Here's the best free CF card recovery and compact flash recovery software for Windows and Mac. Follow the detailed guide and do it yourself to recover CF card easily from deleting, formatting, virus infecting, etc. Just like the name suggests, the IOGEAR USB-C 3-slot card reader can accommodate three different types of cards; SD, microSD, and Compact Flash. No drivers, updates, or software need to be installed to use the IOGEAR USB-C 3-slot card reader, making it easy to use with all your devices at will. $20 at Amazon $25 at Walmart. I took the same Compact Flash card that failed on my Macbook Retina and plugged it into a Macbook Air running Lion. Copy went flawlessly in all cases. It is NOT the card. It is NOT the reader. Mavericks seems to have an issue with compact flash cards. Not SD cards, but the compact flash ones only.
Have you recently got an error message ‘CF card corrupted and unreadable'? Are you looking for a solution, but still didn't get the perfect way to repair corrupt CF card?
What do you think if you can find the effective methods to repair CF card and make your card function normally without affecting any important files stored in it?
If all these questions your answer is ‘yes‘, then you are in the right place. To fix CF card corrupted and unreadable error, you have to just go through this tutorial till the end. Here you will learn the reasons for the CF card corruption issue and apply the fixes on how to fix corrupt CF card and the tips to avoid this issue in the future.
About CF (Compact Flash Card)
But, before proceeding further, let's know more about the CF card. CF (Compact Flash Card) is one of the popular storage device that is used in digital cameras and camcorders to store pictures, videos and audios.
Sometimes, the CF card may corrupt due to several unexpected and unforeseen reasons. But, do not panic! Because this compact flash card corrupted unreadable problem is not that difficult to fix.
Now, it's time to know the possible ways on how to resolvecompact flash card corrupted/unreadable error without any hassle.
How To Fix A Corrupted CF Card?
No matter whatever the reason may responsible for CF card corruption, below you can find out the best fixes to repair corrupt CF cards on both the Windows & Mac OS.
How To Repair Unreadable CF Card In Windows?
Fix # 1: Solve The Error 'CF Card Corrupted And Unreadable' Using CMD
To resolve the error 'compact flash card corrupted or unreadable', by using the CMD option. So, simply follow the steps:
- Firstly, you have to click the Start
- Then, type the 'cmd' in the search box to open Command Prompt.
- Next, type 'format X/P' command, where X is the CF Card drive letter.
- Now, hit the Enter to perform the command.
Fix # 2: Reformat Corrupted & Unreadable CF Card
Reformatting is the best solution to fix any logical damage in the SD card, CF card, memory card, and other storage devices. To do so, you need to just follow the below steps:
- First of all, insert your CF card into the card reader.
- Next, connect a card reader to the system with USB port
- In the window screen, choose the ‘Explore Files'
- After that, navigate up one folder until you can see the drive you just inserted. It should something like drive 'H:'.
- Now, right-click the drive and press the 'Format' option.
- Then, make all the settings are at the default
- At this time, make sure that the 'FAT32' file system is set to format. This is the file system that CF cards require to be navigable by systems.
- Lastly, click on the 'Format' bottom to allow the process to finish.
After following these steps, if your card is still showing an error message 'CF card corrupted and unreadable' then you can try the next solution.
Fix # 3: Connect The CF Card To Another Computer
Sometimes, the devices fail to read your CF card because of incompatibility or any driver-related issues. In such a case, try to connect your compact flash card to another device such as PC, another phone, camera, and more. After doing so, you will be able to access your CF card with ease.
How To Repair Unreadable CF Card In Mac?
Fix # 1: Fix 'CF Card Corrupted And Unreadable' Error By Using The First Aid
Well, First Aid is the most powerful way when it comes to resolving the disk-related issues. So, to fix broken CF card using First-Aid, just follow the below steps:
- Firstly, open the Disk Utility on the system.
- Next, choose the Compact flashcard from the appearing list at the left-sidebar.
- After that, select the 'First Aid' tab that is located at the top of the screen to resolve this error.
If this fix won't work then try the next method for CF card repair.
Fix # 2: Repair CF Card Corrupted And Unreadable Using The Disk Utility
To fix damaged CF card by using Disk Utility, you need to follow the below steps:
Step 1. Firstly choose the Applications by double-clicking on the Macintosh HD
Step 2. After that, go to the Utilities and then choose an option Disk Utilities
Step 3. Next, from the Utilities, select your CF Card
Step 4. Now, select the Erase and then, click on the MS-Dos File System (FAT 16)
Step 5. Lastly, hit the Enter to finish the process
What Reasons Are Responsible For CF Card Corruption?
