SD card formatted by accident - everything lost

[Sofiele]

Hi,

So I had all photos, videos, music and everything on my SD card. Yesterday my S9 then asked me to format the SD card as it was unable to read it. I thought nothing further of it - I thought it would just fix a connectivity issue or something.

So I  formatted the card - and this deletes everything on it - was not totally aware of this 😞 

So now I have lost all photos/videos and other data I have generated these past 2-3 months. So, the summer is gone (visually anyway). I am heartbroken!!!

I have tried to recover the files from the SD card via different softwares (Disk Drill and Recuva), but they find nothing on there. Is there another way? Does the phone overwrite the SD card at the same time as it formats, not just deleting files but also making sure nothing can be recovered?

HELP!?

[AndrewL]

@Sofiele: Sorry to hear that you have experienced this issue. Formatting does erase any existing content on the SD card, and sadly it won't be possible to recover the data following this process. If you enable Wi-Fi and head to Apps > Google (folder) > Photos, you may find an archive of your images and videos here if you have your Google account set up to do so. 

[Juli3n]

I don't believe formatting actually erase the data on the SD card, but it simply erase the table of contents and mark the card 'empty' (well at least for 'normal' quick formatting, if you'd done a full formatting, data would need to be written all over the SD card, and this would take some time). As soon as this happens though, new data can be written where old data was, so it's best to remove the card and stop using it. I would suggest using a PC/laptop recovery tool and scan for any files. I've successfully recovered data in the past via this method.

[Juli3n]

As AndrewL suggested, you should also probably start backing up your photos and videos via Google Photos (plenty more apps out there as well), you can backup unlimited photos and videos (albeit not at full res but big enough).