Recovery RAW files on a MAC - DPChallenge Forums

02/25/2012 01:45:51 AM · #1

A friend of mine had his SanDisk card accidentally formatted before his images were downloaded off of it. Someone then shot over that card. He needs t he photos to be turned in on Monday, so he is freaking out.

Can anyone recommend a free software that I can have him use to try to recover some of his images? Thanks!!

MelonMusketeer

Nikon D7000

Nikon MF 50mm f/1.4

02/25/2012 01:51:23 AM · #2

Previous Thread
There may be some helpful links in this thread.

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

02/25/2012 02:21:39 AM · #3

I've been scanning that thread for ideas : )
I tried the SanDisk program, but it won't let me see which 3000 files it recovered without buying the $60 full program. I just tried the PhotoRec, but it didn't find anything at all. Trying ZAR now. Any other ones I should try?

Yo_Spiff

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

02/25/2012 02:35:19 AM · #4

Here's some links to reviews that talk about and link to some programs, many of them free. You may have to find a Windows machine to use for most of these. The article is 3 years old, but I'm sure many of the mentioned programs are still around in newer versions.
Maximum PC recovery software review

Message edited by author 2012-02-25 02:35:59.

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

02/25/2012 02:47:26 AM · #5

I couldn't get ZAR to work because we don't have a PC available to use. I'll try the suggestions in that article -- thanks Spiffy!

Giles

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

02/25/2012 04:47:18 AM · #6

If its been formatted then shot over won't be anything to recover, yeah you can recover from a format as all it does it wipe the allocation table and allow things to be written over, a 4gb card doesn't all of a sudden become an 8gb card and keep the original data. If its been filled since the format there is very little chance of recovering anything.

I have a few recovery program's that I got when I lost a card to corruption at a wedding but I paid for them, not sure what free ones there are that are any good?

Message edited by author 2012-02-25 05:58:46.

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

02/25/2012 05:37:17 AM · #7

The card is currently being used again (*sigh*), so it has been formatted and written over several times since the original crisis, but that's what happens when you work for a company that doesn't have quite enough memory cards to go around : /

I know that every time the card is formatted and written over, it becomes less and less likely that anything will be recovered, but I'm going to try as hard as I can to help. Since the SanDisk recovery program was able to find more files than there were on the card at the time, I still have a little hope left. The PhotoRec program didn't find anything because I selected the wrong option : / I'll try again with that program and with some of the other suggestions when the card comes back from its next shoot.

Thanks for all of your help, guys!

Yo_Spiff

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

02/25/2012 10:25:26 AM · #8

As Giles said, once you start overwriting things, the chances become slim. I keep a number of memory cards and cycle through them. Periodically, I make a backup to an external drive and only then do the used cards get reformatted and reused.

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

02/25/2012 10:48:19 AM · #9

There is normally a better system to prevent this, but we were on location, transferring on the fly, and there were other photogs at the company itching for the cards asap. Normally, nothing is supposed to happen on location, just at the office, and nothing is supposed to be formatted until there are at least 2 backups.

MelonMusketeer

Nikon D7000

Nikon MF 50mm f/1.4

02/25/2012 12:08:18 PM · #10

It's kind of late to say it, but extra cards are cheap insurance, and not a big expense, esp for a commercial photography biz.
Losing the images that way is tough, but hopefully is was not a wedding or some one time event images lost.

I have one other suggestion, and that would be to have everyone check the "trash" or PC dumpsters in their computers. There is a slim possibility that someone may have downloaded them and moved them to the recycle bin/ trash, and has not emptied it yet.

Message edited by author 2012-02-25 12:26:04.

Giles

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

02/25/2012 12:26:55 PM · #11

i was going to say, im a hobby photographer and ive got 4 cards 2x4gb 1x8 and 1x16gb as a business it seems crazy waiting on cards to become available from another photographer???