Comments on: More Corrupt Memory-Card Woes http://regex.info/blog/2009-07-28/1267 Not a photo blog. A personal blog with photos. Wed, 23 May 2012 12:55:23 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: John V http://regex.info/blog/2009-07-28/1267#comment-36215 John V Thu, 30 Jul 2009 17:51:01 +0000 http://regex.info/blog/2009-07-28/1267#comment-36215 For myself seems like the faster/newer cards are hit or miss whether they will work on older card readers. I have two older Lexar Firewire CF RW019 readers, same model purchased at the same time. One will choke on the new cards and the other works fine with the newer cards... so I have not idea what's going on with that. Anyway I've only had one corrupt card in 8 years of digital and it was very stressful as it was a paying job... family portraits. What worked was Photo Rescue: http://www.datarescue.com/photorescue/v3/ I tried RescuePRO and had no luck what so ever. John V. For myself seems like the faster/newer cards are hit or miss whether they will work on older card readers. I have two older Lexar Firewire CF RW019 readers, same model purchased at the same time. One will choke on the new cards and the other works fine with the newer cards… so I have not idea what’s going on with that.

Anyway I’ve only had one corrupt card in 8 years of digital and it was very stressful as it was a paying job… family portraits. What worked was Photo Rescue:

http://www.datarescue.com/photorescue/v3/

I tried RescuePRO and had no luck what so ever.

John V.

]]> By: Daniel Cutter http://regex.info/blog/2009-07-28/1267#comment-36205 Daniel Cutter Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:32:22 +0000 http://regex.info/blog/2009-07-28/1267#comment-36205 I had a similair problem with my D70 last year. I've got 2 Sandisk 1GB CF-Cards and I was getting half written images more and more often - sometimes corrupting the entire card. I brought my camera to an official Nikon repair service here in Berlin. Two weeks and 300+ Euros later the problem was solved. Apparently the controller in the camera was defunct. I had a similair problem with my D70 last year. I’ve got 2 Sandisk 1GB CF-Cards and I was getting half written images more and more often – sometimes corrupting the entire card. I brought my camera to an official Nikon repair service here in Berlin. Two weeks and 300+ Euros later the problem was solved. Apparently the controller in the camera was defunct.

]]> By: BobCaTT http://regex.info/blog/2009-07-28/1267#comment-36204 BobCaTT Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:14:22 +0000 http://regex.info/blog/2009-07-28/1267#comment-36204 Hi Jeffrey, I don't know if you have any contact with Nikon, but when you have a corrupted memory card, before restoring anything, it might be very good to make an "image" of it and then transmit everything to the technical staff. And I guess someone in your reader could even provide a good contact. Cheers Hi Jeffrey,

I don’t know if you have any contact with Nikon, but when you have a corrupted memory card, before restoring anything, it might be very good to make an “image” of it and then transmit everything to the technical staff.

And I guess someone in your reader could even provide a good contact.

Cheers

]]> By: JasonP http://regex.info/blog/2009-07-28/1267#comment-36201 JasonP Tue, 28 Jul 2009 18:38:50 +0000 http://regex.info/blog/2009-07-28/1267#comment-36201 One more for PhotoRec! I've never had a corrupted card in almost 4 years of DSLRs (Canon and SanDisk Ultra II's, one 8GB Extreme III). But, for the first time EVER, I accidentally formatted a full 2GB card in the camera thinking it was a different one. There went 200 photos :( I tried three file recovery programs I have, (one of which I paid a not-so-small fee for) but none of them found any files. Went with PhotoRec and recovered all of them pretty quickly. I've sent off my donation, well worth it! Have to agree with the interface though. Could definitely use a GUI... command line can seem archaic enough that most people these days wouldn't want to go near it. One more for PhotoRec! I’ve never had a corrupted card in almost 4 years of DSLRs (Canon and SanDisk Ultra II’s, one 8GB Extreme III). But, for the first time EVER, I accidentally formatted a full 2GB card in the camera thinking it was a different one. There went 200 photos :( I tried three file recovery programs I have, (one of which I paid a not-so-small fee for) but none of them found any files. Went with PhotoRec and recovered all of them pretty quickly. I’ve sent off my donation, well worth it!

