Broken my memory card - is there any way to retrieve the photo's?

ssparry

Sitting here crying as I write this, I have just stupidly trodden on my memory card, I heard a crack but it looked ok but it doesn't work in the camera.

I stupidly had about 500 photos of my daughter over the last year, including our 1st family holiday abroad and I have been meaning to put them onto CD but hadn't done so yet. Oh I wish I had.

Is there anyway they can be retrieved?

fwor

It will depend on what part of it has broken.

If for example it's one or more of the (usually gold plated) contacts that have broken, it may be possible - but admittedly difficult - to fix for long enough to get the data off. If the memory chip itself has been damaged, it's almost certainly not going to be fixable.

You need to examine it carefully - with a magnifying glass if possible - to see where it's damaged. If it's an SD card, it's often possible to carefully lift off the cover to look at the insides, but some makes are better fixed on than others.

For reference there are some internal photos of SD cards here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital_card

If I had to guess at the cause, I'd go for a snapped internal circuit board, which may be repairable, but only with a great deal of difficulty.

[Edit: Correction - a broken circuit board could only realistically be fixed if it's single layer. If multi-layer, repair is probably not going to be possible.]