Get your deleted photos back.

sdrescue recovers deleted photos, videos and audio from SD cards formatted with FAT12, FAT16 or FAT32, the format used by most cameras, phones, dashcams and recorders. It's one small program: no installer, no adware, no account, no network access.

Download for Windows All downloads (v1.0.0)

Free and open source (MIT or Apache-2.0). Windows 10/11 and Linux.

⚠️ Before you start

Stop using the card now. Don't take new photos and don't copy anything onto it. Every new file can overwrite the ones you want back.
Don't let Windows "scan and fix" it. If Windows offers to scan, repair or format the card, click Cancel.
Never save recovered files to the card. Save them to your PC's drive. sdrescue refuses to write onto the card it reads.
Make an image first. Copy the whole card to a file once, then work on that copy. It's gentler on a failing card and you can retry as often as you like.

Download

File	For
`sdrescue.exe`	Windows 10/11 (64-bit), standalone, about 1.5 MB
`sdrescue-linux-x86_64`	Linux x86-64 (glibc 2.34 or newer)
`SHA256SUMS.txt`	Checksums to verify your download

The Windows program isn't code-signed, so SmartScreen may say "Windows protected your PC". Click More info → Run anyway. You can check the file with certutil -hashfile sdrescue.exe SHA256 and compare it with SHA256SUMS.txt, or build it yourself from the source code.

Quick start (Windows)

Open an admin terminal

Click Start, type terminal, right-click Terminal and choose Run as administrator. Go to the folder where you saved sdrescue.exe:
```
cd C:\Users\<you>\Downloads
```
Find your card
```
sdrescue disks
```
Look for the removable drive with the size of your card, and note the physical drive next to it, for example \\.\PhysicalDrive2.
Copy the card into an image
```
sdrescue image \\.\PhysicalDrive2 card.img
```
This reads the whole card once (about a minute per GB). Afterwards, take the card out and keep it safe.
See what can be recovered
```
sdrescue list card.img
```
good files will most likely come back intact, partial ones may be damaged, overwritten ones are probably lost.

Undelete with names and folders

sdrescue undelete card.img --out recovered

Carve for everything else
```
sdrescue carve card.img --out carved
```
Finds files by their content, even after the card was formatted. Files get generic names like carved\jpg\f000123456.jpg.

Features

Safe by design

The card is opened read-only. Analysis commands refuse to run directly on a card unless you insist with --force. Output is never written to the source card, and existing files are never overwritten.

Careful imaging

Byte-for-byte copy with sector-by-sector retries. Unreadable sectors are filled with zeros and logged. You get a SHA-256 hash, a progress bar with time left, and --resume if the copy is interrupted.

Real names and folders

Deleted files are found in the FAT directories, including deleted folders. Long file names are rebuilt, and the lost first letter is recovered from the long-name checksum. Dates are restored.

Honest status

Each file is marked good, partial or overwritten, and its first bytes are checked against the expected file signature. You know what to expect before recovering.

Works after a format

Carving finds JPEG, PNG, GIF, HEIC, TIFF/CR2, MP4/MOV, AVI, MTS, WMV, MP3, WAV, M4A, OGG/Opus, FLAC and AMR by their content, in free space only by default.

Rebuilds broken AVI videos

Cameras and dashcams often lose a video's header when the card is reformatted and new photos are taken. sdrescue finds the surviving frames and rebuilds a playable AVI.

FAQ

Why does it need administrator rights?

Reading a whole card byte for byte (disks, image) requires raw disk access, which Windows only allows administrators. The other commands work on the image file and don't need it.

My card is exFAT (64 GB or larger). Does it work?

list and undelete only understand FAT12/16/32. On exFAT and NTFS cards, use carve, which doesn't need the filesystem.

A recovered photo is half grey, or a video stops partway.

Either that part of the file was overwritten by newer files, or the file was stored in pieces (fragmented). FAT forgets where the pieces were when a file is deleted. Recovery assumes files are stored in one piece, which is usually true on camera cards but not always.

A recovered MP4/MOV video won't play.

Its index (the moov box) is probably missing because the recording was interrupted. The carve report says so. Tools like untrunc can repair it using a working video from the same camera.

Does sdrescue send my data anywhere?

No. It has no network code at all. Everything stays on your computer.

Where is the full documentation?

See the usage guide, how it works and troubleshooting on GitHub.

Open source, no warranty

sdrescue is an open-source project, developed in the open on GitHub and licensed under your choice of the MIT or Apache 2.0 license. It is free to use, study, modify and share.

It is provided "as is", without warranty of any kind, express or implied. The authors and contributors accept no liability whatsoever for any damage, data loss, or other consequences arising from its use. You run it at your own risk. Data recovery is never guaranteed. If your files are irreplaceable or the card is physically damaged, consider a professional data recovery service before trying anything yourself.