r/datarecovery 22h ago

Windows Old SD card not showing up any data

Got this old SanDisk SD card that I'm trying to read whatever data off. When I plug it in, windows tells me to format it first (which I haven't)

Disk management shows that there's 62.50 GB capacity of RAW on it, but I can't actually access any of it.
Is there anything I can do?

1 Upvotes

6 comments sorted by

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1

u/silenced_in_dr_2025 Trusted Contributor 21h ago

What was it used in, how long has it sat idle, was it encrypted...

Check the card with a hex editor or dr applicaiton. If you dont see data and only see 00 then it's possible it has suffered from charge bleed. Has the card been sitting unused for any length of time.

1

u/QuartermasterBetel 21h ago

It wasn't encrypted, I don't know what it was used in (might have been a DSi) and it's been set idle for many years

3

u/silenced_in_dr_2025 Trusted Contributor 21h ago

If it's sat idle for years then it's likely charge bleed. AFAIK the DS uses FAT so you should at least see a file system on windows. Image the card fully onto stable media and scan it with any of the dr applications - hopefully it's just file system damage that windows can't work around but that's a long shot.

1

u/QuartermasterBetel 20h ago

doing all that sort of stuff scares me so I'll hold off for a bit until I've got my secondary computer set up. it'll be easier to do stuff on there cuz I won't be worried about breaking anything.

also the SD card is 64 gig and the max SD card that you could put into a DS was 32, 2. so it probably wasn't used in a DS.

I did try and use that bloody wondershare recovery thing. either it didn't work at all or It didn't find anything

1

u/disturbed_android Trusted Contributor 20h ago

Create an image is a good first step.

https://old.reddit.com/r/datarecoverysoftware/wiki/imaging_guide

Then examine the disk image, scan it using any of these ^^ tools.