[2022]How to Recover Photos from Corrupt SD Card?

Summary:

Losing photos from SD card due to corruption could be stressful. If you are worried about how to recover photos or videos from corrupt SD card, you are on the right page. This article explains on how to to fix SD card corruption and recover photos from SD card without any hassle.

Quick navigation:

  1. Reasons for Data Loss from Corrupt SD card
  2. Fix Corrupt SD Card
  3. Recover Photos from Corrupt SD Card

Common Reasons for Data Loss from Corrupt SD card

A few obvious reasons behind the corruption of SD card or cause data loss on SD card as follows

Inaccessible SD card:
Under rare circumstances, the file system on your SD card might get corrupted or converted into a RAW drive. A RAW file system error occurs when a computer cannot access the storage device or recognize file system. Fortunately in situation like these, your photos are still saved on your SD card but you cannot access them.

Note: If your files SD card is inaccessible, skip ahead to section of the article that explains how to recover photos from SD card

Unexpected formatting of SD card:
Various digital cameras use a distinct storage media format to save photos. When you insert your SD card from one camera into another it will format the card with its own specific file system.

Recovering formatted data from SD card using CMD is complicated for a normal user, rather it is quite easier to recover lost photos, videos or any other using an SD card recovery software.

Virus or Malware attacks:
If your SD card is infected with viruses or malware, a swift reaction is required to save your personal memories from corruption. Virus attacks are always sneaky, so it is recommended to maintain an updated firewall or antivirus for avoiding such situations.

Interrupting While Reading or Writing on to SD card:
Most of the users tend to take SD cards for granted. Users interrupt any read or write process or remove SD card from camera without switching off. Under such circumstances, the SD card’s file system will be damaged resulting in corrupt or damaged SD card.

Nevertheless, you can surely repair Corrupt SD card using various approaches. One of the best suited method to fix corruption on SD card is using command Prompt.

How to Repair Corrupt or Damaged SD Card using CMD?

The quickest way to recover corrupt or damaged SD card is through CMD. CMD or Command window is a ms-dos tool. Follow the specified instructions to recover photos from sd card

  • Click on start search cmd. Right click on cmd and click on Run as Administrator
  • On the command window type chkdsk “drive letter”/f (for example if a drive letter is G: type chkdsk G:/f)
  • Once this process is finished enter command “drive letter”: (“C:” press enter)
  • Enter command attrib -h -r -s /s /d *.*CHKDSK to repair corrupt SD card and Recover Data
  • Once the process is completed you can see the recovered files in a new folder in the SD card. However, manual way of repairing a corrupt SD card might be risky as well as tricky. If you are not confident, kindly refrain from repairing damaged SD card using CMD. Because a single mistake while using cmd will permanently erase all your precious photos.

SFWare SD Card recovery software developed with an easy user interface, that automates the recovery process and avoids any data loss scenarios. SFWare’s deep scan algorithm is specifically programmed to recover lost photos from corrupt, formatted or damaged SD cards.

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How to Recover photos from corrupt SD card ?:

SFWare’s SD card recovery software is specially programmed to recover digital media from problematic SD Cards.

  • Download and install SFWare SD card recovery software
  • Connect the corrupt SD card to your computer and launch SFWare recovery software
    SFWare Recover photos home page
  • Select Recover Formatted/Corrupt for recovering files from corrupted SD card
    SFWare Recover photos from Corrupt SD Card
  • Now click on scan. Scan result will display available storage devices and partitions on your computer
  • Select the storage device you want to recover and click Scan
    SFWare Recover photos from Corrupt SD Card
  • Once the scan is completed, you can see available partitions on the scanned storage device
  • Select the partition consisting your photos and click on scan
  •  After a successful scan, you can recover the photos on the partitions.
    SFWare Recover photos from Corrupt SD Card
  • Select the files you want to restore and proceed to save the files
    SFWare Recover photos from Corrupt SD Card

    Why choose SFWare SD card Recovery software?

