CardRecovery is very effective when recovering lost photos and movies from digital memory cards. But if your camera does not appear as a drive letter, and your computer does not have a built-in memory card reader, you need to prepare an external card reader (mostly USB) to allow CardRecovery (or other data recovery software) to access and restore the lost pictures and movies from the memory card.
You may find such card readers in local computer shops, super markets and stores like BestBuy, or Staples. You may also conveniently buy them online from Amazon, BestBuy or Wal-mart. The card readers can be found by searching "card reader", or "sd card reader" in the online shops.
External card readers are very cheap (usually less than $20 USD), but they are very useful, not only for photo recovery, but also for photo transferring from your camera to computer in your daily life. It is highly recommended for digital camera users. There are multi-card readers and single card readers. Multi-card readers can support different memory card types (e.g. SD card, CF card). A single card reader is smaller and can read only one card type (e.g. SD card). Typically, card readers use a USB 2.0 interface to connect with the computer.
Does Your Camera Appear in the "Scanners and Cameras" Section?
If your camera can only appear in the "Scanners and Cameras" section of "My Computer", data recovery software is unable to access and recover the memory card. A card reader is still required.