Memory card/lost photos

Bishnezz

Hi everyone, wondering if anyone had a similar experience: I recently tried to import pics from my CF card but I got a card error message on my cpu and camera. After doing some research, I purchased File juicer and tried Clix and did manage to recover most of my pics. I believe the problem was related to the fact that I had deleted about 150 pictures one by one with my camera and didn't format the card. During recovery, most of those deleted pictures showed up whereas a lot of new material didn't.
Two questions: Is there any other method, anything I can do to "fix" the flash card to recover those lost pictures? Secondly, should I toss the card or attempt to reformat it and use it? Thanks for your answers!

ziggy53

Bishnezz wrote:

Hi everyone, wondering if anyone had a similar experience: I recently tried to import pics from my CF card but I got a card error message on my cpu and camera. After doing some research, I purchased File juicer and tried Clix and did manage to recover most of my pics. I believe the problem was related to the fact that I had deleted about 150 pictures one by one with my camera and didn't format the card. During recovery, most of those deleted pictures showed up whereas a lot of new material didn't.
Two questions: Is there any other method, anything I can do to "fix" the flash card to recover those lost pictures? Secondly, should I toss the card or attempt to reformat it and use it? Thanks for your answers!

Bishnezz, welcome to the Digital Grin.

I am not familiar with File juicer and Clix, but if they are non-destructive then you might try another utility. The one I use, because it works on almost any media, is ZAR (Zero Assumption Recovery, Windows only). It is non-destructive, meaning that it does not change the card, and it takes forever to run but, it has been pretty good to recover pretty much everything that can be recovered. Note that the files may lose names and appropriate suffixes as they are recovered (onto the hard drive). This is because ZAR ignores the FAT and recovers the files independantly. You should rename the files manually or with batch renaming tools.

http://www.z-a-recovery.com/digital-image-recovery.htm

The problem you ran into is when the FAT (File Allocation Table) of the card gets corrupted, the card no longer reports accurately the available space. In that situation it can overwrite existing files and destroy the linkage between file fragments. It is likely that the FAT became corrupted as a result of file deletions and trying to fill the card.

As you suggest, I highly recommend formatting the card between jobs and not field deleting files if possible. I also never completely fill a card. That combination of strategies and procedures has been very successful for me.

Good luck,

Art Scott

ziggy53 wrote:

Bishnezz, welcome to the Digital Grin.

I am not familiar with File juicer and Clix, but if they are non-destructive then you might try another utility. The one I use, because it works on almost any media, is ZAR (Zero Assumption Recovery, Windows only). It is non-destructive, meaning that it does not change the card, and it takes forever to run but, it has been pretty good to recover pretty much everything that can be recovered. Note that the files may lose names and appropriate suffixes as they are recovered (onto the hard drive). This is because ZAR ignores the FAT and recovers the files independantly. You should rename the files manually or with batch renaming tools.

http://www.z-a-recovery.com/digital-image-recovery.htm

The problem you ran into is when the FAT (File Allocation Table) of the card gets corrupted, the card no longer reports accurately the available space. In that situation it can overwrite existing files and destroy the linkage between file fragments. It is likely that the FAT became corrupted as a result of file deletions and trying to fill the card.

As you suggest, I highly recommend formatting the card between jobs and not field deleting files if possible. I also never completely fill a card. That combination of strategies and procedures has been very successful for me.

Good luck,

iF i read that site correctly ZAR only recovers 3 types of raw formats...2 of those being canon and the other Oly.........

NOt knowing what Bishneez shoots with I would recommend another non destructive recovery software.....Image Rescue from Lexar.....I have recovered from my lexar cards and also from my transcend cards and a friends generic card....it gives options as to what files to recover......I always take the all option.....my only complaint is the renumbering of the files....but if you recover all or jpg + raw at one time it is no problem.
Works like a champ and is fast!!