Are these question edits okay or did I take it too far?

Question

I am talking about this question.

I want to talk about intent. I can see the question is far from perfect but I'd like to argue we can derive the askers intent: He seems to me quite desperate to recover his data. He's looking for ways to do the recovery himself but he also seems to be seriously considering sending the card to a data recovery lab although he has questions about the added value of the latter.

A close vote is casted due to supposedly duplicate content and this duplicate has an accepted answer. Although the answer is accepted and has plenty upvotes, IMO the answer will not help the asker. I'll explain later.

I edit the question with intent to make it a bit more focused (still not perfect) and I also express the opinion the supposed duplicate answer does not apply.

Original:

I have a Samsung 8 GB SD card that isn't working. I watched tutorials on YouTube, and followed their steps. I changed devices, changed the drive letter, used chkdsk command and all other steps without formatting it. Only method left to try is to format it and use recovery software to redeem the files.

I wanted to ask this because I am not sure about formatting it because all the devices I used this SD card doesn't even recognize that it is a SD card, not even as a corrupted one. Is there any other professional methods to retrieve my files without formatting it? Are there technicians who can retrieve my files using physical methods? I saw on YouTube (I'm not sure if it's legit) a guy sanding down the surface of the SD card using a sand paper and then connecting wires to the emerged terminals. Is this a way a professional that can safely retrieve my files? Or do they have any other advanced techniques or hardware or software tools to recover it, that I don't have access to?

I have my childhood and family photos in it. They are very important. Any help would be highly appreciated

Post edit (my edits):

I have a Samsung 8 GB SD card that isn't working. I watched tutorials on YouTube, and followed their steps. I changed devices, changed the drive letter, used chkdsk command and all other steps without formatting it. Only method left to try is to format it and use recovery software to redeem the files.

I have my childhood and family photos in it. They are very important. Any help would be highly appreciated.

I wanted to ask this because I am not sure about formatting it because all the devices I used this SD card doesn't even recognize that it is a SD card, not even as a corrupted one. Is there any other professional methods to retrieve my files without formatting it? Are there technicians who can retrieve my files using physical methods? I saw on YouTube (I'm not sure if it's legit) a guy sanding down the surface of the SD card using a sand paper and then connecting wires to the emerged terminals.

Question: Is this a way a professional that can safely retrieve my files? Or do they have any other advanced techniques or hardware or software tools to recover it, that I don't have access to?

EDIT: Answer suggested as duplicate is about a MicroSD and most of accepted answer does not apply.

About my edits:

• I think I did not harm original intent of asker of the question. The first comments seems to support my view based on the comment's content, specically on what's being asked.
• My objection against the duplicate is more than 'just an opinion'. this may come across as a bit pompous, but data recovery is my occupation.

I think rather than rolling back my edits, objections should have been handled by either discussion in meta (which I suggested in now deleted comments at some point) or by flagging an issue for moderator intervention.

---

EDIT

In reply to @Giacomo1968

Intent

If we look at posters original we can see intent. I see person who's mainly desperate to get his data back and is struggling with the question of DIY approach and wondering if there's any added value in sending his SD card to a professional data recovery specialist.

That's the intent I see. And I think that for example
DrMoishe Pippik in first comment sees it as well.

And if you're in such a mode, you need answers, not some Kafkaesque, formal response: "here this looks your like your question, if you believe it's not then prove that".

I'm certain it surely wasn't the asker's intent to get his question closed and getting send into the woods. And so it was my intent to prevent the closure of his question and to answer this question. An answer he accepted BTW.

I can see intent of SU with the whole duplicate thing but it has become a thing that's perhaps abused sometimes and prevents questions from actually getting answered.

Duplicate

Is the question linked to really a duplicate? I think not, there are similarities, yes. But will duplicate help answer the questions OP has, I fear not. And it is my intent to answer the question.

There's a difference between a question being duplicate and a question being similar. If someone asks how do I change screen resolution in Windows 11 and that has been accurately answered, then we have a duplicate. That's a duplicate in my book.

The duplicate we're discussing, which again IMO is not a duplicate, will just send OP on a wild goose chase because nothing gets really answered.

Yes, sure, I could copy my answer there, but my answer does not answer that duplicate, it answers the question of OP.

BTW, I have been in situations where I asked myself, because it was topic I did not know much about but non the less found similar questions with answers, is this a duplicate or not?

And rather than simply flagging the question as duplicate, I simply asked in a comment 'does this answer your question perhaps?'. If person with question says 'oh yes, thanks' you can then flag question as duplicate. If not we can skip the whole 'close as duplicate and then reopen again circus'.

SuperUser

I feel like I am spending 20-30% of my time doing administration, policing, moderating here. This incident made me realize SU is not for me. I ran to into some SU purist or something, yes you @Giacomo1968, that IMO does not get intent at all and is now lecturing me on that very topic.

I am not thinking about exposure for my answer when I'm writing, I am thinking about addressing the question that was asked.

And BTW, no the intent is not some dramatic exit (in 3 hours from now).

And to downvoters: This question was marked DISCUSSION. Down votes are the cowards way out.

Answer 1

So, this is a tough one.

I don't think person asking the question was aware of the other question and without being OP - its hard to tell if they had a full sized or mini SD card for example. . I get the intent - to try to differentiate the question from the other question- and tbh, I kind of see why they're remarkably similar.

I'd actually even think bob's answer to the other question makes sense for this and vice versa. In some cases the differentiation just isn't there. I do think this is one of those cases where there just isn't enough to work on - I'd say guiding OP through adding more information and working from there would be needed.

I'd lean towards duplicate still but I get what you were trying to do, especially with a new user.

Can I also say, I'm rather miffed at the sheer amount of drama involved - as evidenced by the comment locks. I get the passion involved but I feel like I'd just shown an example of how to get things reopened the 'right' way. Get the discussion going on meta, Make a case for why they're different and get people involved. Its a much more pleasant way of doing things

Answer 2

The core of your question is:

“Are these question edits okay or did I take it too far?”

In my humble opinion…

Yes, you indeed took it too far.

Your edit added words, ideas and opinions to someone else’s question. Do not ever do that.

You edited the original poster’s question to explicitly add the following at the end of the question:

“EDIT: Answer suggested as duplicate is about a MicroSD and most of accepted answer does not apply.”

Who are you to add words, ideas and opinions to someone else’s post that are not their own? I edit many questions here all the time and I make sure too never insert my personal opinions into an edit.

You, on the other hand, have taken it upon yourself (which you can) to add very good answer to the question. As of my writing this it is upvoted as well as selected as the checked off answer to this question. Great work!

But your edits to the original poster’s question which added words, ideas and opinions that are clear not in the original poster’s question or even comments cross a line.

Edits to improve questions, are welcome as long as they are in keeping with the original poster’s intent. Edits that add words, ideas and opinions that are clearly not in line with the original poster’s intent are utterly not welcome.

You have 8,000+ rep so any edit you make is implemented immediately on save. Your edits are not put into the review queue like many suggested edits from users with lower rep. Thus the harm you create by posting such a crass edit right away is immediate.

PS: I voted to close the question as a dupe of this other 10+ year old question because it is, in my humble opinion, a dupe. Not everyone knows the difference between SD cards.

Superficially, to anyone who is not as well versed in SD cards as you, these questions are 100% the same. Thus my suggestion that you add your very good answer to that other question. But for reasons I barely understand, you don’t want to do that.

I don’t get that. Yes, that question is 10+ years old and has an accepted answer but it is getting tons of views; 28,000+ views as of me writing this answer. By putting your very good answer there it will get a wider audience and make that question more valuable.