  • SFWare SD card recovery is specifically designed to recover digital media such as RAW images, PSD files, video files, MP3 formats etc
  • Integrated with a robust scan algorithm, it always ensures to give you precise scan results
  • With the help of SFWare, you can easily recover deleted files, files from reformatted or hard drives installed with the new operating system.
  • You can take advantage of save recovery session and avoid rescanning of large hard drives
  • It is compatible with storage devices formatted with NTFS-5, NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, HFS, HFS+Conclusion:
    Hope this article helped you to recover photos from corrupt SD card. As discussed in this article, SD cards are vulnerable. There might be various reasons for corruption. Nevertheless, you can recover them easily. However, the manual way of recovering photos is risky and tricky. Hence, it is strongly suggested to use a professional photo recovery software to automate and avoid any risk of erasing precious photos.

Note: Are you aware of how to recover deleted photos from SanDisk SD card? You will learn all about it here.

Frequently Asked Questions

What causes an SD card to become corrupt?

Physical damages, file system corruption, bad sectors on SD card, improper handling of SD card, interruption during formatting an SD card, virus or malware infection on SD cards can cause damage to SD cards and leads to SD card corruption.

How do I uncorrupt an SD card?

The best way to fix corruption on SD card is using CHKDSK command in command prompt. All you must do is, run the command CHKDSK C: /f and attrib -h -r -s /s /d *.* as explained in the steps above.

Is there a way to recover data from a corrupted SD card?

Yes, you can recover photos/files from corrupt SD card with the help of safe and secure data recovery tool. As manual methods cannot be used on SD card recovery, you can make use of SFWare SD card recovery tool to recover photos/videos from SD card.

How to Remove Shortcut Virus from Pen Drive & Access Data?

Summary:

Files turning into shortcuts are not uncommon. Every USB user faces this challenge quite often.  Here is the best solution for the most experienced troublesome problem. Follow the article to know why files turn into Shortcuts and how to recover files from USB or Pen drive turned shortcuts.

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Table of contents:

Why Files Turn into Shortcuts?

What are Shortcut files?

When do files turn into Shortcuts?

How to Fix A Folder That Has Become A Shortcut?

How To Recover Data From USB  Showing Shortcut Folders?

Pro tips to keep your files safe

FAQ

About Files Turning into Shortcuts

A Pen drive or USB drive is the most commonly used external storage device. And this is the reason why these drives are most affected by virus. One of the common virus found in USB’s is the one that creates shortcut files.

In other words, shortcut files are the files created by Autorun.inf worm and Virus or Trojan.

These viruses hide all the files and folders present in drive and create a shortcut. These shortcuts keep appearing even after you delete them or you format the drive. And, formatting a drive will not assure you complete security over the virus. Therefore, you would risk losing important data if you rely solely on formatting. 

To get back original files, you have to fix the problem and recover files from USB turned shortcut using a proficient USB data recovery software.

Note: The shortcut virus doesn’t give any option but makes file inaccessible but when you click files in them or once the file is opened it would multiply itself and eventually occupies the entire drive until it is full.

The shortcut virus keeps appearing even after deleting it many times. You might have also used antivirus to get rid of the shortcut virus but the antivirus will not be able to recover the lost or deleted files. Data recovery software is needed to retrieve the lost data. Download the SFWare USB Data Recovery Software to recover data that has been lost because of the shortcut virus.

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What is a Shortcut Virus?

As the name indicates, shortcut virus is a program that creates a shortcut of a particular file or folder and hides the original file present in the storage drive. This virus mainly affects external storage devices such as SD cards, USB drives, and other storage drives.

Types of shortcut virus:

1) Flash drive shortcut virus: It is a Trojan virus that enters the drive and hides. The virus then wraps all the folders and files in a shortcut that looks exactly like the drive. If the drive is clicked the virus will replicate it and eventually occupy all the storage space. This virus is capable of multiplying itself every time the folder or the file is opened.

2) Folders and file shortcut virus: The folder and file shortcut virus affect the Pen drive by hiding all the files and folder in it and creating a shortcut for the folders and files. The files and folder can only be accessed by clicking the shortcut virus; this action will initiate the duplication of the files and folders.

When do files turn into Shortcuts?

