What to Do When Camera SD Memory Card is Corrupted?

While I was reading this awesome post by Camera Repair and camera across a user asking this question:

"Some of the photos on my SD card are corrupted. My Fujifilm camera did not have any options for formatting except to erase everything, so I tried connecting my memory card to my PC and formatting it, but it wouldn't let me, saying it 'cannot formt the drive'! I've closed all my programmes, but it won't work. Please help!" - zoey

Here's CR's Answer:
 
Wanted to make sure that the first thing that you have tried to do, is to save and back up whatever files/photos that you have on that card onto your computer. If you couldn't do it directly by attaching your camera to your computer, you should use your computer's card reader. If the card reader doesn't recognize your card, and your computer is more than a couple years old, see below about purchasing a USB card reader.

But if all of the above has been tried, then give the computer quick format one more try.

There's two possible causes that may be preventing the quick format. The first is that you may have accidentally placed the tiny write switch on the side of the SD card in the locked position. Could you first check to make sure that it's in the upward "unlocked" position (toward the terminals)?

The second thing I can think of is that the card may be a 4GB or higher SDHC card, and your computer's reader may be too old to recognize SDHC format. Have you ever been able to read this card in that reader before? If this is the first time you've tried to use that reader, and your computer is more than a few years old, chances are that it can only read standard SD cards (2GB or less). In that case, just purchase an inexpensive USB SDHC card reader (they're only a few dollars). Try an Amazon.com search for "USB SDHC card reader".

If an old card reader was the problem, SKIP formatting the card for now, and attempt to recover your photos directly using the USB card reader. After recovering the photos, then format the card in your camera to prevent this from happening again. That option is there, usually in the "Settings" menu, just below the "Reset" option. Just tell me your model, and I'll tell you exactly where you can find it.

Finally, keep in mind that some of these individual corrupted photos once recovered may only be partial photos (bottom part of photo may be cropped off). This is because the write process may have been interrupted or stopped, for whatever reason, preventing saving of the entire file. There's nothing that you can do in that case. But keep in mind that formatting the card (after you've tried to save/backup/recover the files) should prevent this from happening again.

Personal note: it seems this kind of card corruption issue still happen here or there today. Look at these GoPro SD card errors or this Nikon card error, the best tip to avoid data loss from card corruption is to prepare several smaller-size cards instead of one large-size card. Because like any other old technology, memory cards have their own lifespans. Sooner or later, you have to throw them.

Last update: August 5, 2016