Please help: corrupted raw files

greenpea · May 7, 2007

Help. My camera (Nikon D70) all of a sudden stopped letting me take pictures. I looked at the status panel's count of how many pictures are left and it was blank, but the power was on and everthing else appeared normal.

This has happend before. I usually take out the card, take out the battery, but the battery back in and put the card back in. I did this, and the camera showed "For" where the picture count appears on the status panel; like it wanted me to format the card(?). So I repeated the process (pull out the card, pull out the battery...). Then everything is fine, and I'm back to taking pictures.

It was only later that day that I realized 230+ pictures that I took have disappeared off of my card. There is still something on the card based on how much free space is left on the card (1.24 GB used of which 320 MB are pictures). I can see a few funny named file, but on the mac, when I click on the file it disappears and on a pc I get a message that the location referred to is unavailable.

Is there any hope for recovering these files? :cry

pathfinder · May 7, 2007

Do not format the card!!

The images are probably still there, but the FAT table or something is corrupted.

Lexar, Sandisk, and others all make programs to find and tranfer images from corrupted cards. Sandisk's program is RescuePro, I used mine last night. A copy comes with each Extreme III or IV Sandisk CF card. Lexar calls their's Image Rescue. There are others if you google for them. Get one and use it to salvage your images.

You did not specify the brand of card used in your camera.

The longer I use digital cameras, the more convinced I am that cheap cards are no bargain. I have committed myself to stick with Sandisk or Lexar's better cards. I used to think that PRO cards were a marketing gimmick, but I no longer think that. I think they are more reliable. I do know that cards are delicate electronic devices, despite being solid state.

I know lots of folks report good experience with other brands, but when I have had difficuties with corrupted cards, it is usually off brand cards. YMMV of course, but I have had issues with Transcend, Sandisk, Qmemory, Kingston, and others.

greenpea · May 7, 2007

pathfinder wrote:

Do not format the card!!

The images are probably still there, but the FAT table or something is corrupted.

Thanks for the reply.

The files there. Since I originally started this thread I've found numerous shareware tools that recover corrupted files from cf cards. Most are able to see files 2 formats back! All want $$$ (everywhere from $40 to $170) before they will let me look at anything more than a thumbnail.

You did not specify the brand of card used in your camera.

The longer I use digital cameras, the more convinced I am that cheap cards are no bargain. I have committed myself to stick with Sandisk or Lexar's better cards. I used to think that PRO cards were a marketing gimmick, but I no longer think that. I think they are more reliable. I do know that cards are delicate electronic devices, despite being solid state.

This is my one off brand card (ridata). All my other cards are sandisk. Oh well, you learn the hardway sometimes.

Right now I'm just trying to see if there is a free tool that I can find to recover the files. And considering the screaming deals Adorama has on cf cards right now ($105 for 16GB card!), I have no excuse.

Now if I don't find some freeware, I get to cough up $40 if I want to see my pictures.

patch29 · May 7, 2007

greenpea wrote:

The files there. Since I originally started this thread I've found numerous shareware tools that recover corrupted files from cf cards. Most are able to see files 2 formats back! All want $$$ (everywhere from $40 to $170) before they will let me look at anything more than a thumbnail.

I have used Photorescue in the past and it worked well. Good luck with your recovery.

pathfinder · May 7, 2007

My copy of Rescue Pro came with a Sandisk card for free....

One word of caution - the RAW files are probably toast. What you get are TIFFs. In CS3 Tiffs will open in the RAW convertor, but not in CS2 I think.

The images are usually fine when rescued. Here is one I rescued last night from a Transcend Card. I am beginning to think that a copy of some sort of Rescue program ought ot be on the HD of every shooter's laptop

pathfinder · May 7, 2007

greenpea wrote:

..... And considering the screaming deals Adorama has on cf cards right now ($105 for 16GB card!), I have no excuse.

Now if I don't find some freeware, I get to cough up $40 if I want to see my pictures.

That is an astounding price, but there is a $130 rebate to get it. I absolutely hate rebates and I try to not let them influence me, but that is a fantastic price for a 16Gb card!!

greenpea · May 7, 2007

pathfinder wrote:

One word of caution - the RAW files are probably toast. What you get are TIFFs. In CS3 Tiffs will open in the RAW convertor, but not in CS2 I think.

