How to Recover Formatted Hard Drive/SD Card/USB Data Using CMD

How can I recover a formatted SD card using command prompt?

"Hi there, I got my SD memory card formatted by accident, and now I need a free way to get my formatted memory card data back. Do you know how to use CMD to recover files from formatted  SD card? Thanks!" 

It's no longer a new problem for users to lose files and data while formatting a hard drive, SD memory card, USB, or other storage devices. When coming across this problem, you have two free methods to recover formatted data from hard drive/SD memory card/USB.

Now, follow the depth details given below to recover deleted files from formatted storage devices effectively. 

How to Recover a Formatted Hard Drive/SD Card/USB Using CMD

Mostly, when you delete, hide or format a storage device like USB, SD card, or hard drive with data, CMD (Command Prompt) command line will give you a chance to find lost data.

1. Connect your Hard disk/SD card/USB with the system. Right-click on the Windows icon and select "Search".

2. Type: command prompt and right-click on Command Prompt, select "Run as administrator". Click "Yes" to run Command Prompt as administrator.

3. Type: chkdsk F: /f  in Command Prompt and hit Enter. (Replace F: with the drive letter of the device where you lost files or data.)

4. Type: Y and hit Enter to continue.

5. Type: F and hit Enter again.
Type: F:\>attrib -h -r -s /s /d *.* and hit Enter. (Replace F with the drive letter of the device where you lost files or data.)

After this, your lost files will all be found and saved in a newly created folder on SD memory card, USB drive, or hard drive. You can change the file extension back to a normal format and then make those found files reusable again. If this method is unsuccessful, continue using CMD alternative recommended below to help you out and undo the format on your storage device on Windows 10/8/7.

How to Recover a Formatted Hard Drive/SD Card/USB with Data Recovery Tool

EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is a perfect CMD alternative format recovery software that is developed to recover & restore lost data from the formatted hard drive in a simple and fast way. Except for the formatted recovery, the powerful data recovery software also can recover deleted files, lost partition, corrupted hard disk, raw partition, and more. 

Note: To guarantee a high data recovery chance, install EaseUS data recovery software on another disk instead of the formatted disk. 

Step 1. Launch EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard. Choose the hard drive partition which you've accidentally formatted and click "Scan".

Step 2. This formatted hard drive recovery software will start scanning for all the lost data and files. After scanning, you can click "Filter" to filter a specific file type to quickly find files you need. Or click Search files or folders to select data that you want to recover.

Step 3. Preview the scanned files. Then, select the ones that you wish to recover and click "Recover". Choose a new location to store the files and click "OK".

Bonus Tip: Format Hard Drive/SD Memory card/USB to Use Again

After restoring data from formatted or unformatted SD memory card, USB, or hard drive, formatting the storage device to workable (NTFS or FAT32, etc.) again is also necessary:

1. 1. Connect the formatted or unformatted storage devices to your PC.
2. 2. Open This PC or My computer, right-click your device, and select "Format".
3. 3. Reset the system file to NTFS or FAT32 to make them usable again.

You can also apply the Disk Management tool on Windows PC to format and reset the formatted storage devices. After this, you can reuse the memory card or USB hard drive to save and store data again.