One thing to know first
Stop using it right now, and then relax, because this one is usually fine.
A quick format does not erase anything. It writes a fresh, empty index and marks the whole volume as available, while every file remains physically on the media exactly where it was. The only thing that destroys them now is new data landing on top, so the priority is simply that nothing else writes to that device. Stop using it, stop saving to it, and if it is the drive your operating system runs from, shut the machine down rather than leaving it idling, because background activity alone will write over the very thing you are trying to get back.
Often fixable yourself
Formatted memory card by mistake
A memory card in this state is very often something you can resolve yourself, at no cost, and this page tells you how before it tells you anything about us. Where that doesn't work, the rest explains what the fault usually is and what recovery involves.
What this usually turns out to be
Cameras format cards constantly and they do it the fast way, writing a fresh empty index and leaving every photograph physically in place. Image and video files are also written in long contiguous runs, each starting with a recognisable signature, which makes an accidentally formatted camera card one of the most reliably recoverable situations covered on this site. The files come back without their original names and folders, because that information lived in the index that was replaced, but the images themselves come back.
Cards from cameras, dashcams and drones. When a card stops presenting a filesystem the files are often still there and reachable by carving for them directly.
Quick formatbetter news
The default on every platform. It replaces the index and leaves all file content in place. This is the good case, and it is the common one.
Reinstalled or re-imaged the operating systembetter news
Usually a quick format followed by a comparatively small write. Files outside the areas the installer touched are frequently recoverable.
Full format on Windows 10 or later
Writes zeroes across the whole volume. This one genuinely does destroy the data, and no lab recovers it. Worth knowing rather than paying to find out.
Formatted, then used
Each file written since the format may have landed on top of something you want. Recoverability falls with every gigabyte added.
What to check first on a memory card
- Take the card out of the camera immediately, and do not put it back in.
- Confirm nothing has been shot since. Even a handful of new photographs will land at the start of what the card now considers free space.
- Read it through a card reader, and image the whole card to a file first if you can, then work on that image.
What not to do
Do not take one more photograph to check the camera is working, and do not let the camera format it again to fix an error. New footage is written into exactly the area holding your old files, and video in particular is large enough to cover a great deal of it in seconds.
Try this before you pay anyone
This is a genuine do-it-yourself case, and you should try it before paying anyone
- Stop writing to the device immediately. If it is an external drive or card, unplug it. If it is your system drive, shut the computer down and recover the drive from another machine.
- Get a second drive with more free space than the data you are recovering. Never recover onto the device you are recovering from.
- Run PhotoRec, which is free, open source, and carves files out by signature without relying on the index the format replaced. TestDisk, from the same project, can often restore the previous partition structure outright, which brings back filenames and folders too.
- On Windows, Microsoft's own Windows File Recovery is free from the Microsoft Store and works well on this exact scenario.
- Check the recovered files actually open before you reuse or reformat the original device.
Two limits worth knowing. Files carved by signature usually lose their original names and folder structure, because that lived in the index the format replaced. And if the device is an SSD with TRIM active, the drive may already have discarded the data at the flash level within minutes of the format. In that specific case there is nothing for any tool or any lab to find, and anyone who tells you otherwise is guessing with your money.
How recoverable this is
One of the most recoverable situations there is, provided nothing has been written since. A quick format leaves the file content untouched, and a large share of these are resolved by the reader themselves with free software in an afternoon. The two exceptions that genuinely close the door are a full format on Windows 10 or later, which writes zeroes everywhere, and TRIM on an SSD, which discards the data at the flash level. Both are worth knowing before you spend anything.
What moves it, for your device specifically:
- Whether it was a quick format or a full one
- How much has been written to the device since
- Whether wear levelling has already moved fresh writes onto the blocks your files were in
- Whether the original partition structure can be restored, which brings names and folders back with it
We will not give you a percentage for your device, and you should be wary of anyone who does. Nobody can know what is recoverable until the media has been imaged and read. What is above describes this class of failure; your drive gets its own answer after an assessment, in writing, at no cost.
What it costs
from $249
USB sticks and memory cards
Cameras, dashcams, drones, phones. Includes carving for cards that no longer present a filesystem.
What moves a job within its band: capacity, how much of the media is unstable, whether the filesystem is encrypted, and how much of the drive has to be read before the files you need are reachable. You get one fixed figure after the assessment and it does not move afterwards. If we can’t recover what matters to you, there is no recovery fee.
Other faults on a memory card
Next step
Tell us what failed.
Free assessment. Fixed quote before recovery starts. No recovery, no fee. Sydney drop-off or Australia-wide by tracked post.