Well, there could be various reasons for the CF card becoming damaged/corrupt/inaccessible.
Below I have mentioned the most common causes that can lead to a CF card corruption issue:
- File system corruption
- Physical injury to the card
- Bad sectors in the CF card
- Virus or malware in the CF card
- CF card gets corrupt due to power failure
- Due to removing your CF card while transferring the media file process
- When attaching the CF card to the virus-infected system
- Use the same CF card on several devices and operating systems.
Ultimate Solution To Recover Files From Corrupted CF Card
After fixing the error 'CF card corrupted and unreadable', if you ever find that all your essential photos, videos, and audio files get deleted then, you can easily get back deleted data from memory card with the help of the CF Card Recovery Tool.
This tool will help you restore lost data from external storage devices with ease. With the help of CF card recovery tool, you can also:
- Recover deleted all kinds of image file formats
- Get back lost videos file format
- Retrieve deleted or corrupted audio files
- Restore photos & videos from other external storage devices like SD card, microSD card, CF card, memory card, USB flash drive, external hard drive, etc.
- Preview recoverable files within software before you proceed to save them on computer
- Support SD card manufactured by various brands such as SanDisk, Transcend, Lexar, Strontium, Verbatim, HP, Toshiba, Kingston, Apacer, Samsung, Sony, etc
- Read-only program, 100% safe & clean and easy to use.
* Free version of the program only scans and previews recoverable objects.
Steps To Recover Deleted Photos & Videos From Corrupted CF Card
Step 1: Select Desired Location
Firstly, select the drive, external media or volume from which you want to recover deleted media files. After selecting, click on 'Scan'.
Step 2: Preview Recovered Media Files
Next, you can preview the recoverable media files after the scanning process is completed.
Step 3: Recover Media Files
Lastly, you can select the images, audio, video files you want to restore and click on 'Recover' option to save them at the location you want.
Tips To Avoid 'CF Card Corrupted and Unreadable' error
Follow the below essential tips to prevent 'CF card corrupted and unreadable' error in the future.
- Do not add new files when showing a message 'Card is full'
- Instead of deleting single files to empty your CF card, make a habit of formatting it at once
- Eject the CF card in a proper way
- Avoid using the same card on numerous devices
- Always switch off a digital camera before detaching the CF Card
Final Words
Well, if you are getting an error 'CF card corrupted and unreadable' then there are several methods available to repair damaged CF cards. Hence, in the above section of this blog, I have mentioned the easiest and fastest solutions to resolve unreadable CF card that you can try.
Apart from this, if you ever find that your CF card has been corrupted and the stored media files get deleted without your consent then, you can recover deleted files from CF card using the CF Card Data Recovery Tool.
Next, you can preview the recoverable media files after the scanning process is completed.
Step 3: Recover Media Files
Lastly, you can select the images, audio, video files you want to restore and click on 'Recover' option to save them at the location you want.
Tips To Avoid 'CF Card Corrupted and Unreadable' error
Follow the below essential tips to prevent 'CF card corrupted and unreadable' error in the future.
- Do not add new files when showing a message 'Card is full'
- Instead of deleting single files to empty your CF card, make a habit of formatting it at once
- Eject the CF card in a proper way
- Avoid using the same card on numerous devices
- Always switch off a digital camera before detaching the CF Card
Final Words
Well, if you are getting an error 'CF card corrupted and unreadable' then there are several methods available to repair damaged CF cards. Hence, in the above section of this blog, I have mentioned the easiest and fastest solutions to resolve unreadable CF card that you can try.
Apart from this, if you ever find that your CF card has been corrupted and the stored media files get deleted without your consent then, you can recover deleted files from CF card using the CF Card Data Recovery Tool.
Last but not the least, also follow the above-given tips and tricks to avoid further CF card corrupt files issue.
I hope this blog will be helpful to you.
Compact Flash Reader For Macbook Pro
Alex is an expert technical writer with 7+ years of experience. His in-depth knowledge about data recovery and fascination to explore new DIY tools & technologies have helped many. Alex has a great interest in photography and loves to share photography tips and tricks with others.
