Instagram, Facebook, Twitter… there are just so many social media apps to keep up with. Add in productivity and gaming apps, and soon that generous internal storage of your phone seems like nothing.
But that’s not a problem, your friends tell you. Just format your SD card as internal storage, and you are golden! Except all data previously held on the card has now vanished. You try slotting it into a card reader and using your PC, but it cannot access the memory either.
Not by itself, at least.
Table of Contents
What does Format as Internal Mean?
Before we delve into the specifics of recovering data from an SD card formatted as internal storage, let us try to understand what that even means.
First up, simply using an SD card with your mobile is not a problem. Micro SD cards have been used to extend the storage on mobile phones for a long time, and they could be used with computers just fine.
Cards used this way are classified as external storage. This means they can be used to store files and photos, but not applications themselves. Apps are still installed to the built-in internal storage of the phone, which cannot be migrated to external SD cards.
What is Adoptable Storage
Starting from Android 6.0 Marshmallow, users got the option to ‘adopt’ an SD card as internal storage. What this meant was that the card would be treated as an addition to the phone’s own memory, and used to store installed apps and system information.
This is a great feature for anyone struggling with the weight of too many apps, as it lets you upgrade your phone’s internal memory without having to get a whole new device. However, this leads to a small problem.
In order to integrate the SD card with the internal storage, the OS formats the card with a different file system and encrypts it. As a result, the existing data on the card gets wiped out, and the new card becomes inaccessible to other devices.
How to Format SD Card as Internal Storage
Formatting an SD card as internal storage is simple. As soon as you insert a new SD card into your phone, you will be prompted on how to set it up.
Just tap the Use as internal storage option, and the OS will set up everything for you. You can start using the storage immediately.
How to Recover Data from SD Card Formatted as Internal Storage
The only reliable method of recovering data from a formatted SD card is a data recovery tool. It doesn’t matter whether it was formatted as internal storage or just plain old formatting; data recovery software will do the heavy lifting for you.
Connecting the SD card to your computer
To start, you must first make the SD card storage available to your computer. In most laptops and PCs, this is simply a question of slotting in the card into its built-in card reader.
In case your computer lacks a card reader by default, you can always use an external one to bridge the gap. Put your card into the reader and connect it using any USB slot, like a Pendrive.
You must be wondering why can’t you just connect your Android phone to the computer directly.
Well, technically, you can, but Windows cannot access your phone’s storage that way. Only a Mac can do so, and only after you root your phone. Using a card reader is thus the best option.
Using Disk Drill to recover data from SD card formatted as internal
- To start, download the installation file from the official site and fire it up. You can choose an install location from Options or proceed with the setup by clicking on the Install button.
- Once the installation is complete, run the program. The main window of Disk Drill shows every connected storage dives along with their sizes. Choose the one belonging to your SD card and click on Search for lost data.
- Disk Drill will now scan your SD card, displaying the results clearly segregated by file type. You can Review found items to see if the files you wanted to retrieve have already been discovered.
- If you find a file you want to recover, just select it and click on the Recover button.
FAQ
chkdsk E: /F /R /XWhere E is the drive letter of your SD card, the scan will proceed automatically, rooting out any disk errors and fixing what it can.
Conclusion
Using an SD card as internal storage is a great way to increase the capacity of your phone’s memory. But in case you forgot to back up your files before formatting, you need to find a way to get that data back.
Thankfully, data recovery software like Disk Drill is equipped with the capability to recover files from formatted cards without any issue. All you need is to connect your SD card to your computer and let the application do its magic.
Unless the files have been overwritten with new data, you should be able to retrieve everything in one piece.
