micro Sd card - missing used memory

We've had a bit of a crisis here today owing to some missing photos. We copied them 3 times from a hard drive to an sd card but each time they didn't appear. The 4th time unfortunately we managed to cut and paste and lo and behold they didn't appear but they did disappear from the hard drive. Cue wailing and gnashing.
Now the sd card shows almost 18gb of data but when you open it and combine all the visible files there is just 3gb of data. The folders transferred were about 3.5gb each so the maths more or less adds up - on that sd card there must be multiple copies of the missing photos.
So why cant I see them? They can't just vanish.
I've tried a free recovery program and yes it finds some items that were deleted but not the missing photos.
I've allowed hidden files to be seen but no joy.
I can save onto the sd card both individual files and folders and they are visible
So any suggestions as to how I see the invisible files - even if its to show it isn't what I'm looking for.

What's the total advertised/marked capacity?

Reason for question - lots of cheap far eastern con-artists are selling (seemingly) high capacity micro SDs via Amazon etc, which 'look' like they have the stated capacity - until you try filling them up, and find that 500Gb card is only 128gb.

Files appear to transfer, but when you open the card - they aint there.

They cleverly format them so that capacity shows (for a 500gb) - around 480Gb

I did wonder along those lines but it's only a 32gb card. It shows 18gb used but the contents only come to 3gb.
It's a Sandisk card.

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Originally Posted by DavidL

I did wonder along those lines but it's only a 32gb card. It shows 18gb used but the contents only come to 3gb.
It's a Sandisk card.

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I have used Easeus to recover lost files with good success- the important bit is to stop using (writing) to the card and HDD until you have tried to recover the missing files.

I think Sandisk used to provide some free software too.

As stated above, don’t save anything else to the card until you can recover the pics.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Theboydonald

As stated above, don’t save anything else to the card until you can recover the pics.

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And, as mentioned above, the HDD as well - could still be there.

Using Recva is probably a good option, I've used it to great effect when one of my SDCards became corrupted ... https://www.ccleaner.com/recuva

I’ll second recuva, though there is a Sandisk branded app that you get access to when you buy some of their products. Also worth a look.

I have tried Recuva and it finds files that were deleted by design but not these. It makes me wonder if it doesn't consider them lost, they just aren't visible.
I'll try and find the sandisk software.

Sounds like you may have a "hidden" secure area on your disc? I have a datalock usb and the files in the locked area are only visible if I use the app to unlock them

Could this help?

https://www.minitool.com/data-recove...-computer.html

It may, I'll have a go, thanks
David