Over the years, we've covered using a CompactFlash (CF) card with an IDE adapter to replace a laptop's hard drive and make it quieter. As it turns out, there's a lot we didn't know about this subject until recently.
A PC Card adapter, the Addonics adapter, and some CF cards on the PB 1400.
CompactFlash memory cards use a subset of the IDE command set, so making a bootable IDE-44 adapter is pretty trivial – it just links connections on the CF card to the appropriate connector on your IDE plug with no electronics necessary.
Compact Flash Reader
You should be sure you're using a UDMA CF card, as non-UDMA cards are not generally bootable when used with an IDE adapter.
That said, both types of CF cards seem to be bootable when place in a PC Card or CardBus adapter. The native CF bus is identical to the 16-bit PC Card interface, just like the IDE/CF adapters mentioned above. PC Cards use an 8 MHz 16-bit data path (16 MBps), while CardBus has 16 times the bandwidth with a 33 MHz 32-bit data path (133 MBps). If your PowerBook supports CardBus, it is the way to go.
With capacities now reaching 512 GB, CompactFlash is a tempting alternative to a traditional hard drive or SSD, and they have a much higher maximum capacity than the currently popular SD-type cards, not to mention being easier to interface with an IDE bus.
I have heard that while CompactFlash drives may have phenomenally high speed ratings, the minute you put it on an IDE adapter, your maximum transfer rate is the same as Ultra ATA/33. I have also seen IDE-CF adapters that claim to support 150 MBps transfer rates, which is higher than Ultra ATA/133 supports, and that's the fastest parallel ATA protocol so that obviously isn't true.
In brief, if you have a really fast CF card, your Mac's IDE or Ultra ATA data bus will be the limiting factor. If you have a really slow CF card, it will be the bottleneck. Serial experiments lain streaming. Your best bet is to find a card rated as follows:
- IDE (original specification): 3.3 MBps, use at least 22x so CF won't be the bottleneck
- ATA-1: 8.3 MBps, use at least 55x
- ATA-2/EIDE/Fast ATA/Fast IDE/Ultra ATA: 16.7 MBps, use at least 110x
- ATA-3/EIDE: 16.7 MBps, use at least 110x
- Ultra ATA/33: 33.3 MBps, use at least 220x
- Ultra ATA/66: 66.7 MBps, use at least 440x
- Ultra ATA/100: 100 MBps, use at least 660x
- Ultra ATA/133: 133 MBps, use at least 880x
Ratings are just a starting point, and just because a card says its 400x doesn't mean it really is, so do your research, find reviews, and make sure the card you buy is the same as the one in the review. Sometimes the internal components will change without the name changing to reflect the difference.
Also, because write speeds are generally lower than read speeds, you might want to boost those 'x' numbers by 50% for best results. This is a general guideline, though, so there are many exceptions.
Those 'x' Speeds in the Real World
CF cards are speed rated relative to the original CD specification, which is 150 KBps. Thus a 200x CF card should provide 30 MBps performance, 233x should equal 35 MBps speed, and a 266x card should hit 40 MBps. Theoretically, a 233x card would top Ultra ATA/33 speed.
But that's not how things work in the real world. Tom's Hardware has done extensive performance testing of CompactFlash memory cards with a SanDisk USB 3.0 card reader, one of the top-rated CF card readers in its 2014 tests. Testing was done with 1000 MB of data and repeated five times, then averaged. In all, 15 cards from six manufacturers were tested, 9 of them UDMA-7 cards, which allows a maximum throughput of 167 MB/s and equivalent to Ultra ATA/167.
USB 3.0 is not a bottleneck here, as Tom's Hardware benchmarks of USB 3.0 flash drives show sequential read speeds as high as 434.6 MB/s and write speeds of 286.2 – far higher than any CF card. (For the record, USB 2.0 card readers topped out at 62.9 MB/s sequential reads and 40.6 MB/s writes when tested by Tom's in 2011 – still higher than the 33 MB/s ceiling for a CF/IDE adapter.)
In its sequential read tests, Tom's Hardware reports that all the 800x, 1000x, and 1066x cards come in between 151 and 157 MB/s, as does the Transcend CompactFlash 400x, a real surprise considering its official 400x rating. The two 300x cards tested score 45.5 and 46.6 MB/s, and most 600x cards score 86.8-99.6 MB/s, with the Kingston Ultimate 600x exceeding expectations at 126.7 MB/s. The UDMA-7 cards, rated at up to 167 MB/s, consistently outperform UDMA-6 cards, which match ATA/133 and have a peak throughput of 133 MB/s.
