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Unformat Compact Flash CF Card

Have your compact flash card ever needed to be formatted before you can use it? For example, the CF card can not be opened but shows unformat and need to be formatted before normal using when connected to the computer or PC. If you happen to meet such unformatted problem and there are many useful files saved on the compact flash card, what would you do? Anxiousness can not deal with anything. Those files which seem lost could be retrieved by data recovery software.

Case of compact flash card showing unformat problem

My compact flash card not works normally those days without any presage. I could not open it but prompted to format the CF card before I can use it about two days ago. And it can not work after that day and the system shows the same unformat message when I try to view the information saved on the compact flash card. Some pictures on the compact flash card are very precious and valuable for me and I am the last one who wants to lose them. What should I do to the unformatted compact flash card card? Help me, please. -Lily from LA

How to retrieve information from compact flash card which is not formatted with data recovery software

It is not a big problem that compact flash card shows unformat information, because files like pictures saved on it also could be restored and become accessible. Then what is the way? Actually, those lost information could be retrieved by data recovery software within a few minute only. Here are its steps as follows:

Recover data from CF card

Preparation: Download and install data recovery software on your computer. Then, connect the CF card to the computer and run the software. Finally, you can select a proper recovery module.

1Download and install the data recovery software on the computer.
2Plug the unformatted compact flash card into the same computer by connecting it to a card reader first.
3Open the data restoration tool and choose the recovery model and then select the aim disk to scan.
4 Preview the contents in the list after the scan and choose the files need to be retrieved to recover.

Different cases of compact flash card formatting trouble

An unformatted compact flash card is just one case of CF card formatting trouble, which could cause the information saved on the compact flash card lost due to formatting. Whether the compact flash card is formatted or need to be formatted, data on it is inaccessible. So we should try to avoid such formatting trouble. Here are some common compact flash cards formatting problems as follows:

1. The compact flash card is formatted by mistake. Sometimes the CF card may be formatted accidentally. For instance, we may choose the compact flash card and click on the format or format all button when intend to format other disk. Consequently, the compact flash card is formatted and files and folders saved on it are lost. We may also press on the format button to compact flash card when try to perform other operation on it, such as delete some files on ot or rename them, and so forth.

2. The compact flash card is formatted by intention. Though the compact flash card is formatted intentionally, files saved on it also will be lost if they have not been removed. The compact flash card is formatted may because anti-virus or deletes all information on it or other various reasons. So it is important to shift the useful files to other disks or backup them usually in case of losing data due to formatting action.

3. The compact flash card shows unformat troubleand changes to RAW file system. You have to format the disk in drive O before you can use it. Do you want to format it now? Your compact flash card is unformatted if you see information above when insert the CF card to the computer and try to access its data. On this condition, it is not the best way to format the problematic compact flash card at once if you still want to use files on it. The better way is to let data recovery tool get back those files and then format the CF card.

4. Other similar d compact flash card formatting problems.

Brief introduction to CF card

CF card, whose full name is compact flash card, is a kind of memory card. It is easy to carry and could save and read information quickly. At first, it is mainly used to camera. But now it is widely supported to connect to other digital devices, such as computers and so on. There are two kinds of compact flash card from its appearance, CF I and CF II. What's more, there are three types of compact flash card from its speed, CF card, CF 2.0 and CF 3.0.

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