crashed card - DPChallenge Forums

Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM

11/17/2007 10:04:29 AM · #1

I did an important photoshoot Thursday night, making sure that batteries were charged and had extras, camera lens clean, etc. Photos looked fine in my LED on the Canon 20D Thursday night. By Friday morning they disappeared - meaning the card "crashed." I've ran the card through SanDisk RescuePRO, but it keeps hanging at the last two minutes. Anyone got any ideas?

idnic

Canon EOS-60D

11/17/2007 10:32:18 AM · #2

Try a different recovery software. I would try several before giving up. Google 'memory card recovery'; you'll find bunches of them.

Eyesup

Nikon D300

Sigma 70-200 /2.8 APO EX DG Macro HSM II

11/17/2007 10:37:42 AM · #3

Take the Card to a local Computer repair place they should be able to help you out too... might end up expensive though.

I would recommend for next time bringing a laptop or something like to your photoshoots and dumping photo's to it as you fill cards... then off to an external hard drive of some sort when you get home.

LindaLee

Canon EOS-40D

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

11/17/2007 11:44:07 AM · #4

Originally posted by Eyesup:

I'm not so sure about taking CF cards to local camera shops. I lost some images last year and went through 4 different recovery programs but only recovered a few of the images I needed. I talked to 2 local computer shops (I know the people at one of the shops quite well) and both shops told me the same thing - there was nothing THEY could do that I that I hadn't done. They said that, in fact, they were surprised at the few results that I did get. They basically said that they could help with hard drives, but not with CF cards (or any digital memory cards for cameras).

There is a lot of image recovery software out there, some is free. Google for more, but try all the rescue software you can. ZAR worked best for me. I tried the demo, but ended up buying it because it worked so much better than the others at the time. Here's a few to start:

ZAR
Image Rescue
Photo Rescue
MediaRecover

Good Luck!

Yo_Spiff

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

11/17/2007 11:48:13 AM · #5

Can't help you with any additional ideas to recover the photos. I can sympathize, however. I've had the same happen in my camera, PDA, MP3 player and some equipment at work that stores firmware on flashcards. I do not rely on flash memory as permanent storage because of these experiences. (I do realize this was just overnight for you, and there was no reason to think this would happen) I treat it as a medium for convenience.

We had a recent discussion on this subject in the Canon S5 forum on Flickr. We theorized and generally agreed that periodically doing a low level reformat of the card probably helps prevent this. In my own experience it happens the most with items that are regularly being written and erased from, like the camera and MP3 player. The constant rewrites could put the flashcard's file allocation table at higher risk of corruption. I'd be interested in others opinions and experiences with this idea.

Yo_Spiff

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

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

11/17/2007 11:58:32 AM · #6

I briefly had a thought that Spinritecould help. But, after reading the FAQ, it works under DOS and cannot see anything that relies completely on operating system drivers. It can only work on things that are accessible at a hardware level, such as hard drives. Oh well, good brainstorm while it lasted.

Photologist

Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max

11/17/2007 12:15:48 PM · #7

I heard that any local Ritz Camera/Wolf Camera store offers memory card recovery services.

11/17/2007 03:50:45 PM · #8

Thank you all for your suggestions. I did find another recovery program that seems as though it will work, I can preview the pictures, but until I pay $40 for the program I can't recover them.

I may continue to look for a "freebie" and keep the program that I downloaded as a backup if I can't find a free one that works. At least it is working better than the one that came with one of our cards.

When I called the camera store, they mentioned that the card should be reformatted after pictures are deleted, and that was the first time I'd heard anything about doing that, believe me, if I'd known, I'd have been reformatting.

Another tech support said that cards and sticks have a certain number of rewrites - the more expensive cards have more rewrites. That was the first I'd heard of that too. This particular card has a 5-year warranty; it's a PQ1 and seems to have good reviews. After I get the files off the card, I'm sending it in for a replacement. Already e-mailed for an RMA.

Again, thanks for your suggestions. Will let you know how it turns out.

skylercall

Canon EOS-7D

11/17/2007 04:26:43 PM · #9

Originally posted by NoellaSue:

When I called the camera store, they mentioned that the card should be reformatted after pictures are deleted, and that was the first time I'd heard anything about doing that, believe me, if I'd known, I'd have been reformatting.

Yes, reformating the card (in camera) after each use is good practice. It is also important to format a brand new card before using it.

Marjo

Canon EOS-7D

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

11/17/2007 04:34:09 PM · #10

PC Inspector worked for me...I tried to post a linky to a previous discussion. Didn't work.

Message edited by author 2007-11-17 16:35:38.

twilson944

Canon EOS-400D Rebel XTi

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

11/17/2007 06:03:44 PM · #11

Originally posted by NoellaSue:

After I get the files off the card, I'm sending it in for a replacement. Already e-mailed for an RMA.

If the files on the card are something you don't want in the hands of others, you may want to take some junk shots, format, then repeat a number of times to completely overwrite the existing information. It's my understanding that there are always little bits of information left over that could possibly be extracted by someone who knows what they're doing, and it takes a number of rewrites to cover over all the little bits left behind. Just a thought.

Yo_Spiff

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

11/17/2007 06:05:31 PM · #12

Originally posted by NoellaSue:

it's a PQ1 and seems to have good reviews.

Hmmm. My impression had been that PQI was a budget brand. I could be wrong. I've considered Corsair, Kingston and Sandisk to be some of the better brands, but someone mentioned the other day that they felt Kingston flashcards were poor quality. I suppose it's hard to tell. Perhaps one of the magazines will do some testing on them.

Medoomi

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM

11/17/2007 06:15:18 PM · #13

If it's hanging at the last moment, you might have a conflict in your computer, or card reader. Consider trying another computer or another card reader.

For free recovery software, try photorec (//www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec).
Failing that, try restoration (//www.snapfiles.com/get/restoration.html). It's not as good, but its also free & you could at least try.

In any case, don't give up. Files are most often recoverable. Have you tried seeing if they show up if you view the card through your camera?

Edit: I just noticed Photorec can compile on Mac OSX too...

Message edited by author 2007-11-17 18:27:11.

jaxter

Canon EOS-400D Rebel XTi

Tamron AF 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 LD for Canon

11/17/2007 06:23:29 PM · #14

I use PC Inspector. It has always worked flawlessly for me.

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS

11/18/2007 08:31:24 PM · #15

Thank you all again. I did get my pictures back. And I happened onto PC Inspector before I came back and finished reading all of the recent posts. As it turned out, PC Inspector also hung up, but I was able to retrieve the files it did find and got every one of the ones I needed.

I also found out after I used SanDiskPRO that it actually had retrieved the files (even though it kept "hanging") and I didn't know it, they were residing in a temp folder in my computer. I found them (they were there for both times that I tried retrieving them) while I was "cleaning" the hard drive. Sure wish I'd known that earlier. Would have saved me a LOT of time!

As I searched the PQ1 website I found that the card has a 5-year warranty and so I've asked for an RMA number. I won't trust that card again.

ellamay

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

11/18/2007 11:32:24 PM · #16

just curios what kind of card is it? how many gigs?

I have just had a similar thing and have heard common with the card I have....
I don't plan on getting any more of them!