Writing to flash memory isn't as simple as writing to a hard drive. The top sequential write speed is 129.2 MB/s, and the worst performer is a 300x Silicon Power card that achieves just 18.9 MB/s – only 42% as fast as the 300x SanDisk Ducati. Then there are 400x and 800x cards with almost the same write speed.
You just can't predict which will write faster based on rated speed or the UDMA rating.
In an ideal world, charting read (vertical) and write (horizontal) performance in a scattergram would create a linear pattern, but as this chart shows, some cards are tops in both read and write speeds, while others are not. Google drive app not syncing.
Sequential read and write performance of CF cards.
On the plus side, all the 1000x and 1066x cards had a measured speed of 122.0 to 129.2 MB/s, so you can count on those for good write speed. In the end, you really need to wade through benchmark results to find out which CF cards have the best balance of read speed, write speed, capacity, and price.
Finally, all bets are off when it comes to random reads and, even more so, writes, which range from a high of 39.8 MB/s to a low of 0.6 MB/s. That worst result comes from the only card to have a higher sequential write speed than read speed.
Then again, it also depends on how you're connecting to the card. If you're using the old reliable IDE adapter, only one of the tested cards had a sequential write speed below 33 MB/s, but only three had a random write speed higher than that – all of them UDMA-7 cards. That said, some UDMA-7 cards were much slower than that.
To make matters more difficult, all but one of these cards have been discontinued at present, so you'll need to search for more up-to-date test results when looking for the best CF card to use as a hard drive replacement.
Best Compact Flash Reader For Mac
Based on reviews I've read, SanDisk and Lexar appear to be two of the best brands.
FireWire, a Mac Alternative
USB 3.0 is wicked fast but not supported on older Macs. USB 2.0 is okay, but FireWire 400 is faster, and FireWire 800 faster yet – sometimes faster than USB 3.0! Most PowerPC Macs since 1999 include FireWire, although few PowerPC machines other than the Power Mac G5 and FW 800 Power Mac G4 have FireWire 800. FireWire also appears on most pre-USB 3.0 Intel-based Macs, the consumer MacBook and MacBook Air being the FireWire-free exceptions.
The following data is from Rob Galbraith.
- Fastest CF card reads, USB 3.0: 77.2 MBps (Lexar Pro 400x 16 GB)
- Fastest CF card reads, FireWire 800: 79.4 MBps (Lexar Professional 1000x 32 GB)
- Fastest CF card reads, FireWire 400: est. 39.7 MBps, half FW 800 speed
- Fastest CF card reads, USB 2.0: 36.7 MBps (Delkin CombatFlash 685x 16 GB)
- Fastest CF card reads with SATA adapter: 94.0 MBps (Lexar Professional 400x 8 GB)
Galbraith is only using modern gear, so he does not post results using an IDE adapter like the ones covered in this article.
The SanDisk Extreme FireWire Reader (about $50 on eBay) can be a great tool for moving data to and from CF cards for Macs with FireWire 400 and FireWire 800.
Using CompactFlash Inside Your Mac
For PowerBooks and iBooks with an IDE hard drive, all you need is a standard CF-to-IDE adapter and a UDMA CF card, preferably on over 266x. It should be plug-and-play, although you may need to use a third-party drive formatting utility or a hacked version of Apple's HD SC Setup.
If you're going to run Mac OS X, we recommend a CF-to-IDE adapter that supports two CF cards so you can set one up exclusively for use with virtual memory, as this is the one feature of OS X most likely to wear out flash memory. This way you can simply replace the virtual memory CF card should it go bad.
If you want to use CF inside a desktop Mac with an IDE bus, you'll either want a CF-to-IDE adapter designed for use with a standard IDE cable (not the smaller 2.5″ notebook drive connection) or a 3.5″-to-2.5″ adapter plus a notebook CF-to-IDE adapter. This adapter will also work in a 5.25″ drive bay.
Further Reading
Compact Flash Card Reader For Mac
- Using Compact Flash Cards as SSD Alternative, Daniel Böhmer
- All CompactFlash Charts, Tom's Hardware, 2012 or later (undated)
Compact Flash Reader Walmart
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