I did a search to find other posts on this topic and found tons - however, there was a lot of conflicting info and some info that doesn't really pertain to my situation, so bear with me if I am repeating a request for help that you've read many times already.....

I used a SanDisk CF card (only 2 months old) at a shoot. I shoot raw. I'm working on a PC and using PS CS3. I'm a chimper, so I know that the pictures were fine, and on the card about an hour after the session. I downloaded several cards directly to my computer as I always do, and when I went to do the same with this card in question, nothing happened. I removed the card and checked it in camera and was able to see only one picture. The rest say "corrupted data" with a yellow question mark in the center. It also tells me that 84 out of 85 pictures are corrupt, however it also blinks "full cf" and I remember using this entire card up, so I am missing about 150 pictures, roughly (which I am assuming are gone forever). I tried to install the card in the computer again and received a corrupted file message, however this time it prompted me to do a file retrieval, which I did, and now have .chk files loaded on my computer in place of the actual pictures. There was another file type (type unknown to me and which I cannot remember now) but when it asked how I wanted to open them and I clicked Bridge, it converted all 85 pictures to a .CR2 file, but won't let me open them.

My question now, is what to do? There are files there, so I do have something to work with, but I just need to figure out which recovery steps and/or software I need to help my computer read the files. The posts I've read have offered disk recovery software options, but each seem a little different than what I'm experiencing.

Any suggestions? Sending it out to a professional company and spending hundreds of dollars on it is not an option considering the cirumstances of this shoot.

Thanks in advance! I appreciate it!

try photorescue http://www.datarescue.com/photorescue/

If that doesn't work let us know, I have a company you can call

This shoot really has nothing to do with the cost of recovering the images. You aren't rescuing this job, you're protecting your professional reputation. How much is that worth? Hopefully more than any one job.

As for getting to the images, photorescue is a good option. It has worked for me any time I needed to rescue an image. But if it doesn't, Tallyn's would be my first choice to send it to.

+1

use the sandisk program that came with the card. I think its called rescue pro. I know if won't do any more harm. I used a program called "card recovery" one time and DO NOT use it... It permanently erases all data after searching... horrible move

Tana -- I had the same problem this summer and I used PC Inspector, you can download here, and it worked like a charm. It recovered all but 2 images with no problems.

It took a few hours but it saved our butts on that shoot.

Hope this helps.

Ditto Monarch's recommendation. PC inspector is good too.

As a newbie, I can help here. I've been a huge victim to this. I was a huge victim of the Lexar Canon incompatability (searchable on their site), as before I knew of this I had two card decks full of Lexar cards. And nearly all of them failed. In fact, most failed three times... another words I sent the cards in to Lexar to have them switched out three times and they always failed. In fact, the third time, they got lost in the mail and Lexar refussed to believe me and replace them. Even though they've swapped out my many cards a few times, they can't just believe me and take care of my for all my hassle! Ugh!

In the meantime, I had started to switch to San Disk and all was fine. But I just had my first San Disk failure. And I can tell you I reached out to San Disk and they didn't even answer me. But I have not been as persistent as I was with Lexar, as so far I'm only talking one San Disk card and with Lexar it was a lot of cards I was dealing with... If you get a response from San Disk, please inform me of who to contact to get a response.

So long story short, get with San Disk immediately. Worst case they can and should get your cards and recover the images for you. But card recovery software may help you while you are waiting for San Disk to respond- so keep trying that. And also importantabout contacting San Disk- they should send you a new card, that should'n't be corrupt- but don't hold your breath. I hear the both Lexars and San Disks fail with Cannons. And have been referred to Hoodman.

Maybe Lexar will read this and feel bad for the resources they cost me. Or San Disk will answer me. Or Hoodman will throw me a bone for this good word of mouth... I don't know! I would love for one of these companies to feel bad for me for my hundreds of dollars lost to be victim of card errors! Many due to Lexar card errors.

