maemo.org - Talk - Recover Formatted SD Card

Spam.

But I thought I'd add a couple actual tips.

Scenario 1:
Files are on card but not viewable and can't be copied (some filesystem corruption).

dd the whole SD card to a file and then mount that file (I used this method just a few days ago and recovered 100% of the photos)

Code:

# dd sync,noerror if=/dev/mmcblkX of=/media/sdaX/image.dd

# mount /media/sdaX/image.dd /mnt/tmp

# cd /mnt/tmp

Scenario 2:
Files have been deleted
Use photorec to recover the files
This method is hit and miss and I usually can't recover all the files

Scenario 3:
Partition(s) have been deleted
Use testdisk to recover the entire partitions (write a new partition table). Again hit and miss.

I recommend the GParted LiveCD. It has photorec + testdisk, of course dd, and well GParted installed too - good recovery disc to have around.