Recover CF Card not Recognized by Windows 7 Computer

“Hi, I hope someone can help me. My Compact Flash card is not recognized by laptop running on Windows 7. It cannot recognize my CF card when I connect it with card reader. Then I tried to connect it to another laptop via USB cable, but it doesn’t work either. I checked all related drivers, and everything is fine. Even I tried other cards which I have, no issue with them. I have saved some of my certificates, reports and more vital data on this CF card. I am really worried and looking for help. Please help, thanks in advance!”

Facing an error 'Card Not Recognized' when you slot in a Compact Flash card to computer; which carries all your precious files is not at a good thing. But before you give up all hope of ever seeing those files again, there are a few things which you can try. Various problems can cause this error message, from faulty ports or software drivers to damaged CF card. So follow these primary techniques described to resolve the issue.

  • Inspect the card and the contacts
  • Detach card from computer and inspect it; for any visible heat discolorations, cracks, scratches and nicks on the card. Make sure that the card socket and contacts does not have any bent or missing pins.

  • Try other card reader and computer
  • Connect your card to other computers through different card reader and check

  • Fix using Disk Management
  • Go to Start menu > select Disk Management or press Windows and R keys simultaneously and type diskmgmt.msc > Click on Create and format hard disk partitions > Enter > A list of drives will appear > you should be able to identify your CF card by its size, and it will be labeled as Removable

Now you should be able to identify your CF card after tried above techniques. If you are not seeing any changes and still Compact Flash card is not detecting; then card might be damaged or corrupted.

There are several causes for corruption of compact flash card, like

  • Interruption before data is completely written to the card
  • Opening, deleting, renaming or moving files on the card while its contents are open on a computer
  • Using same flash card in several devices and not formatting it regularly
  • Formatting CF card in a computer instead of the camera (it slowdowns data processing when it’s used in camera. With some cards, formatting via computer may result in compatibility and operational issues)
  • Capturing photos when camera battery is low
  • Letting card till it show memory full; Cards that are already full may overwrite the card headers
  • Disconnecting the card from a computer while computer is still communicating with the card

When compact flash experiences any such incidents it may undergo corruption and become unrecognizable. You can’t do anything with it rather than formatting. But before you format, you should recover your data from it using Yodot Photo Recovery application securely and easily.

Software to Recover Unrecognized CF Card on Windows 7:

Yodot Photo Recovery is a reliable and secure tool for recovering data from CF card which is not recognized on Windows 7 systems. You can ensure recovered photos, videos, audio files and other files from unrecognized CF card, through the Preview option provided in the utility. Other than CF card, this application is capable to recover memory card data in Windows 7 and helps in restoring media files and other documents from computers hard dive, external hard drive, USB drive, iPod, SSD and other storage drives. This utility supports recovery of files from all storage drives on PC or laptop that works on Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2003 and Windows 2008 operating systems. This picture retrieval software can restore deleted files from compact flash card used in mobile phones as well as in cameras, camcorders, media players and other gadgets. You can also utilize CF card data recovery by Yodot to regain data from compact flash drive in computers running on Mac OS.

Software to Recover Unrecognized CF Card on Windows 7:

  • Connect unrecognized CF card to any Windows computer
  • Download Yodot Photo Recovery software and install it on that computer
  • After successful installation, launch the application and select Lost Photo Recovery option in main window
  • Select your CF card from displayed list of drives and partitions present on the system and click on Next
  • You can choose file types which you prefer to recover; else click on skip to hop this step
  • Make use of either ‘Data view’ or ‘File Type View’ to mark data which is to be retrieved
  • Preview recovered media files and save them to safe and preferred destination on your system

Other Popular Software

Yodot Photo Recovery (Windows)

Recover and restore deleted photos lost from your digital camera memory card or the images from your Windows PC. The software can recover all popular image types including popular audio and video files.

Yodot Mac File Recovery

The only undelete application for Mac that can recover deleted files from HFS+, HFSX partitions on Mac. The software also has the ability to recover lost files using RAW signature method.