Shannon, SMBPhotography.biz

Thank you everyone! This is exactly what I was hoping from you guys. A basic internet search provides so much information and I was unsure where to start and which option would be best for my situation. There is so much to choose from and I wanted to benefit from OSPer's experiences by avoiding scenarios like mentioned by Jessica. (thank you) So, I'm off to try... wish me luck. I'll let you know what ends up working.

Again, thank you so much you guys!! I knew you'd come through!



Quickly, I wanted to comment on this. Thank you Mark, you are always honest and it is appreciated. I do see where you are coming from. However, I do hope you understand that my unwillingness to pay to send the card out as a first and only option does not demonstrate a lack of pride in my business. My statement was simply made because an OSP search on this topic provided a lot of responses of "send your card to such and such professional", etc. That was not what I was looking for since I was able to retain some files, just not in a form known to my computer. With all of the programs out there, I knew I could run something myself and saw no sense in sending it out without first trying my other options. My comment was not meant to say that I wouldn't pay for a recovery, but that I am not wanting to spend several hundred for a company to repair just this one card when I could purchase a program that I could download and have available should this ever happen again. So I agree with you, my professional reputation is worth far more than any monetary value and I am willing to protect it, but I was/am not at the stage yet where I needed to send the card out. But I do know what you are saying and honestly do appreciate you helping keep the focus on what matters - which is the clients - regardless of the type of shoot. That is why I'm glad to have you guys here!

I wanted to Amend my writing about Lexar. As I copied them to my original OSP post and they responded by replacing most (or maybe even all) of my original memory cards. So I can now report that my memory card cases are no longer bare due to Lexar. And I also wanted to say that in my experience Lexar really takes care of their customers. Nikon shooters should all be on Lexar, knowing the way they cared for me. And hopefully shortly, I will be able to report less 20d and Lexar card errors than I have to date given their 20d recall.

Tana,

Unfortunately I understand exactly where you are coming from. This has happened to me with SD cards. There was no program able to rescue my images and believe me I scoured the earth. However the good news is that I learned that connecting the USB cable to my camera and uploading directly from the camera rather than a card reader or the built in reader did work. Dont know why but thats the way it is on my Vista PC. Now my apple is another thing. It works just fine right out of the box. Cards can become corrupted but I would try uploading from the camera. Best of luck.

Jim

One other point I should make on this. The first time this happened it was the camera. I was shooting and everything looked fine in the viewfinder. Then I checked again later and noticed that on playback the camera said "File contains no data". I scrolled back to where I knew I had good images and they were there. So the first time this happened it was the camera. I sent it into Nikon and they made some sensor adjustments. The second time it happened I dont know which piece of equipment was involved computer -camera- or card. Once was Lexar and once was Sandisk. But I do know that using the camera USB cable eliminated the problem. Its slower but it works for me and I can breathe again.


Now I have dedicated cards for all three camera bodies and never ever delete files from the card - in camera or otherwise. If I want an image off the card I wait until I format.


Jim

The link above is for their "File Recovery" program, which is pretty much the same as "Rescue Pro" and doesn't work if the file allocation table is corrupt, which is what it looks like in your situation since you're showing CF FULL. File Recovery is for deleted or formatted cards or disks.

I recommend their other program, PC Inspector "Smart Recovery", available here, which is specifically for memory cards and understands and recognizes most RAW file formats. It will scan the card, sector by sector, byte by byte and recover ANY usable files. You probably need a card reader to use it, as I don't think it will work when connected to a camera.

This program recovered hundreds of wedding images off of one of my corrupted cards. I had downloaded the medium jpgs the night before without issue, but a faulty card reader corrupted the card halfway through downloading the raws. I had a bunch of gobblygoop directory entries on the card when I looked at it with a file explorer and the 4GB card only showed 1.5GB total space. It takes hours to run so be patient or let it run overnight, but it is one of the best I've found and is non-destructive and it recovered every single image of the wedding on that card.