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HELP URGENTLY NEEDED
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I have a SD card with wedding photos on from A wedding I was at on Thursday. Had been able to view them earlier today but just before I was saving them to the hard drive I got a message that the card is not formatted and did I want too, this message also also appears on the camera when I insert the card.
Any help would be appreciated. I am really starting to panic.
Thanks in anticipation.
CarlCarl. Whatever you co don’t take any more shots on the card, though I suppose that isn’t an option at the moment. Obviously don’t format it either.
The shots should be retrievable using rescue software. I downloaded on when a similar thing happened to me. Used the free trial…and it worked a treat, though because I’d taken more shots before I realised I’d lost the originals there was a loss of quality in the shots I managed to recover.
Anyway, in the words of that guy from Dad’s Army…Don’t panic….just yet.
Here is the link that Jay King originally posted. Worked a treat for me as I said. Hopefully will be useful for you.
http://download.pcinspector.de/pci_us_smartrecovery.exe
P.S ..if you do use it ..it takes quite a long while to do it’s thing.
Good luck
Robbie
8)Expresbro wrote:
Carl. Whatever you co don’t take any more shots on the card, though I suppose that isn’t an option at the moment. Obviously don’t format it either.
The shots should be retrievable using rescue software. I downloaded on when a similar thing happened to me. Used the free trial…and it worked a treat, though because I’d taken more shots before I realised I’d lost the originals there was a loss of quality in the shots I managed to recover.
Anyway, in the words of that guy from Dad’s Army…Don’t panic….just yet.
Robbie I have downloaded a recovery package that I am trying at the minute so fingers crossed.
Thanks Mate
CarlHey Carl,
as mentioned the data should be retrievable.
Try this bit of free software and see how you get on:
http://download.pcinspector.de/pci_us_smartrecovery.exe
Jay K
edit… Heh… Just beat me to it mate!!
Expresbro wrote:
Here is the link that Jay King originally posted. Worked a treat for me as I said. Hopefully will be useful for you.
http://download.pcinspector.de/pci_us_smartrecovery.exe
P.S ..if you do use it ..it takes quite a long while to do it’s thing.
Good luck
Robbie
8)Jay and Robbie thanks again folks as I say I am trying a package at the minute which looks very hopeful (thre rosaries). If it doesn’t work I will try your link and thanks again for the very quick replies.
I will keep you informed on the progress.
Soda (uses Carl in panic mode)
Oh and once recovered backed up on to at least as many devices I can find.
SodaJust saw your message now. If you still have a ptoblem give me a shout. I have a few recovery packages here and have used them successfully many times. I have even formatted cards and then recovered them perfectly just testing out the software.
Main thing is even if you formatted the card………DONT TAKE ANY NEW IMAGES ON THAT CARD !!
Probably by now you are OK and looking at the images.
GCP wrote:
Just saw your message now. If you still have a ptoblem give me a shout. I have a few recovery packages here and have used them successfully many times. I have even formatted cards and then recovered them perfectly just testing out the software.
Main thing is even if you formatted the card………DONT TAKE ANY NEW IMAGES ON THAT CARD !!
Probably by now you are OK and looking at the images.
Gerry still in the process although it looks to have lst a lot of pics 500 on card and is showing 264 at the minute. any help would be appreciated.
By the way were else would you get help like you do here.
SodaGood luck with the recovery. Hope it works out OK. No reason why it shouldn’t. Sounds like you’ve gone and corrupted/deleted the FAT. This can happen for a variety of reasons and it’s important that you try and identify the reason it happened to you so that you can avoid this happening again. Common reasons that I’ve come across are:
1. Deleting images in camera as you shoot. Never do this, it results in a fragmented file system which can become corrupt over time.
2. Formatting the card anywhere other than in the camera. Never format the card in a PC/Mac. Always do this in the camera. Format the card rather than deleting the images on it each time you want to clear the card. Formatting the card is quicker than deleting and replaces the file allocation table with a new one. If you simply delete the images you end up with a fragmented file system.
3. Dodgy card reader. I’ve had card readers go flaky on me in the past. Do yourself a favour and invest in a decent card reader.
4. Playing with the images on the card. This has caused problems for me in the past. During a shoot, someone took my card to preview the images on their Mac. When I got home to download the images onto my PC I had no end of trouble. Fortunately nothing was lost, but it was an eye-opener (never let anyone take your card for whatever reason once you have images on it!)
5. Never “move” your images from card to PC. Always “copy” instead. That way you have the originals on the card until you are sure you have them safely archived.I use SanDisk Extreme III cards and each one comes with a copy of their RescuePRO software. Definitely worth having.
:shock: Sodafarl, best of luck with the recovery. I know (only too well) how this feels. Excellent piece of advice there Thorsten.
Deleting shots on the fly is something I’ve always done Thorsten. I never realised it could damage the card. Will remember that in future myself.
Some great pointers there…cheers :D
Hey Carl… how did you get on in the end?
Robbie
8)Expresbro wrote:
Deleting shots on the fly is something I’ve always done Thorsten. I never realised it could damage the card. Will remember that in future myself.
Some great pointers there…cheers :D
Hey Carl… how did you get on in the end?
Robbie
8)Just to clarify – deleting shots while shooting won’t actually physically damage the card! And in most cases, you won’t notice any adverse affects from doing so. But the more you delete, the more you fragment the file structure and this may compromise data integrity. Even if someone told me that the odds of something going wrong by doing this were very low, I still wouldn’t take the risk.
Yeah..understood :D Is more or less like on a PC harddrive right?
So formatting the card is a bit like running Scandisk or whatever it’s called now? Is formatting the card repeatedly okay for the card Thorsten?
Cheers
Robbie
8)I’ve never had a problem with repeated formatting of my cards; it’s certainly better than repeated deleting, IMHO. The way I work is once a shoot is complete, I download the contents of the card to my PC using a card reader and Downloader Pro. Then I remove the card from the card reader and put it to one side. I then verify that all of the images are safe on my PC and before I do anything else I backup what I’ve just downloaded. Only then does the card return to it’s place in my card wallet and when it’s turn comes up to be used again (I have several cards that I simply cycle through) I just pop it back in the camera and the first action I take is to format the card. If you know in advance of a shoot that it’s going to be hectic and you want to save time, then by all means format it beforehand. I just figure that with my way of working the files are on the card for a longer period, just in case something should go wrong with the copies I’ve dumped onto my PC and formatting only takes a few seconds anyway.
I do the very same as Thorston but I also back them up on 2 external hard drives also. So I end up with images on CF Card, DVD, PC Hard Drive and 2 external hard drives. Its just a system I got into as I lost a hard drive some years back and spent a lot having it recovered.
When I got my first PC in 1989 and started using it to run the business I got great advice from Photographer/Software Developer, Roy McKeon, (not sure if Roy is on this site yet). His policy is back up, backup again, backup again and then when you are feeling safe go and back up again ………….and keep backups in different locations.
However did we manage when we just had one set of negatives !!!!!!
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