# Preparing SD card/SD card removed error



## metaletty (Oct 23, 2019)

Hi guys.
I’m having a problem with my SD card. Notifications of “Preparing SD card” and “SD card removed” keep popping up repeatedly (milliseconds apart) and all my data has disappeared. I have a Samsung Galaxy A3 and a 32GB Samsung Evo+ Micro SDHC Class 10 memory card, which I’ve had for about 2 years now. No physical damage to the SD card, looks brand new as I haven’t touched it since putting it into my phone. I’ve turned my phone off and on, rebooted it, restarted it, dusted the card, inserted it into a different phone but the same thing happens. I’ve also tried connecting my phone to a laptop to view folders on the card but it only picks up the phone’s internal memory, if I try to connect the card directly to the laptop with an adapter I get an error saying “Please insert disk into a Secure Digital storage device”. I’m not the most tech savvy person so I have no idea how to access the card at this point. Almost every forum I’ve searched says to format the card, but I couldn’t care less about the card itself. I have 10 years’ worth of files on it that I need to get access to. I just want to copy the info elsewhere and scrap this card. Lord knows I’m gonna make 50 copies of everything after this. Any help to access the info on the card would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.


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## Stancestans (Apr 26, 2009)

Sounds like the card is dying. Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do to salvage the data on it. Prohibitively expensive professional data recovery services probably can recover the data IF the flash media inside is still functional, but if it's not, then your goose is cooked, sorry. Recovery software won't be able to do anything either if the device is physically faulty and won't even sustain a connection with the computer.


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## bassfisher6522 (Jul 22, 2012)

Since this is an Android device that uses Google....do you have your phone backup setup?


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## metaletty (Oct 23, 2019)

Stancestans said:


> Sounds like the card is dying. Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do to salvage the data on it. Prohibitively expensive professional data recovery services probably can recover the data IF the flash media inside is still functional, but if it's not, then your goose is cooked, sorry. Recovery software won't be able to do anything either if the device is physically faulty and won't even sustain a connection with the computer.


I eventually took the card to in to have the data recovered professionally. They did have some luck and are still in the process of recovering the rest:smile: The fault was actually the result of a power surge that occurred while my phone was charging.


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## metaletty (Oct 23, 2019)

Stancestans said:


> Sounds like the card is dying. Unfortunately, there isn't much you can do to salvage the data on it. Prohibitively expensive professional data recovery services probably can recover the data IF the flash media inside is still functional, but if it's not, then your goose is cooked, sorry. Recovery software won't be able to do anything either if the device is physically faulty and won't even sustain a connection with the computer.





bassfisher6522 said:


> Since this is an Android device that uses Google....do you have your phone backup setup?


Unfortunately I did not have my phone backup set up :facepalm: - But thanks for the tip, I'm delayed in doing so but I did get a new phone and I have set it up now.


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## steve32mids (Jun 27, 2012)

I would have tried a free sd data recovery first.


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## metaletty (Oct 23, 2019)

steve32mids said:


> I would have tried a free sd data recovery first.


Ah, I did - sadly to no avail. Just hours of wasted processing and false hope.


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