  1. The antivirus in the computer might have not recognized the Trojan virus because it was not updated
  2. Downloading content from the non trusted source on the internet can bring in a virus into the computer.
  3. If a virus affected Pen drive is used in a computer without scanning for any potential virus, virus would enter the USB drive from the PC

How To Fix A Folder That Has Become A Shortcut?

Before deleting shortcut virus it is important to fix the virus from the file, follow the below given steps:

Method 1: Show hidden files to recover files hidden by shortcut virus

Sometimes viruses may turn your files into hidden states. Therefore you need to unhide the files to make them visible.

  1. Insert your USB or Pen drive, go to My Computers
  2. Click View Tab and Check Mark Show Hidden Items option

 Or you can unhide the files or folders using the command line.

  1. Right-Click on Start and select Command Prompt run as administrator.
  2. Now type F: ( Where F is the drive letter)
  3. Now, type the following attrib -h -r -s /s /d F:\*. * (Replace F with the drive letter where you would like to show hidden files)
    Show the shortcut files

By doing this you will be able to unhide the hidden shortcut files. Now, go to the USB drive and verify whether all the hidden files are shown. If you can’t still find the files, try the best recovery method shown in the next section.

Method 2: Delete the Shortcut Files

Once hidden files are shown in the pen drive, delete the shortcut files using the command prompt.

Delete the Shortcut Virus files

  1.     Go to Start → Click on Run → Type cmd
  2.     Select your device by typing the assigned drive letter followed by a colon for Example- e: ( Where I is the drive letter)
  3.     Next, Type del *.lnk
  4.     Type attrib -h -r -s /s /d e:*.*
  5.     Hit Enter

Now, check whether your drive is free from shortcut files. if you can’t find your files in the drive, recover your files from USB drive or pen drive showing shortcuts using the below method.

How To Recover Data From USB Folders Turned Shortcuts?

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Download SFWare USB recovery software and Launch the application. Connect your pen drive or USB drive to the computer.

  • Select Recover files option from the main screen
    SFWare to recover shortcut files
  • From the next screen, select the drive from which you need to retrieve your files.
    Select the drive to recover deleted files
  • After the completion of the scanning process, you can view files in either Data View or File Type View.
    View recoverable files from drive in Data View or File Type View
  • Right click on the file to preview the recovered and then save the file in any desired location on your PC.

Pro tips to keep your files safe

A virus can affect the computer and storage devices in many ways. These viruses can corrupt the Pen drive or permanently delete the data present in them. Once affected by the virus it becomes quite tricky to recover shortcut files from Pen drive. In order to avoid such situations in the future here are a few preventive measures to be followed.

  1. Always download files and applications from a trusted source
  2. Make sure you use antivirus in the computer and keep the antivirus updated
  3. Scan the Pen drive for antivirus before using it.
  4. Never use the Pen drive in computers that have high chances of being infected with viruses.

Frequently Asked Questions:

How can I get shortcut data from pen drive?

To get your data from shortcut folder in pen drive, you first need to remove shortcut virus from the drive. With the help of methods explained in the article, you will be able to fix the problem.

How can I remove shortcut virus from my USB?

You will be able to remove shortcut virus using attrib command and by deleting the shortcut files from the pen drive.

Why my pen drive files become shortcut?

Shortcut files are the files created by Autorun.inf worm and Virus or Trojan. When your files are affected by virus, it creates shortcuts of folder saved on the drive with 0 kb data.

How do I delete a shortcut folder?

With the help of commands in the command prompt, you can delete the shortcut files from pen drive. When you try to delete shortcut files using normal delete command, it reappears, therefore, make use of commands to delete the shortcut virus in pen drive.

How to Move OST File Location in Outlook?

Summary:

This write-up gives a broad view on how to change the file location of the Outlook OST file. Using the below mentioned manual techniques, you can safely move OST file in Outlook or change the location of OST file in Outlook.

Quick Navigation

When Outlook OST file location should be changed?
How can you Change OST file Location?
Move Outlook OST file location
Move Outlook OST file to another drive
Move Outlook OST file to new computer
Frequently Asked Questions

When should you change the location of OST file in Outlook?

It is quite easy to change the location of PST file that belongs to a POP3 account, however changing the location of the OST-file for an Exchange, Outlook.com or IMAP account might be trickier.

