Raspberry Pi SD Card Data Loss Happens!
The Raspberry Pi is a series of low-cost, credit card-sized single-board computers. We usually install Raspbian (the official RasPi operating system) by using a microSD card to boot the Raspberry Pi small computer. As the officially recommended boot method for Raspberry Pi, SD cards have many advantages. However, the SD card is easily damaged due to frequent removal and insertion, making it impossible to start the computer and access the data in it. Here is an example:
“I have a 16 GB card with a Raspbian image and some work I was doing a couple of years back. Unfortunately, I didn't back up the data, and the card became corrupted and is not recognized by the Pi or any PC. There's some data on it I need to recover. How can I go about doing this? What tools are available? I'm not looking to revert the card to a working state, just data recovery.”forums.raspberrypi.com
In addition to SD card corruption, you may also encounter other situations where data is lost or inaccessible, such as mistaken deletion, accidental formatting, physical damage, etc.
If files stored on the Raspberry Pi SD card are lost or inaccessible, you need to recover deleted files or get files off Raspberry Pi SD card.
How to Recover Data From Raspberry Pi SD Card on Windows
Way 1. Recover Deleted/Lost Files From Backups
If you have completed a data backup before encountering data loss, data recovery is very easy. You can restore Raspberry Pi SD card from backup files or backup images.
Way 2. Use MiniTool Power Data Recovery
If you need to recover deleted files from Raspberry Pi SD card without backups, you have to seek help from free data recovery software. MiniTool Power Data Recovery is the ideal file restore solution for Windows 11/10/8/7. It supports multiple brands of SD cards, such as SanDisk, Samsung, Lexar, Kingston, Transcend, etc.
It is adept at handling assortments of file loss situations, such as accidental file deletion, partition loss, hard drive failure, improper formatting, virus infection, and so on.
What’s more, as one of the most powerful secure data recovery services, MiniTool Power Data Recovery is certainly capable of performing HDD data recovery, SSD data recovery, USB drive recovery, memory card recovery, etc.
Now, click the button below to download and install this read-only file recovery software and rescue your Raspberry Pi SD card.
MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Step 1. Connect the SD card to your Windows computer via a card reader.
Step 2. Launch MiniTool Power Data Recovery to get its main interface. Here, the SD card will be marked with a USB icon. You need to hover your mouse cursor over the target SD card and click the Scan button.
Step 3. Once the whole scanning process is completed, you can expand each file location to find the needed files. Or, you can make use of the Filter and Search features to locate required items faster.
- Filter: After clicking the Filter button, multiple filter options will pop up, allowing you to filter out unwanted data by file type, date modified, file size, and file category.
- Search: Assuming you still remember the file name of the deleted file, you can type the name in the search box and press Enter. After that, all files containing the file name will be displayed.
More importantly, before proceeding with the following steps, you need to preview the listed files to ensure that they are the needed ones. Supported file types to preview include documents, images, videos, audio files, slides, emails, etc. By the way, you are allowed to save files directly from the preview window.
Step 4. Finally, make sure all needed items are selected, then click the Save button. In the pop-up window, choose an appropriate location separate from the original Raspberry Pi SD card to store the recovered data.
Please note that MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free is capable of saving 1 GB of files. If you need to recover more files, please upgrade to an advanced edition.
Thanks to MiniTool Power Data Recovery for recovering my Raspberry Pi SD card.Click to Tweet
MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
How to Prevent SD Card Corruption and File Loss
Although you have many options to recover lost data, no matter which method you take, you will be exposed to the risk that the data will not be successfully recovered. Therefore, it is crucial to take some measures to prevent SD card corruption and unexpected data loss.
You may focus on the following suggestions:
- Always back up files before doing any operations that may remove or affect the data on the Raspberry Pi SD card.
- Perform regular SD card health checks to ensure its continued health, especially after a Raspberry Pi computer power failure, system crash, system update, and more.
- Do not remove and insert the SD card frequently to avoid shortening the card life.
- Do not use the same SD card on multiple devices, especially on untrusted computers or other devices to prevent the card from being infected by viruses and causing data loss.
To Sum Up
In a word, this tutorial introduces how to recover data from Raspberry Pi SD card with backup files and MiniTool Power Data Recovery.
MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
Additionally, keeping your Raspberry Pi SD card healthy is critical to computer system stability, data security, and card longevity. Please pay attention to the suggestions for SD card protection above.
If you need any assistance from the MiniTool support team, please describe the problem clearly and send an email to [email protected].
About The Author
Position: Columnist
Shirley graduated from English major and is currently an editor of MiniTool Team. She likes browsing and writing IT-related articles, and is committed to becoming a professional IT problem solver. The topic of her articles are generally about data recovery, data backup, and computer disk management, as well as other IT issues. In spare time, she likes watching movies, hiking and fishing.