At Bracknell Data Recovery, we specialise in the expert recovery of data from failed, damaged, or unreadable SD cards, including Sandisk and other leading brands. If your card has stopped working, gets unusually hot, or shows no files when connected, the fault may be due to physical connector damage or internal short-circuiting — both common problems in consumer and professional use.
With over 25 years of experience, we provide fast, professional recovery for both standard SD and microSD formats used in phones, cameras, drones, and tablets.
Common Faults with Sandisk SD Cards
Memory Card Connector Pins Damaged
Bent or worn connector pins can prevent the card from making full electrical contact with a reader or device. This leads to intermittent detection or total failure to mount.
Memory Card Gets Extremely Hot
This is often caused by an internal short-circuit or component-level electrical failure. Continued use may permanently destroy the controller or memory chip.
SD Card Not Detected
A symptom of a failed controller chip or broken traces within the plastic body of the card.
Files Missing or Corrupted
Often due to logical corruption from unsafe removal, formatting errors, or system crashes while writing to the card.
Card Requires Formatting
The file system is unreadable by the host device, possibly due to partition table corruption or low-level NAND faults.
How We Recover Your SD Card Data – Step by Step
1. Initial Evaluation
Our technicians begin by safely examining the SD card:
- Assess external condition of the connector, plastic casing, and surface traces
- Use professional diagnostic readers to test for controller response
- Check for electrical shorts or current draw abnormalities
2. Non-Invasive Data Recovery (Where Possible)
If the card still responds electronically but has logical errors:
- A forensic image of the NAND memory is created using hardware tools
- File system repair is performed on the image to rebuild lost folders or directories (FAT32, exFAT, NTFS or ext-based)
- Damaged or partially deleted files are recovered using signature-based carving and metadata mapping
3. Physical Recovery – Connector or Circuit Repair
If connector pins are damaged or there is an electrical short:
- The SD card is opened under microscope
- Damaged pins are rebuilt or rebonded using micro-soldering tools
- Shorted components (capacitors, resistors) are diagnosed and safely bypassed
- In cases of controller failure, we attempt chip-off recovery
4. Chip-Off Recovery (Advanced Cases)
When the SD card is completely dead:
- The NAND flash memory chip is desoldered from the card
- It is cleaned, remounted, and read using a dedicated NAND reader
- Proprietary translation algorithms reconstruct the original data layout from raw memory
- Files are then extracted from the reassembled virtual image
Supported Devices and Card Types
We recover data from all SD card formats, including:
- Standard SD, SDHC, and SDXC
- microSD, microSDHC, and microSDXC
- UHS-I, UHS-II, and high-speed V-rated cards
- SD cards used in phones, DSLR cameras, drones, tablets, CCTV systems, dash cams, and Raspberry Pi devices
Supported Brands
While this page focuses on Sandisk, we also recover from:
- Kingston
- Lexar
- Samsung
- PNY
- Transcend
- Toshiba
- Integral
- Sony
- Verbatim
- Generic/Unbranded memory cards
Why Choose Bracknell Data Recovery?
- 25+ Years of Specialist Flash Memory Recovery
- Expert Repair of Physically Damaged SD Cards
- Chip-Off Recovery for Dead or Burnt Cards
- Non-Destructive Tools Used on All Devices
- Cleanroom Laboratory for Precision Micro-Soldering
- Fully GDPR-Compliant and Confidential Handling
Whether you’ve lost personal photos, business documents, or mission-critical drone footage, our data recovery SD card service gives you the best chance of full file restoration.
Contact Us Today for a Free Diagnostic
If your SD card is overheating, not recognised, or physically damaged, stop using it immediately. Contact Bracknell Data Recovery today and let our engineers recover your data with care and precision.