While it is recommended not to alter the default location OST-file, there are still some logical reasons for moving it to different locations, for example: limited storage in “C:” drive and the OST file requires more space. In this case, necessarily you have to change the location of the OST-file.

The default storage location of Outlook OST data files in Windows is on “C:” drive. If large amount of data is saved in your Outlook data file, it can only be restricted by the space of your system partition. Now, this post will show you how to change the data file location in Outlook 2016 for Windows.

How can you move OST file in Outlook ?

One of the reasons behind relocating an OST-file is degradation of the system performance. Huge Outlook data files can cause system to run slow. Based on the location you need to move OST file to, you can follow below mentioned methods:

Move Outlook OST file location using ForceOSTPath

Move Outlook OST file to another drive using Symbolic Link

Move Outlook OST file to new location

Method 1: Use the “ForceOSTPath” registry entry to change the location of the .ost file

Using the ForceOSTPath Registry value is a highly preferred method, but it involves the strenuous process of removing and adding your account along with re-downloading your mails all over again from the server.

Note: This method only works for a new Outlook profiles.

Step 1: Make sure that outlook is closed and OST files are not opened in any of the software or program

Step 2: Select Windows logo + R keys to open run box. Type “regedit” and click OK

Step 3: Next, navigate through the path HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook

Step 4: Next, right click on any blank space and then select New -> Expandable String Value.

Step 5:  Name the newly created expandable string value as ForceOSTPath.

Step 6: Double click on ForceOSTPath, On the” Edit String” dialog box, under the” Value data” box enter your desired path where you want to locate the OST-file and then click OK.

Step 7: Close the Registry editor and restart the outlook to see the modified location of OST-file.

Performing these steps will change the old/default location of Outlook data file (.ost) to the new specified location.

Caution: When making changes to registry, any wrong step can completely break or corrupt the Outlook program or sometimes even the system. If you encounter any trouble due to a corrupt Outlook data file, it is recommended to repair the OST file.

Method 2: Using Symbolic Links or Junction Points

A symbolic link, also called as a soft link, is a specific kind of file that points to another file, just like a shortcut in Windows. An object that is being pointed is called a target. Symbolic links are transparent to users; the links appear as normal files or directories.

You can use this method to move the Outlook OST-file to the new location.

In this case, a symbolic link is created for OST-file in its original location on the system drive(c:\drive) which points to the file present on the data drive.

Steps to create symbolic link are listed below assuming an example with the OST-file name as datafile.ost, and the location to where OST-file is shifted as D:\Documents\Outlook Files.

Step 1: Close outlook that is in use.

Step 2: The default location is; C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook, Move the OST-file or PST-file from its original location to its new location.

Step 3: Open Command prompt using Windows+R keys, Run as Administrator. Provide all the administrator credentials for your computer by selecting yes to allow the prompt.

Step 4: Type the following commands

mklink “C:\Users\%username%\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\ datafile.ost ” “D:\Documents\Outlook Files\ datafile.ost “

Where, mklink is used to create symbolic link;

Once the symbolic is created, it looks like a shortcut in the explorer. It holds the OST-extension and the “Outlook Data File” file type (Windows 7) or the “symlink” file type (Windows 10).

It is a bit tricky to use symbolic link to move Outlook OST-file because it should be executed in the command prompt. Any misspelled command in the prompt leads to consequences like Outlook data loss or corruption. It is suggested to use a software to repair OST, but you never be able to find a suitable repairing tool for corrupt OST. Therefore, the only possible way is to convert a OST to PST using the a right Conversion tool.

SFWare OST to PST Conversion tool comes with an interactive graphical user interface and retains the structure of original OST file after conversion. It provides an option of previewing the emails, contacts or other attributes that are recovered even before restoring.

Free Download for Windows

Converting OST file to PST file 

Before jumping on to the steps of converting OST to PST, It is important to know, why we need to convert OST to PST? Here are the reasons listed out that explain why converting of OST-file to PST-file would be the right action to take.

Why You Need to Convert Outlook OST to PST?

