I have an old Galaxy S8 with a 128GB SD card that suddenly started showing errors and then the majority of my photos vanished from the gallery. I was trying to find a picture when many images were replaced with a grey screen and an exclamation mark. Initially, the thumbnails looked fine, and I could zoom in, which made it seem like the original images were still there. After rebooting my phone, the photos disappeared entirely. When I plugged the SD card into a Linux PC, about 50 out of potentially 4000+ photos remained, but everything else is gone. I'm panicking because these are family photos from the last couple of years, and unfortunately, they weren't backed up. The card shows 90GB free, and I need to know if I can recover these photos. Should I try cloning the SD card with dd and use recovery software for the image, and what are my options as a Linux user?
5 Answers
First off, it sounds like you're really learning the hard way about backing up your important files. Unfortunately, if the SD card has been damaged, recovering deleted files can be tricky. I've had some luck using Recuva on Windows for similar situations, but you might want to try direct imaging with a tool like dd or ddrescue on your Linux system. Just remember, if the card is failing, any attempts to recover directly from it could lead to further data loss.
If they were captured on your phone, there's a decent chance your carrier may have backed them up to the cloud. As for data recovery, consider software like R-Studio. I've used it successfully to retrieve files from a failing SD card—worth a shot!
Honestly, if this is a repeat issue, it's a solid reminder to have multiple backups in place. Consider investing in larger drives or cloud storage for your important memories. It might be pricey, but it's worth it in the long run to avoid losing precious moments.
It sounds like bit-rot might be at play here. I dealt with a similar situation where an old SD card started failing after a long time. You might want to check out r/datarecover or r/datarecoverysoftware for advice on this. You could also try using TestDisk and PhotoRec for recovery, but always make a clone of the original card first if possible before running recovery tools.
Yeah, SD cards aren't the most reliable over time. You could try using OpenSuperClone for imaging; it might be smarter in handling bad blocks compared to dd, but you're right that if the blocks are marked as lost, it might show zeros. Reseating the card can help too, sometimes the connection is just poor.
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