Devices · SD & camera cards
Cards fail at the least convenient moment: midway through a trip, or during the very transfer intended to produce a second copy. Card jobs are among the most frequent that Maidenhead customers send in, and a blank, locked or unreadable card posted in from Maidenhead usually returns nearly everything, provided nobody formats it first.
Describe the fault to an engineer
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| The symptom | The likely cause | Start here |
|---|---|---|
| Canon: Cannot access the memory card / Memory card error | The camera can no longer read the file system | Take the card out and stop |
| Canon DSLR: Card cannot be accessed. Reinsert/change the card | Dirty contacts, or a controller beginning to fail | Resist the format prompt |
| Nikon: This memory card cannot be used. Insert another card | Corrupted, or simply not recognised | Avoid the in-camera format |
| Card locked / Card is write-protected | Either the small slider on the side, or a controller locking itself as it dies | Slider already up? The card is at fault |
| You need to format the disk in drive X: | Windows sees RAW, not a file system; the images below are intact | Turn the offer down |
| No memory card — with one plainly inserted | A dead controller, or dead contact pads | Chip level from this point |
Nothing becomes chargeable until you have said yes to it. Each item takes a case number of its own the moment it arrives, an engineer establishes what has actually failed, and you are given a candid view of which files stand a realistic chance of returning. The single quote that follows is fixed, written down, and costs nothing.
A clone is taken bit for bit before anything else. The card itself then rests in its sleeve, and nothing we run afterwards touches it again.
Repairs are done on the clone. Where the file tables can be restored, folder names return with them; where they cannot, each frame is lifted by header signature, RAW as much as JPEG.
A file count demonstrates nothing. The recovered shoot is opened frame by frame and each image checked to display whole, at its proper size.
Nothing is billed until you have seen the recovered file list in full and told us to go ahead. What comes back arrives on new media, with the return journey at our cost, and the case stays open at this end until you have opened every file yourself.
The figure that does not exist: nobody has reliably measured what proportion of cards on sale are counterfeit. Laboratories and manufacturers both call the problem widespread, fakes arrive here often enough, and any precise percentage you come across was made up by the person publishing it. One point survives all of that: whatever was written past a counterfeit's real capacity lies beyond any laboratory's reach.
By breakfast the 512GB SanDisk that had carried a whole wedding the night before was reading as empty. A clone came first; the file system was then rebuilt on that copy, and a deep carve gathered up whatever had been orphaned. Every frame came back, and the photographer kept the client.
No. A format writes new file tables directly across the records we would otherwise use to reconstruct your folder names and filenames. Leave it untouched and more comes back, better organised.
Yes. NEF, CR3, DNG, ARW and RAF each carry a header signature that carving can key on, and video files behave the same way. A good share of the cards booked in come from professionals.
Often not. A monolith card holds everything in one die, so if the break missed it, chip-level reading still applies. The card itself is finished regardless.
Cards are the quickest work we take on: two to three working days suits the majority, and shorter where a deadline is pressing. Tell us the date you are working to and we will hold to it.
Each further power-up asks more of a drive that has already begun to fail. Open the case first and let the free diagnosis tell you what is left.