    • MS-Exchange server can unexpectedly crash due to power failure, malicious software, virus attacks or any other reason.
    • During Exchange Server maintenance, you will not be able to access your mailbox.
    • Converting OST file to PST file helps in transferring data from one place to another easily. Also, helps in importing data to any other system.
    • While using OST-file you may come across few errors like
    • “ Your offline folder could not be configured. \\ComputerName\FolderName\Outlook.OST.’
    • “The operation failed due to registry or installation problem”

Where, “ComputerName” is the name of the computer on which Microsoft Outlook is installed and “FolderName” is the name of the folder that has offline file.

To overcome this situation, you need to repair the OST file. As it is impossible to repair a corrupt OST file with a tool, the only best way is to convert a working Outlook OST to PST.

Step by Step Guide to Convert OST file to Outlook PST file

Download SFWare OST to PST conversion tool on your system and install the software. Launch the software either using the shortcut icon from the desktop or from the installed program menu of Windows.

Step 1: From the main screen to browse OST file by clicking either of the two options.

  • Open OST File – If you know the path where the OST file is stored
  • Find OST File – If you don’t know the location of OST fileFind OST file to convert

Step 2: In the next screen, click on Browse to choose the location for saving the converted file.
Convert OST to PST

Step 3: Select Next, and the software starts the conversion process

Step 4: After completion, a notification will be provided as OST file conversion completed.

Now, you have a PST file that includes all your Outlook data that were previously saved in OST file. By importing this PST file into your Outlook you can successfully access all your Outlook data.

Why SFWare OST to PST Conversion Tool?

Has a user friendly graphical interface that allows you to perform conversion faster and easier

Use demo version through which you can preview the emails, contacts or other attributes that are recovered even before activating a licensed version.

Comes with Self-explained options to perform OST file conversion without any difficulty

It also provides a team of highly trained technical support personnel’s who are available round the clock to assist you with your queries regarding software or conversion process.

Method 3: Move Existing OST file to a New Location by Create a New Outlook Profile

You can try moving OST file to new location by create a new profile and configuring the new location. First, locate the existing OST file and copy, paste the OST file to the new location.

    1. Launch Control Panel >> select the Mail
    2. A Mail dialog pops up >> click on the Show Profiles button >> click the Add button.
    3. Enter a new Profile name >> OK.
    4. Next, enter the credentials of your email account and create a new Outlook profile >> Next
    5. Once configuring your new email account is done, check the Change account settings checkbox and click Next.
    6. Next, go to Settings >> click on the More Settings button
    7. Go to the Advanced tab >> click on Outlook Data File Settings.
    8. Now, Browse the location where you have moved your existing Outlook Data File (OST).
    9. Select the specific file and click Open.
    10. Finally, click Finish to complete the process.

Once you have successfully configured your email profile and changed the location of the existing OST, go back to the Control panel and select Mail again.

Click on the Always use this profile radio button. From the drop-down list, select the New Profile. Click on Always use this profile. Click Apply to save the changes.


Conclusion

Outlook OST-file format comes with its own advantages and disadvantages. Most of the problems related to Offline Storage Table format in Outlook can easily be resolved by converting OST-files to PST-files. Conversion of OST to PST can be safely done using SFWare OST to PST conversion tool. With the given reasons, you now have understood why converting OST is better than changing OST-files location to a different drive.

Frequently Asked Question

Is it possible to change OST file location Outlook in 2019?

Yes, with the above-mentioned methods you can change or move the location of OST file in Outlook 2019. The same methods can be used to change the location in Outlook 2021 and other older versions.

How do you locate OST file in Outlook?

Based on the version of Windows Operating system, you can locate the OST file:

Windows 10: drive:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook

Older Windows versions: drive:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook

How to Import OST file into Outlook PST format Manually?

You can make use of an Archive feature, Outlook feature that allows you to change the format of OST to PST.

  • First, Open Outlook >> go to File >> Options
  • select the Advanced option >> click on the Auto Archive Settings…
  • Set the day count to run auto-archive and you can set a count to clear old emails. Click ok
  • Now, at the specified time, Outlook will automatically create an archive of your OST emails.
  • Now you can save the files as PST file.