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.

Another SuperUser, the one who marked question as duplicate then comments on my edits in an IMO patronizing manner that my edits are out of line, that I'm inserting my opinion, and he simply keeps repeating that same statement (I can't recall exactly and comments were deleted) and then rolls back my edits. He also suggests I 'prove' that answer in duplicate question is wrong by providing my own answer to a 10 year old question, to which I reply that I choose to answer this IMO non-duplicate answer. I admit that at some point I request him to go annoy someone else in my comments, not very nice.

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.

About supposed duplicate:

The accepted answer was probably accepted because of one if it's suggestions (seemingly) has worked; "squeeze the card".

• There's a chance squeezing had very little to do with anything
• The chance of squeezing working is astronomically small, specially in case of a monolithic MicroSD card. What follows is that the solution in accepted answer is highly unlikely to help. At best it's a helpful comment, a long shot.
• Many of the other parts of the answer are plain wrong; we (data recovery techs) don't de-solder controllers or NAND from MicroSD Cards, and it's most certainly not something you can do at home, just some examples.
• Answer talks about not opening the card, while you can not open a MicroSD card due to it's monolithic design.

And so IMO, the answer is somewhat like the proverbial broken clock. There's some helpful tips in there too, but it's hardly expected these are the answer.

In summary, I do not share the opinion the question is a a duplicate of the question linked to. I have the opinion we can derive intent from the question. My edits were to address these issues. Rolling back, I think was out of line.

There's lots of things wrong with the question, even close-worthy issues probably (lack of focus for example), but those are our concerns. The asker is probably more worried about getting his data back. If I can clean up / edit the question somewhat, isn't that preferred over closing the question?

But I am open to learning and prepared to accept I was wrong in making those edits, in playing the role of asker's advocate.

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

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).

BB