Have to agree with the interface though. Could definitely use a GUI… command line can seem archaic enough that most people these days wouldn’t want to go near it.

]]> By: Alex Chng http://regex.info/blog/2009-07-28/1267#comment-36196 Alex Chng Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:31:26 +0000 http://regex.info/blog/2009-07-28/1267#comment-36196 Jeffrey, I totally agree with you that PhotoRec is a Super recoverer. I have had 3 opportunities when I had to recover lost photos, once from a SanDisk CompactFlash I have already formatted, twice from harddisk that had crashed. It is not fast (perhaps on my computers) but the recovered photos gave me a lot of confidence in recommending it. Thank you for sharing your experience with this product. It reafirmed my confidence with the product. Thank you for this great Blog. Alex <span class='jfriedl'>The only problem with PhotoRec is that its command-line interface is sorty of geeky, which is just dandy for me, but perhaps a stumbling block for non-geek photographers. If you can get by that and have it work, I hope you'll send $20 or $30 to the developer in thanks. I have a couple of times... —Jeffrey</span> Jeffrey,
I totally agree with you that PhotoRec is a Super recoverer.
I have had 3 opportunities when I had to recover lost photos, once from a SanDisk CompactFlash I have already formatted, twice from harddisk that had crashed.
It is not fast (perhaps on my computers) but the recovered photos gave me a lot of confidence in recommending it.
Thank you for sharing your experience with this product. It reafirmed my confidence with the product.
Thank you for this great Blog.
Alex

The only problem with PhotoRec is that its command-line interface is sorty of geeky, which is just dandy for me, but perhaps a stumbling block for non-geek photographers. If you can get by that and have it work, I hope you’ll send $20 or $30 to the developer in thanks. I have a couple of times… —Jeffrey

]]> By: Tonino http://regex.info/blog/2009-07-28/1267#comment-36145 Tonino Tue, 28 Jul 2009 05:44:20 +0000 http://regex.info/blog/2009-07-28/1267#comment-36145 I experimented these kind of problem several times with a Canon 5D Mark II. To my greatest concern, it happened randomly, with a very small batch of images and with any of my cards. I have never had any problem with my 5D before with the same material. So I suspected a hardware problem. Since, I have upgraded to the latest firmware, corrupted images are gone. It was firmware related or at least the problem was corrected with the new firmware. Did you try reinstalling the firmware ? downgrading the firmware ? I experimented these kind of problem several times with a Canon 5D Mark II. To my greatest concern, it happened randomly, with a very small batch of images and with any of my cards. I have never had any problem with my 5D before with the same material. So I suspected a hardware problem.

Since, I have upgraded to the latest firmware, corrupted images are gone. It was firmware related or at least the problem was corrected with the new firmware.

Did you try reinstalling the firmware ? downgrading the firmware ?

]]> By: Ian http://regex.info/blog/2009-07-28/1267#comment-36141 Ian Tue, 28 Jul 2009 02:41:15 +0000 http://regex.info/blog/2009-07-28/1267#comment-36141 I too recommend reformatting the card in the camera (once you have recovered your photos of course!). I had a similar problem about a year ago when I last upgraded my camera. When I eventually flicked through the manual I found out it formats cards differently to previous models. Cards formatted in the old model cause corruption if used in the new model, and vice versa. I don't know if this is the same problem you are having, since I don't use the same camera (I use Pentax), but it is worth checking the notes in the manual, if you still have it. Thanks for the link to PhotoRec. When I had corrupted cards I used the SanDisk software that came with the cards (which doesn't run on linux, only windows). It recovered most of my photos, but I still lost about twenty. I shall give PhotoRec a go if ever I have problems again. I too recommend reformatting the card in the camera (once you have recovered your photos of course!). I had a similar problem about a year ago when I last upgraded my camera. When I eventually flicked through the manual I found out it formats cards differently to previous models. Cards formatted in the old model cause corruption if used in the new model, and vice versa. I don’t know if this is the same problem you are having, since I don’t use the same camera (I use Pentax), but it is worth checking the notes in the manual, if you still have it.

