Safety principle
Why we only ever read the source
Your memory card is only read. Nothing is saved to it.
The short answer
The first write is the one that destroys data for good.
Deleted recordings are initially just released storage space. The actual data stays on the medium until something new is written over it. That is exactly why File Recovery Hero has no write path to the selected source device, and exporting to the source is blocked.
01 / Why
What deletion actually does
When deleting, a file system normally removes not the data itself but only the management information pointing at it. The occupied area is marked as free. The content remains physically present until it is overwritten.
That is why the state immediately after the loss is the best there will ever be. Every further action on the medium can hit exactly the sectors where the wanted recording still sits. A single new recording can destroy several old clips irretrievably.
02 / Technical
How the lock is implemented
- The selected source device is opened read-only. No write path to the source exists.
- Exporting to the source device is blocked and cannot be enabled through a setting.
- No formatting, no repair of the source file system and no initialisation is carried out.
- No test data is written to a recovery medium, not even to measure write speed.
- Destination files are created with unique names. Existing files at the destination are never overwritten.
- During the scan the app downloads nothing from the internet. It contacts our server only for licence activation, and sends neither file names nor scan results.
03 / Images
The even safer route: make an image first
If a card shows signs of instability or holds particularly valuable recordings, a full image is the best first step. An uncompressed image reads the card completely exactly once; every further attempt then runs against the file instead of the original.
File Recovery Hero can examine uncompressed IMG, DD, RAW and BIN images directly. The physical card therefore stays untouched after that single read, and you can scan as often as you like.
04 / Destination
Why the export has to land elsewhere
Recovered files are written to a physically different device. That is not a convenience rule but the logical consequence of everything above: exporting to the source would overwrite exactly the areas from which further files could still be recovered.
A physically different device means a genuinely separate piece of hardware, not merely another partition or another folder on the same medium.
Do not approve formatting just because an operating system suggests it. Windows and macOS offer this when they cannot read a file system. At that moment the recordings are usually still present. An approved format makes the starting position considerably worse.
Common questions
Should I also use a write-protect switch?
The switch on an SD card does no harm and can serve as an extra safeguard. It is not necessary, because the software has no write path to the source anyway. Note that the switch is a recommendation to the reader device and does not work reliably in every adapter.
Can I export to a second partition on the same card?
No. The destination has to be a physically different device. A second partition sits on the same storage and can overwrite areas that are still needed.
May I put the card in the camera before scanning, just to look?
Better not. Cameras often write management data or rebuild a database when a card is inserted. Check on a computer through a card reader instead, without saving anything.
What about CHKDSK or First Aid in Disk Utility?
Both write to the medium and change the file system. Do not run such repairs before a recovery. If CHKDSK has already run, fragments may sit in a FOUND.000 folder.