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04/04/2011 02:20:43 AM · #1 |
I had a shoot today, everything went perfectly. Reviewed some of the images with them and we were all pleased. Got home, downloaded the images, and when I went to the image folder, there was nothing in there. Placeholders but nothing else! I had a heart attack, and put the card back in the camera to see if it was just some fluke - the camera said there were no images on the card.
I didn't have a good rescue software so I bought one from Arcksoft [sic]. Ran it, and it rescued about 10 - all of them test shots. I took about 250 images, and although this was a freebie, I am beside myself. Haven't told them yet, hoping for a miracle of some sort.
Any ideas, suggestions, prayers, spirit dances? What could have gone wrong???? |
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04/04/2011 02:29:30 AM · #2 |
Johanna,
There are usually 2 possibilities in such case:
1) The files never reached the memory card (camera malfunction, defective card, etc.) From there, you're basically screwed.
2) The files did reach the card, then got deleted for some reason. You stand a chance.
If the software you used restored some photos, this means you are probably in the second case. Give it a try with "Photorec" (here): it is free, and also the most powerful tool I know for such usage. It is able to ignore the file system itself, and access data where most other tool would give up. Good luck! |
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04/04/2011 02:29:51 AM · #3 |
I am assuming they were RAW? Outside of purposed recovery software that pretty much falls under the normal category of file recovery software assuming the card is fine. I always point out ZAR's free function for recovering JPEG's though there is plenty more out there.
Hard to say but until all hope is lost and the card can be tested several types of failures come to mind. I also NEVER use transfer software, not that I trust windows either. I just haven't gotten around to writing my own application so that when something software wise goes wrong I KNOW I wrote it lol. Problems ranging from the card to the reader to the software doing the transfer for various reasons can corrupt beyond recovery for various reasons. I couldn't put a finger on it without looking into it myself. |
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04/04/2011 02:55:29 AM · #4 |
| I've never had a problem using Sandisk's RescuePro for recovery, both on my own cards and for a friend. It comes free with certain Sandisk cards, but can also be purchased. I have at least one license laying around somewhere I could look for if you wanted. Many other users on here probably have a license or two as well. |
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04/04/2011 09:10:07 AM · #5 |
I always use ZAR. (Zero assumption recovery).
It does recover jpeg, but I had to use it last night (ugh, me) and it recovered a bunch of tifs -- I never work with tiffs, so I'm wondering if that is how it gets shots in RAW? |
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04/04/2011 09:19:10 AM · #6 |
| Ditto ZAR. It's helped when others failed. It does recover RAW and gives TIF output. |
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04/04/2011 09:24:33 AM · #7 |
whatever you do, I suggest you be careful not to let any software write to the card. (I hope the rescue programs are smart enough to write to the hard drive instead.)
Writing to the card, which may make sense to fix the file allocation table, is also more likely to prevent "further" recovery, assuming the software you are trying doesn't work and you need to try something else.
I've never had a real problem on a card, so that's not from experience, but just normal advice for data recovery in general! |
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04/04/2011 11:05:53 AM · #8 |
Thanks everyone. I just got up and will try anew. Christophe, the card worked fine in the camera, as I was sharing the images with the subjects (friends of mine). I'll try again, and use some of the suggested programs, and report back. Thanks so much.
What's freaking me out is what if this were to happen for paying clients???!!!!
OH DEAR GOD... |
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04/04/2011 11:34:23 AM · #9 |
| I started to run the Photorec recovery program and it looks like all the images are popping up. It looks like it'll take a while, but I cannot thank you all enough. They're about to put down their doggie of 16 years (sometime this week) and wanted a last image of them with him. I might not have had a chance to reshoot and it would have killed me to tell them that I didn't get anything. |
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04/04/2011 11:38:46 AM · #10 |
Originally posted by tanguera:
I started to run the Photorec recovery program and it looks like all the images are popping up. It looks like it'll take a while, but I cannot thank you all enough. They're about to put down their doggie of 16 years (sometime this week) and wanted a last image of them with him. I might not have had a chance to reshoot and it would have killed me to tell them that I didn't get anything. |
oh no! How stressful for you!
I'm so glad it seems to be working!!! |
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04/04/2011 11:50:05 AM · #11 |
| Whew! That's a relief, especially having read the details of the shoot. |
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04/04/2011 12:00:08 PM · #12 |
Yes, it looks like I dodged a HUGE and PAINFUL bullet. God bless DPC and all therein. What a wonderful family to have.