A number of the shareware versions I've tried out today do show the .NEF files they found on my card with thumbnails. Are you suggesting that once I save the recovered files they will be saved as .TIF instead of .NEF?

Here is one I rescued last night from a Transcend Card. I am beginning to think that a copy of some sort of Rescue program ought ot be on the HD of every shooter's laptop

If my photos turn out that good after being rescued, I might have to start purposely corrupting my photos.

pathfinder · May 7, 2007

greenpea wrote:

A number of the shareware versions I've tried out today do show the .NEF files they found on my card with thumbnails. Are you suggesting that once I save the recovered files they will be saved as .TIF instead of .NEF?

As NEF is Nikon's RAW file tag, yes, I think you end up with tiffs, not NEFs. But tiffs are a lossless file so that isn't too bad. And tiffs will open in Adobe RAW convertor in PSCS 3 I believe.

Rescue Pro seems to work fine, but it is slow. All the programs I have tried for finding images on solid state cards are slow - expect to wait thirty minutes or longer depending on the size of your card.

ziggy53 · May 8, 2007

I have used Zero Assumption Recovery with much success, but I have not been able to determine if it compatible with the Nikon D70 RAW files or not:

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

greenpea · May 8, 2007

ziggy53 wrote:

I have used Zero Assumption Recovery with much success, but I have not been able to determine if it compatible with the Nikon D70 RAW files or not:

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

I saw another post recomending Zero Assumption Recovery. Since it was free for image recovery, I thought I would give it a try, but it didn't say that it supported Nikon NEF files on its list of supported file types. When I tried it, it got to 99% complete, but couldn't seem to figure out what the file types were on the cf card.

You canon people are so lucky to have a free image recovery tool.

pathfinder · May 8, 2007

Give PhotoRescue a try - it recognizes NEF files.

It is not free, but for $29 is less than filling up your gas tank these days

Art Scott · May 8, 2007

I have used Image Resue several times and it does definitely rescue raw files......

Here is my suggestion: Go to New Egg or some other great source for Great CF Cards...and purchase yourself a new card with the rescue software on it......now I don't shoot anything above 8gb for many reasons...1 that is the most my KM7D recoginzes......2 at 360+ images for raw+jpg that is all I need as I have 2 8gb and 2 2gb cards for 2 dslr's.....I made several copies of Image Resue as soon as i found it worked with ANY brand card.

Good Luck.

greenpea · May 8, 2007

So far every tool I've used that claims to recognize Nikon NEF files seems to work fine on a PC (at least they see all the pictures on my card and show the thumbnails of them). But I have yet to find one that will work on my mac (since that's where I do my photo work, that's where I would like to have the app).

Has anyone tried any of the suggested apps on a mac?

Art Scott · May 9, 2007

I stay away from anything named MaC.....ie ...Big Mac, Little mac or Apple Mac...or is tha Mac Apple

D

Sorry....I am a PC'er thru and thru but I will take a look and see if it comes in a mac version............

Edit.....YES IMAGE RESCUE HAS A MAC VERSION......at least the copy I have does.....so if you could use another CF card....get a Lexar Pro and it will probably be on there

edit edit....the version I have is for MAC OSX

patch29 · May 9, 2007

greenpea wrote:

Has anyone tried any of the suggested apps on a mac?

I have used Photorescue on my Mac.

greenpea · May 9, 2007

I'll give photo rescue and image rescue a try.

Thanks.

jefflennan · September 7, 2008

Zero Assumption Recovery (ZAR) is Free and Works

ziggy53 wrote:

I have used Zero Assumption Recovery with much success, but I have not been able to determine if it compatible with the Nikon D70 RAW files or not:

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

I used ZAR and it saved my a**. Its free and recovered my NEF files from my Nikon D80 on the first try.

greenpea · September 8, 2008

jefflennan wrote:

I used ZAR and it saved my a**. Its free and recovered my NEF files from my Nikon D80 on the first try.

Thanks. I ended up trying a couple different software packages, I'm not sure what was ultimately the best one, but I did manage to pull a number of pics as TIFF files off my card. But since them, I'm using a new camera (D200) new bigger CF cards, and I am NOT filling cards up 100% anymore.

Please help: corrupted raw files

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