Two micro SD cards arrived together with different faults. The first reads, but two video files on it will not open. The second is not readable at all. Free software had been run over both and had produced a list of files that could not actually be used. Cards are cheap and they fail in unrelated ways, so two cards in one envelope is two jobs, not one. The first is a file-level or filing-structure fault, where the video is present but its container is damaged. The second is a controller or structure failure, where the card cannot present itself at all. And the software result is worth explaining, because it is the commonest false hope in this trade: a tool that lists filenames it cannot open has usually found index entries whose data it never successfully read.
| Media | Two micro SD cards. Card one readable with two .mov files that will not open. Card two not readable by any device. Free software had produced unusable results. |
| Reported situation | Two micro SD cards · card one readable but two .mov files will not open · card two not readable at all · free software found files that could not be used · recovery sought. |
| Fault class | Two unrelated faults handled separately. Card one is a file-level or filesystem fault with the video present but damaged. Card two is a controller or structure failure preventing it presenting. Both are recovered from read-only images, with chip-level reading where a controller has failed. Writing to either card is the risk. |
| Equipment used | Each card read through a hardware write-blocker, so that nothing at all could be written · card one imaged read-only, the .mov containers repaired or the video streams re-carved from the image by content · card two examined under the microscope at magnification and read past its controller at chip level, contacts lifted off with hot air and read on a dedicated flash programmer where required · data carved in PhotoRec, every clip played back before it counted, then written to fresh media. |
Deal with the software result first, because it shapes expectations. Free recovery tools scan for index entries and file signatures and list what they find. Listing is easy. Reading the data behind the listing is the hard part, and where a card is failing or a structure is damaged the tool frequently produces a long, encouraging list of filenames that open into nothing. That is not a bug. It is the tool reporting what it can see rather than what it can retrieve.
Card one has a file-level problem. A video file is a container with an index at one end describing the frames inside it, and if the recording was interrupted — battery out, card pulled, camera switched off mid-write — that index never got finalised. The frames are on the card; the wrapper describing them is incomplete. Repairing the container, or re-carving the stream by content and rebuilding a valid wrapper around it, is the route.
Card two is a device-level problem. It is not presenting itself, which means either the controller has failed or the structure it depends on has been damaged. Where the controller is dead, the memory is read directly past it, which means lifting contacts under hot air on a dedicated flash programmer and reconstructing the controller's own translation to get the bits back in the right order.
Both are worked from read-only images and nothing is ever written back to either card. Card one, being logical work, runs under no fix, no fee. Card two involves a physical, destructive stage and is priced accordingly, with half the figure due before that work. One free assessment covers both and produces a figure for each.
Both cards were read behind a hardware write-blocker so that nothing could be written to either. Card one was imaged read-only and the work happened on the image: the .mov containers were examined, the damaged indexes rebuilt where enough survived, and the video streams re-carved by content and rewrapped where they did not. Card two was examined under the microscope at magnification, and the memory read at chip level, bypassing the failed controller, with contacts lifted off with hot air and read on a dedicated flash programmer where the board would not cooperate. The raw data was descrambled, the translation reconstructed, and the files carved in PhotoRec. Every clip was played back before it counted as recovered.
Each card handled on its own terms and the data brought back onto fresh media. Assessment free and covering both, with one fixed written figure per card before any work began. Card one was logical work and ran under no fix, no fee. Card two involved a destructive chip-level stage, so half its figure fell due before that work with the balance owed only on the result — and the owner was told plainly that the card would not survive the process, which is the honest trade for getting the contents back. The note that went with the results was about the software: a list of filenames is not a recovery, and it never was.
Treat them separately and stop running tools at either. A card that lists files it cannot open is telling you the data behind the index was never read, and running the scan a second time will not change that — it just keeps a possibly failing card working. Take both out of any camera or phone and leave them out. Do not format either, do not let a device repair them, and do not shoot another frame on the one that still reads. Send them together in a small padded envelope with a note saying which is which and what each was used for, because a card's history genuinely narrows down where to look. Two cards is two quotes, and the assessment still costs nothing.
Each file below comes from a genuine enquiry taken from households and firms across Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire and the wider north-east, anonymised so nobody can be identified. Each one sets out how the fault was reasoned through, what was done about it, and which equipment did the work.
Assessment is free and takes 2 working days at most once it lands, the figure is fixed in writing, and logical work carries no fix no fee. Begin online, or lift the phone.