On a separate but related note, would you use this card again? I mean, after I've recovered everything and saved the images, and made sure they worked. Would you format it and shoot with it again or would you just toss and get a new one? |
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04/04/2011 12:02:44 PM · #13 |
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04/04/2011 12:05:03 PM · #14 |
| Is it the same card from Salton Sea? If so, exchange it wherever you bought it for a new one. It should still be under warranty or whatever. But do get a new card if it is the same one. If not, you may want to send the camera in for a quick checkup, maybe? |
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04/04/2011 12:06:01 PM · #15 |
Originally posted by tanguera:
On a separate but related note, would you use this card again? I mean, after I've recovered everything and saved the images, and made sure they worked. Would you format it and shoot with it again or would you just toss and get a new one? |
Depends on the state of my finances. Given the option, I'd toss it without a backwards glance on basic principles. Think of it as a boyfriend that cheated on you; he may be all remorseful now, but how long will that last?
R. |
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04/04/2011 12:11:28 PM · #16 |
Originally posted by Melethia:
Is it the same card from Salton Sea? If so, exchange it wherever you bought it for a new one. It should still be under warranty or whatever. But do get a new card if it is the same one. If not, you may want to send the camera in for a quick checkup, maybe? |
Not the same card, Deb. That one I did get exchanged. This one I've been using for a couple of months without any issues.
@ Bear - yeah, that's exactly how I feel, VERY gun-shy.
I just wish I could diagnose what went wrong. So I DON'T EVER DO IT AGAIN!!!
Message edited by author 2011-04-04 12:12:03. |
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04/04/2011 12:22:10 PM · #17 |
Did photorec give you any indication what was wrong?
What brand of card was it? Some manufacturers would certainly give you a new one if it's defective. Kingston is very good for that--As I recall I had one card go bad, and they sent me a new one (quite a while ago).
You might just keep it as an emergency "I'm out of space card". But only after you do some tests to make sure it's working in general.
I can't imagine what you could have done...do you delete images in the field? Could you have accidentally deleted them? |
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04/04/2011 12:22:40 PM · #18 |
awwww johanna! i'm sorry to hear that this happened! but glad everything worked out in the end! was the camera completely off when you took the card out? i dont know, but sometimes that does something weird... Jason had this problem, but thankfully (in a way) i was the model and we could just re-shoot. but it was the next day and i had to redo all of my make up. it was for our twiggy shot... Maybe download the picture dirrectly from the camera?
I hope this doesn't happen again! |
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04/04/2011 01:20:01 PM · #19 |
Originally posted by Bear_Music:
Originally posted by tanguera:
On a separate but related note, would you use this card again? I mean, after I've recovered everything and saved the images, and made sure they worked. Would you format it and shoot with it again or would you just toss and get a new one? |
Depends on the state of my finances. Given the option, I'd toss it without a backwards glance on basic principles. Think of it as a boyfriend that cheated on you; he may be all remorseful now, but how long will that last?
R. |
Priceless ! I love it ! :-D |
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04/04/2011 01:44:03 PM · #20 |
Originally posted by nshapiro:
You might just keep it as an emergency "I'm out of space card". But only after you do some tests to make sure it's working in general. |
I would only use it in a "real" emergency though ... when you're all done recovering (and backing up) the photos from the card, you should re-format it in the camera before using it.
You can also keep it around as a prop, next time you need to take a macro or stock shot with a card in it ... :-)
What size card was it? I am a fan of using multiple smaller cards instead of one big one, partly to avoid this kind of issue, and because experience has shown that, mo matter what the format/media/operating system, higher capacity/higher density media fail more often than their smaller antecedents.
I've had one card fail -- I think the camera was writing to it when the batteries failed, and I could never get it to format properly after that. Ejecting a card with the camera on might cause a similar issue.
Glad the recovery software seems to be working -- I had to do a similar photoshoot a few years ago, when I had to use film ... |
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04/04/2011 01:52:58 PM · #21 |
Originally posted by GeneralE:
...You can also keep it around as a prop, next time you need to take a macro or stock shot with a card in it ... :-)... |
Ooh, ooh ! A macro shot with a nail hammered through it into something. Yeah !
ETA... wear safety glasses.
Message edited by author 2011-04-04 13:53:24. |
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04/04/2011 02:05:03 PM · #22 |
A few years ago someone ran some tests to assess the survivability of differet types of memory cards when subjected to various hazards.
Interestingly, as I recall, all of the cards survived the "washing machine" test, but only the SmartMedia and one of the other cards survived the "nailed to a tree" test ... |
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