finally got around to booting into Ubuntu on my laptop. Turns out I haven't done that for 297 days... So, needless to say, it's running 9.04, but I doubt that's an issue.

Anyway, card was not detected at all. It was pretty much blatantly ignored; the presence of the readers was detected, but not the card. So, as a result of a pre-emptive problem, dd did not work. I used three different interfaces - a MicroSD (USB) card reader, an SD (USB) card reader with a MicroSD-SD adapter, and an SD (built-in) card reader with the same adapter. All three had the same result.

I might give it another shot on Thursday... depends what kind of mood I'm in. Maybe plug in stuff in a different order. I'm not holding my breath though. Then again I didn't really try all that hard today, so...

Anyway, thanks everyone for the suggestions. I have fewer regrets now that I've at least tried. If anyone has any more suggestions, let me know. I would open up the chip to see if there's any physical damage, but that seems rather hard to do.

Side note, I've seen the awesomeness of 10.04 and will probably upgrade and use it more often.