My Windows laptop asks me to format my micro SD card (read via a micro SD-to-SD adapter) before using it further. The card contains only photos from a camera, and I’d like to recover them before doing anything else.
I’ve read that the safest approach is to first create a disk image of the micro SD card before attempting any recovery. Tools like dd or ddrescue are frequently recommended for this purpose. However, many tutorials involve:
Booting into a USB system like Rescuezilla, or
Using Linux to run ddrescue (e.g., GNU ddrescue).
Since I’m just trying to recover files from a corrupted micro SD card — not back up an entire OS — I’m wondering:
How do I safely create a full image of a corrupted micro SD card, without needing to boot from a USB or use Linux? If this requires third party software, I would require it to be freeware or free to use on a trial basis.
I don’t mind using the command line as long as it runs on Windows.
Please note that my question concerns creating an image of the micro SD card, not the recovery process itself. I want to image the micro SD card first to minimize wear and tear before attempting any data recovery.
