How to Recover an SD Card in OS X
By Marshal M. Rosenthal
An SD (Secure Digital) memory card must be properly unmounted from a computer before being removed or its file structure will become corrupted. You can recover a corrupted SD card on a Mac using the Disk Utility program that is included with the OS X operating system. The Disk Utility program will fix the file structure so that the SD card will work again. Recovering a SD card on a Mac running OS X is done as efficiently by a computer novice as someone who has been using a Mac for years.
Insert the SD card into the SD card slot on the side of the Mac. Double-click the icon of the Disk Utility program to launch it--the icon is in the "Utilities" folder in the "Applications" folder on the Mac's main hard drive.
Click once on the SD card's icon in the left column of the Disk Utility program's main screen.
Click the "First Aid" tab at the top of the Disk Utility program's main screen. Click the "Show details" check box if you want to see how Disk Utility is recovering the SD card.
Click the "Repair Disk" button at the bottom-right corner of the Disk Utility program's main screen.
Wait as a progress bar at the bottom of the screen fills from left to right and a series of text lines scroll down the window above the progress bar. Quit the Disk Utility program when the progress bar is completely filled in.
Drag the icon of the SD card on the desktop to the Trash icon. Wait for the icon of the SD card to disappear. Pull the SD card out of the SD card slot.
References
Warnings
- You must use a SD card reader to attach the SD card to the Mac if there is no built-in SD card slot.
Writer Bio
Marshal M. Rosenthal is a technology maven with more than 15 years of editorial experience. A graduate of Brooks Institute of Photography with a Bachelor of Arts in photographic arts, his editorial work has appeared both domestically as well as internationally in publications such as "Home Theater," "Electronic House," "eGear," "Computer and Video Games" and "Digitrends."