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Copying Files from Old SD Card to PC

R

Ronald Argento

Lurker
Hello, friends . . .

I recently lost my phone after I had it serviced. Luckily, I've taken out the SDXC card from it before I brought it to the service center.

Now I want to use it to my new phone, but I want to copy those files to my laptop, but it seems that I can't get a single file out of the memory card.

How could I copy those files out of the card? Is there something I do wrong?

Please advise, and thank you very much.
 
Was the card encrypted? If so you are out of luck.

If it was formatted as internal storage then you are doubly out of luck, as it will be encrypted and formatted with a filesystem that Windows can't read.

If it isn't encrypted then is there anything else you can tell us, e.g. did you use the phone to format it, what filesystem? You could try a different computer or operating system (make a live USB from a Linux distro like Mint or Ubuntu, use that to boot your PC and see whether you have more luck reading it using Linux).

But if it's encrypted you may as well just reformat it now, as there's nothing you can do.
 
Hadron said:
Was the card encrypted? If so you are out of luck.

If it was formatted as internal storage then you are doubly out of luck, as it will be encrypted and formatted with a filesystem that Windows can't read.

If it isn't encrypted then is there anything else you can tell us, e.g. did you use the phone to format it, what filesystem? You could try a different computer or operating system (make a live USB from a Linux distro like Mint or Ubuntu, use that to boot your PC and see whether you have more luck reading it using Linux).

But if it's encrypted you may as well just reformat it now, as there's nothing you can do.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure if I initially formatted it using the phone's system or not, but most probably yes because IIRC the phone asked to prepare it for use. It might involve formatting it.

Here's the thing, though . . . when I use an adapter to plug it into my laptop, I can see the files and move them around. I gather all pictures in multiple folders into one folder, the same thing with video files. But when I copy the two folders out to a folder on my laptop, the process takes a very long time, and it finally fails. I can't copy the folders out, let alone move it.
 
Ronald Argento said:
I'm not sure if I initially formatted it using the phone's system or not, but most probably yes because IIRC the phone asked to prepare it for use. It might involve formatting it.

Here's the thing, though . . . when I use an adapter to plug it into my laptop, I can see the files and move them around. I gather all pictures in multiple folders into one folder, the same thing with video files. But when I copy the two folders out to a folder on my laptop, the process takes a very long time, and it finally fails. I can't copy the folders out, let alone move it.
Click to expand...
Try copying the individual folders one at a time, not the two folders full of other folders all at once.
 
What phone model did you have and which version of Android was it running?
What operating system is your computer running? Linux, Mac, Windows?
 
Ronald Argento said:
when I use an adapter to plug it into my laptop, I can see the files and move them around.
Click to expand...
This is good news--very good news. :)

The problem you're having when copying to your laptop may simply be a matter of the directories being very large. You've indicated that photos are involved--photo directories can be quite big.

Can you give us an idea of how the card's file system is arranged? Specifically the parts you want to copy. Are there many subdirectories? A lot of us organize photos by subject, each in its own subdirectory. So, for example, it could look like:

/sdcard/DCIM/Camera/countries/France/Paris
/sdcard/DCIM/Camera/countries/France/Avignon

And so on. If you're dealing with multi-level deep directories, each filled with a lot of photos, it could take awhile to transfer them. But 'awhile' shouldn't mean hours. On a Linux laptop, this takes me a few minutes.
 
Since I reckon you're on windows, this sounds like a job for CMD prompt. This is less likely to fail than a GUI. If it does fail, there should be some type of output providing a clue to what's wrong. For example, if it says "permission denied", then you know there's some type of password protection.
 
Telyx said:
Try copying the individual folders one at a time, not the two folders full of other folders all at once.
Click to expand...

Dannydet said:
Rather than copying the folders just copy the files then create the folder on pc
Click to expand...

MoodyBlues said:
This is good news--very good news. :)

The problem you're having when copying to your laptop may simply be a matter of the directories being very large. You've indicated that photos are involved--photo directories can be quite big.

Can you give us an idea of how the card's file system is arranged? Specifically the parts you want to copy. Are there many subdirectories? A lot of us organize photos by subject, each in its own subdirectory. So, for example, it could look like:

/sdcard/DCIM/Camera/countries/France/Paris
/sdcard/DCIM/Camera/countries/France/Avignon

And so on. If you're dealing with multi-level deep directories, each filled with a lot of photos, it could take awhile to transfer them. But 'awhile' shouldn't mean hours. On a Linux laptop, this takes me a few minutes.
Click to expand...

There were many folders, actually, so I search all pictures and gather them up into one folder in root, in the SD card. Same thing with the videos. But, I just couldn't get it out of the SD card, even when I do it on a single file.

svim said:
What phone model did you have and which version of Android was it running?
What operating system is your computer running? Linux, Mac, Windows?
Click to expand...

It was a Nokia 8, and I set it to automatically update. I'm not sure what version, though, since I don't have it anymore.

GameTheory said:
Since I reckon you're on windows, this sounds like a job for CMD prompt. This is less likely to fail than a GUI. If it does fail, there should be some type of output providing a clue to what's wrong. For example, if it says "permission denied", then you know there's some type of password protection.
Click to expand...

I'm trying it and it begins to copy. Some files, however, have "Data error (cyclic redundancy check)" notes. So I think this is the main reason why I can't do it on GUI. Thanks for the suggestion, friend.
 
MoodyBlues said:
A quick search suggests that the problem may actually lie with your computer's hard drive. This article may be helpful, as is this one.
Click to expand...
Oh no.

I have to make sure if I understand this correctly: I'm trying to copy files from the SDXC card to my laptop (I have SSD, I've moved on from the ol' harddisk days), and I'm getting a CRC error. And this might be an error on my laptop's drive instead of the SDXC?

I have two laptops, and the other one has a relatively new SSD installed. I get same problem on both laptops.
 
Ronald Argento said:
Oh no.

I have to make sure if I understand this correctly: I'm trying to copy files from the SDXC card to my laptop (I have SSD, I've moved on from the ol' harddisk days), and I'm getting a CRC error. And this might be an error on my laptop's drive instead of the SDXC?

I have two laptops, and the other one has a relatively new SSD installed. I get same problem on both laptops.
Click to expand...

It's not your SSD giving the cyclic error. It's the SD card giving that error. There's corrupt data on the SD preventing the copy of files. Apply the instructions in the second link to the SD card. They list a few methods.

You can also do a google search for "cyclic redundancy check" which comes up with much info and possible solutions on this matter.
 
Yeah, the odds are very unlikely for that CRC error to be with both your laptops, probably the issue is with the common point, your SDXC card. If one or both are running Windows, try running CHDSK /R on the card and see if that can repair it enough to copy off the data.
 
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