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5 Things You Can Do With Your Damaged Media Cards Or Storage Mediums
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What Can You Do With a Damaged Media Card or Storage Device?
Five things for a damaged device: recycle it, sell it for parts, have it repaired, donate it to a repair class, or use it to train staff on safe handling. First, decide whether the files on it still matter. If they do, get a free evaluation before it leaves your hands. eProvided has done this work since 1999.
“Before you recycle a broken card, ask one question: is anything on it that exists nowhere else?” — Bruce Cullen, founder, eProvided
So you’ve damaged your media card or other storage medium. Now what? Junk it? Is that the only option? You might be surprised to discover that a damaged storage device isn’t just worthy of the dump. A dead SD card, a cracked USB stick or a hard drive that clicks can still be worth something — to you, to a repair shop, or to a classroom.
A broken card or drive has five second lives: recycle it, sell it for parts, repair it, donate it to a repair or data recovery class, or keep it as a training prop. Before any of those, answer one question — do the files on it still matter? If yes, recover first and dispose second. If no, wipe or physically destroy the storage chip or platters so nobody else can read what was on it.
Do RIGHT NOW
- Decide whether the files on the device still matter before you do anything else
- Label the damaged card or drive and keep it dry, cool and in a static-safe bag
- Wipe or destroy the storage before you sell, donate or recycle it
- Ask a local computer repair shop about recycling and parts programs
DON’T Do
- Don’t throw a card away while it still holds the only copy of your photos
- Don’t hand a device with confidential files to a class or a buyer
- Don’t keep plugging a damaged card in to “see if it works now”
- Don’t bend a snapped USB connector back into place yourself
Still need the photos or files that were on the card? A free evaluation tells you what can come back before you recycle, sell or donate anything. Prefer to talk it through? Call (866) 857-5950.
One Geek’s Trash Is Another’s Treasure
It’s true! Just because a portable storage device, no matter what size, is nonfunctional, you don’t necessarily need to drop it in the trash can and feel like you just lost a monetary investment due to poor handling or an unforeseen accident. Instead, you can try one of the five frugal ideas below. Each one works for SD cards, microSD cards, CompactFlash, USB flash drives, external hard drives and internal drives alike.
1. Recycle It
It’s the environmentally friendly choice! Believe it or not, you can recycle an old or damaged storage medium. For example, a Network Assisted Storage device (or NAS) usually consists of a housing with several internal slots for hard drives. You could repurpose the housing to store drives that contain your backups. Your local computer repair shops might have other recycling ideas, too. Recycling flash memory products is a smart choice, because the metals inside cards and drives can be recovered instead of landing in a landfill.
Before any drive or card goes into a recycling bin, erase it. A deleted file or a quick format leaves the data readable with ordinary software. A full overwrite, or physical destruction of the platters or the memory chip, is what actually removes it. If the device is too damaged to erase, destroying the storage chip or the platters is the safe alternative.
2. Sell It for Parts
Yes, one geek’s trash is another geek’s treasure! Some people will buy parts from damaged storage drives for various reasons. You might ask local computer repair shops to gauge their interest. You can also post the parts online. Some people successfully auction storage drive parts on eBay. Selling parts can actually prove lucrative, particularly if the drive is older or no longer manufactured. People seeking to repair their own device will pay well for the parts they need to complete a repair — a matching circuit board or head assembly for an out-of-production hard drive is hard to find.
3. Look Into Repairing It
If we’re talking about your all-time favorite media card or storage device, you might consider having it repaired. If the damage is not too extensive, an experienced hard drive repair service might be able to repair the device to working order. Sometimes it’s a long shot, but if you’re attached to the device, it’s worth a try. Keep in mind the difference between repairing the device and recovering the data: a lab can often get the files off a card or drive that will never be reliable enough to use again. If the files are what you really care about, ask for recovery, not repair.
4. Donate It
If your local college, university, or technical school offers computer repair or data recovery classes, you might be able to donate your damaged device(s). A donation to a qualifying school may be tax-deductible — ask the school for a receipt and check with your tax preparer. This is really a win-win scenario. Just make sure that if anyone will attempt to recover information from the device, the information isn’t confidential or otherwise sensitive. You can even strip the device(s) down to spare parts and donate the parts. Hands-on academic classes will likely have use for such parts when training the next generation of device repair professionals.
5. Use It for Training
It sounds a little odd, but some companies do it. If your company uses a lot of portable devices, from flash drives and cell phones to SD or microSD cards, you can use damaged ones to train employees on the dangers of improper handling. Some companies have found that visual demonstrations of how easy it is to damage a device can prevent common office and travel accidents from happening. It’s a good way to repurpose damaged devices while promoting better habits among employees.
Some common scenarios to demonstrate include:
- Forgetting to use a protective travel case
- Dropping a device
- Spilling water on a device
- Leaving a device in an extremely hot or cold climate for an extended period
- Kicking, hitting, or otherwise impacting a storage device and causing both port and device damage
eProvided most commonly recovers files from broken USB flash drives with bent tips — the exact kind of damage a two-minute training demo helps staff avoid. For information on CD/DVD recovery, click here!
Before You Let Go: Check the Data First
Every one of the five ideas above ends with the device leaving your hands. That is the moment to ask whether the photos, videos or documents on it are backed up anywhere else. On USB flash drives, SD cards and microSD cards, the data sits on a NAND memory chip, and it often survives a snapped connector, a cracked shell or a dead controller. In our lab, those media are read by working on the memory chip directly. Once the card is in a recycling bin or sold for parts, that option is gone for good.
The next time a media card or portable storage medium meets an untimely demise, don’t look at it as mere trash. It can be a rare opportunity to recycle, make a little cash, conduct a repair, donate a needed medium, and even run some very memorable office training designed to stop bad handling habits from creeping in. That little piece of trash can be a real treasure if you get a little creative and try some new ideas.
| 5 Things to Do With a Damaged Card or Drive | ||
|---|---|---|
| Option | Best For | Do This First |
| 1. Recycle | Devices with no data you need | Wipe or destroy the storage |
| 2. Sell for parts | Older or discontinued drives | Remove or destroy the platters or chip |
| 3. Repair | A favorite device with light damage | Recover the files before repair work |
| 4. Donate | Schools with repair or recovery classes | Confirm nothing confidential is on it |
| 5. Training prop | Companies with many portable devices | Pick devices with no sensitive files |
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If the files on a damaged device still matter, eProvided covers each class in one lab: Professional hard drive data recovery for Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba and HGST drives; USB flash drive data recovery for broken connectors and dead controllers; memory card data recovery for SD and CompactFlash; microSD card data recovery, including monolithic cards; the SSD data recovery service; and NAND flash chip-off recovery for USB and card media. Browse all data recovery services →
A damaged card is only trash once you are sure nothing on it matters. Check first, then recycle, sell, repair, donate or train with it.
Files Still on That Damaged Card?
Before the card or drive goes to recycling, a parts buyer or a classroom, find out what is still readable on it. The evaluation is free and confidential.
Start My Free Evaluationor call (866) 857-5950 now
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