Help !! Corrupted card ?

[Rose]

In the process of importing my pics from last night into LR and I got an error mid-way through telling me the card wasn't properly ejected even though I hadn't touched it. It seemed that all the images had been imported at first, but after standard previews were rendered, only half are now there. LR now won't read the card neither will the card reader - and when I put it in the camera to see if the images are still on the card it tells me it isn't formatted. It seems the card is corrupted ? Now I think there are ways of retrieving images from a corrupted card... how do I do it ?

[Peter Boughton]

The last memory card I bought came with a coupon for some recovery software.

Never had a need to use it, so don't know if it's any good, but there's a demo version available:

http://www.lc-tech.com/pc/sandisk-rescu ... ro-deluxe/

(I think the way these work is you try the demo to see if it's able to retrieve the files, but need the full version to actually complete the retrieval.)

[Mike Farley]

Bad luck, Rose. Peter is right about using file recovery software and, as Google will tell you, there are quite a few out there. I have not checked, but having a demo version which tells you what files can be recovered and giving the option of paying for the software if you want to proceed seems to be the way this particular market works. Sandisk provides a licence with its more expensive cards, so possibly you have what you need already. And if one company's software does not work, then someone else's might.

Also, do not even think about using the card again as there is a risk that you will get another corruption. These days they are cheap enough to bin a dud and purchase another. 7DayShop is reliable and usually has competitive prices, as many retail shops seem to charge considerable premiums. Possibly you can save a bit of money by going for one which comes with file recovery software included.

http://www.7dayshop.com/

It might be an old fisherman's wive's tale, but a while back I read that one way to reduce the risk of corruption is never to delete files from the card, either in camera or on the computer. When you are ready to reuse a card, simply reformat it in the camera. As I say, I don't know if there is anything in it, but it is what I do. So far, I have only had one SD card go AWOL, but maybe I have just been lucky.

[Rose]

I bought I new SanDisk card which came with a year's free subscription to RescuePro Deluxe. However, I'm not going to be able to recover my images from the corrupt disk. RescePro is only able to recover files if the media is readable by the computer - and that's not the case. Oh well. At least I got some images fro our session And I have a new disk that's twice as fast as the old one

[Nina]

Oh dear, how annoying for you. At least you should be grateful that it didn't happen when you were on holiday. The pictures you took at the club are not irreplaceable.

[Mike Farley]

One further thought, Rose. Can you see the images on the camera's LCD? If the images are visible in camera it might just be possible to retrieve the situation by using the RescuePro software. Cards can corrupt and become unreadable, so this is something of a long shot if you have not already tried it. The other point to bear in mind is that the camera is not showing the actual image, rather a JPEG thumbnail created at the time of capture, so being able to see it is not mean that much in terms of what remains readable on the card.

As Nina says, this is unfortunate, but could have been much worse. It supports the argument for having a lot of smaller cards rather than a few large ones, so that if a corruption does occur fewer images will be lost.

[Rose]

No the camera isn't reading the card either.

Nina you're right, although it's disappointing to have lost some good shots taken at our club session, at least I didn't lose all of them - and I would have been really upset if it had happened on holiday.

Mike, I've just bought a new 8GB card but my other cards are all 4GB & 2GB. When I'm on holiday I carry several cards around with me, always download images onto my netbook every night then format the cards ready for the next day.

[Nina]

No the camera isn't reading the card either.

When I'm on holiday I carry several cards around with me, always download images onto my netbook every night then format the cards ready for the next day.

I have a similar system on holiday I download every night to my Epson Drive. Luckily that has not let me down. I must buy some more cards, I went to China with only one 4G card, would you believe?

[Mike Farley]

No the camera isn't reading the card either.

Rereading my earlier post, I realise that I should have added that if the images were viewable in the camera, then it would be worthwhile trying to use that to download the images rather than a card reader. Sorry it did not work, but the chances were always going to be slim on that front.

Mike, I've just bought a new 8GB card but my other cards are all 4GB & 2GB. When I'm on holiday I carry several cards around with me, always download images onto my netbook every night then format the cards ready for the next day.

Excellent! The addition of backing up to a portable external hard drive or archiving to DVD and keeping the backup copy separately from the netbook would provide even greater peace of mind. That way you would always have two copies of every image. Someone I once met on holiday went even further and had two external hard drives, one of which he always kept in a pocket when he was out.

[Rose]

I used to use an Epson Drive and loved it, but when I bought my 5D the Epson didn't support it. The cost of the latest model was prohibitive so I went for a netbook instead. Am now thinking of replacing that as the netbook I have is a bit heavy TBH. Especially when I'm carrying it around with the rest of my camera kit. I saw an iPad Mini for the first time yesterday and was really impressed with just how litle it weighed. A big difference between that and the main iPad. It would make a great carry-around device, but you'd need to get a big enough one - 16GB wouldn't hold much ! No retina screen on the iPad Mini either yet... no doubt that will come in the next version.