Thanks for the link to PhotoRec. When I had corrupted cards I used the SanDisk software that came with the cards (which doesn’t run on linux, only windows). It recovered most of my photos, but I still lost about twenty. I shall give PhotoRec a go if ever I have problems again.

]]> By: BobCaTT http://regex.info/blog/2009-07-28/1267#comment-36140 BobCaTT Tue, 28 Jul 2009 02:05:06 +0000 http://regex.info/blog/2009-07-28/1267#comment-36140 Hi Jeffrey, What I can suggest you is to format you memory card with the camera body itself. Usually, there's a menu for that. The idea behind this is the firmware responsible to read/write data on the card could be buggy. Formatting via the camera itself, via the same buggy part could "help" such problem. Also, if you have Linux installed, I can give you a small procedure to check if the memory card is physically damaged (bad sectors). <span class='jfriedl'>I format in-camera every time I use it... Nikon makes it easy with a two-button salute. I don't have a Linux machine handy, but have something I can use to check.... maybe I will, just to be sure.... —Jeffrey</span> Good luck. Hi Jeffrey,

What I can suggest you is to format you memory card with the camera body itself. Usually, there’s a menu for that. The idea behind this is the firmware responsible to read/write data on the card could be buggy. Formatting via the camera itself, via the same buggy part could “help” such problem.

Also, if you have Linux installed, I can give you a small procedure to check if the memory card is physically damaged (bad sectors).

I format in-camera every time I use it… Nikon makes it easy with a two-button salute. I don’t have a Linux machine handy, but have something I can use to check…. maybe I will, just to be sure…. —Jeffrey

Good luck.

]]> By: Chi http://regex.info/blog/2009-07-28/1267#comment-36138 Chi Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:51:09 +0000 http://regex.info/blog/2009-07-28/1267#comment-36138 The suggestion by Josh sounds reasonable but I vaguely remember the D700 only supported PTP mode. Also, I have a D700 (still using the original firmware; A 1.00, B 1.00) with several Sandisk Extreme III CF cards and have never had any image/CF corruption after thousands of writes. I read the images off via an external CF reader. So I doubt the original firmware is the root cause. <span class='jfriedl'>Turns out that plugging directly into the camera and loading with Lightroom is really convenient, so I'll do that for a while until I can figure this out. —Jeffrey</span> The suggestion by Josh sounds reasonable but I vaguely remember the D700 only supported PTP mode.

Also, I have a D700 (still using the original firmware; A 1.00, B 1.00) with several Sandisk Extreme III CF cards and have never had any image/CF corruption after thousands of writes. I read the images off via an external CF reader. So I doubt the original firmware is the root cause.

Turns out that plugging directly into the camera and loading with Lightroom is really convenient, so I’ll do that for a while until I can figure this out. —Jeffrey

]]> By: Josh http://regex.info/blog/2009-07-28/1267#comment-36136 Josh Mon, 27 Jul 2009 21:16:16 +0000 http://regex.info/blog/2009-07-28/1267#comment-36136 You could also try plugging a USB cable into the D700 and using it as your card reader. I love seperate card readers, and hate using the camera for this, but in your case it eliminates a variable entirely. Have you upgraded the firmware on the D700 -- I know Nikon posted a firmware update for the D700. (here's hoping that my D700, arriving tomorrow, doesn't do that). -Josh <span class='jfriedl'>Excellent idea.... I'll give it a try. Must check the firmware as well. I remember not upgrading right away because it didn't seem to cover anything I was interested in, but I did it later... I think. —Jeffrey</span> You could also try plugging a USB cable into the D700 and using it as your card reader. I love seperate card readers, and hate using the camera for this, but in your case it eliminates a variable entirely. Have you upgraded the firmware on the D700 — I know Nikon posted a firmware update for the D700.

(here’s hoping that my D700, arriving tomorrow, doesn’t do that).

-Josh

Excellent idea…. I’ll give it a try. Must check the firmware as well. I remember not upgrading right away because it didn’t seem to cover anything I was interested in, but I did it later… I think. —Jeffrey

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