Windows 7: Samsung says memory card need to be formatted

I inserted my Micro SD card into a new Samsung phone, but it says "SD card is not formatted, do you want to format it now?" I don’t want to format it because it contains a lot of important data. Please give me some advice.

What was the SD card in previously? Different devices may format the SD card in a way that cannot be read by other devices.

also the other way around is true, a lot of devices want to format their memory devices in a way that suits them but does not allow other devices to read what is on the memory.

If you want to transfer stuff to your phone use bluetooth after you inserted an empty sd card

The SD card worked fine in my old Samsung phone, but that phone is broken so I bought a new one. I connect the card to my PC but still with the same problem.

Welcome Pat1, I would try taking the phones and card to the carrier's store to see if they can recover your data.

Hi Pat1,

Let us see how your SD card looks in Disk Management.

Without waiting for the screenshot, many have recovered the data from their SD Cards successfully using TestDisk.

If your Windows version is stable, download and run the version 6.14 as an administrator with your SD card plugged in.TestDisk Download - CGSecurity

Follow the guide here in using TestDisk. ( Since you will be running TestDisk from Windows, you need not create the PartedMagic pendrive. Just follow the TestDisk steps.) » How To Fix: External Disk Drive Suddenly Became RAW

If after QUICKSEARCH you can find your data by P, copy those. Otherwise go for the DEEPERSEARCH.

(Since our interest is only recovery do not WRITE partition table. Desist any write operation.)

If the recovery is successful, you can then format your SD card with SDFormatter.
https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_3/

If you have any doubts as you progress, post with screenshot.

EDIT: You can run TestDisk as many times as you want to familiarise yourself as long as you take care not to click on any write operation.

I don't want to use any data recovery tool if possible. A article shows the details about SD card not formatted error.
I want to have a try with it.

The easiest way is to pull your data off the card using your computer, then let the phone format the card as it sees fit. Then, copy back your data.

But I cannot access the data in the card. How can I pull the data off when SD card shows"SD card is not formatted, do you want to format it now?" I searched online, but may I ask what is the difference between sd card not formatted and sd card raw?

I'm sorry to tell you but there may be no other way other than using a recovery tool.

a quick question though, is the card read/write protected? Some memory cards have a little switch on them that may disable read/write to the card.