Data recovery service shows what the inside of a dead Sony XQD memory card looks like

Jan 13, 2020 by John Aldred 2 Comments

Many of us have experienced a memory card failure at some point, and although manufacturers have gotten much better at producing reliable cards, it still occasionally happens. Failure used to be fairly common in the early days of CompactFlash (when their capacity was still measured in MB) and in SD cards, but it’s rare that you hear about it in modern formats like XQD. It does happen, though.

I’ve been following HDD Recovery Services on YouTube for a little while now. I just find it fascinating to see how hard drives and other storage mediums work on the inside, and how they evolve over time. Recently, they received a Sony XQD card that wasn’t reading, and the client needed the data recovered from it. This video shows us what’s inside, and how they get it working again.

The problem with this particular XQD card was essentially a dry solder joint to one of the pins NAND chips that likely hadn’t been aligned properly during manufacture – or the stresses of regular use caused a mechanical failure.

One of the big complaints we all heard (and still hear) about the Nikon Z cameras is that they only have a single card slot. It was defended with the reliability of XQD cards making it a non-issue. Well, this video just goes to show that XQD cards aren’t quite as invincible as many people seem to believe. XQD cards can and do die, whether it’s through user handling error or manufacturing inconsistencies.

Fortunately, though, it looks like there are ways to recover them, depending on what the problem is and a good data recovery service should still be able to pull at least some of your photos and videos back off it. As to what that might cost you, I’ve no idea, but given the appearance of the card in this video after it’s been torn apart and reassembled, you’re at least going to be paying for a new replacement card to pop inside your camera.

Even if you don’t have a horse in the single-vs-dual card slot race, it’s fascinating to watch this XQD card being dismantled and reassembled.

About John Aldred

John Aldred is a photographer with over 20 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter - and occasional beta tester - of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.

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Dave Williams is an accomplished travel photographer, writer, and best-selling author from the UK. He is also a photography educator and published Aurora expert. Dave has traveled extensively in recent years, capturing stunning images from around the world in a modified van. His work has been featured in various publications and he has worked with notable brands such as Skoda, EE, Boeing, Huawei, Microsoft, BMW, Conde Nast, Electronic Arts, Discovery, BBC, The Guardian, ESPN, NBC, and many others.