Recovering lost / corrupted files from SD card

[ilesmark]

Hi all

Just got back from a month in Ethiopia and have a bit of a problem with one of the SD cards I was using while I was away.

I bought a couple of pen drives SPECIFICALLY to be able to make backup copies of what was on my SD cards in case I lost them. When I put the card into someone's PC out there, I selected all 852 pics and vids and hit copy and then tried to paste them into the pen drive; that was when the problem happened. Only 32 showed up on the pen drive and suddenly only the same 32 remained on the SD card ie only 32 showed on screen. But the data is still there, as the card shows itself as being nearly full like it did before I put it into that PC. So it doesn't look like a simple case of recovering stuff that's been deleted by accident.

A friend has already recommended good old Recuva, but this is one of the times I kick myself for having bought a Mac. I've already run FileJuicer (for those familiar with Macs) but all this has brought up is the 32 already on there. I can get access to a PC if necessary.

Please help if you have any ideas - am really worried about the prospect of losing these pics and videos

Thanks in advance

Mark

[Surfy]

If you really need that Data i strongly suggest to ask a specialist.

He will do an Image out of the Drive first, and just work with that, this way he has severall try's to fix it. Choosing the wrong Tool or method can cause loss.

Surfy

[Big Yellow Tractor]

I used a company in Oxford Data Recovery Disk Recovery Tape Recovery RAID Recovery Services UK to recover a hard drive. They charged a fee to investigate and advise what they thought they could get back, then a fee for recovery. They were ***ing expensive but they did what they said they would do and I recovered my company data.

Word of warning, I regularly backed-up to a separate hard drive but whatever wrecked my PC, killed the hard drive too. Don't leave it hooked up.

[ilesmark]

Hi both. Have been away for a couple of days over Easter but just logged back. Thanks for this - have done some googling and also had some answers from another forum.

I have tried running some of the free apps and between them they seem to have got back a good number of the still photos. As for the videos - some got recovered but whenever I try to play any of them in Quick Time Player I get a message saying 'this is not a format Quick Time understands'. They don't work in VLC either.

The other apps cost and I wouldn't mind paying for them, but would prefer to know they will recover the videos before shelling out!

Rgds

Mark

[photographicsafaris]

"Don't panic" software, really great for home use and ideal for recovery of this kind of data.

Sandisk Extreme cards come with a software program to do this too.

You don't need to fork out for a specialist to recover images.

Essentially it sound like all that has happened is that at some point during the communication process you have had an interruption to the power supply and have probably lost some data, but most importantly the original "index" to the data supply has become err untangled and needs to be straightened out to identify what goes where in the data process.

the only issue is with recovery of RAW data, at worst the embedded small jpg images will be recovered 90%.

Happy to help out if you don't find a solution.

Kind regards

G

[Senno]

Sounds stupid but have you made sure your recovered files are named properly? Sometimes that can be enough to stop them opening. Also try to recover again using same and different applications.

I agree with previous poster: most of the time you really don't need to shell out for professional services.

[ilesmark]

Hi all

Thanks for these further responses - am impressed by the way people have rallied round!

Where I am currently up to is that recovering the files is no longer a problem; it's fixing the corrupt ones. I've managed to recover most / all of the still images and it is now just the videos that are still a problem; they seem to be corrupt.

The various file recovery apps I have run have all brought about the same result with the videos ie they seemingly recover, but then when I try to play them they don't work. I get various results eg they won't even open and flash up 'This is not a type of file Quick Time player recognises', or they DO open but when I try and play the clip the window is blank and the slider moves across the bottom with a couple of seconds of recognisable sound, replaced by a loud and sometimes intermittent hissing noise. Or they open and you see a still picture, but when you hit play the picture remains frozen while the slider and sound behave as above.

Trying to open them in VLC doesn't improve matters, and neither does changing the file name or the extension.

So then I started googling 'recovering corrupted mov files' and so far have tried demo versions of about 10 different apps. Also I tried one called repair cycorder but you seemingly need a degree in computing to understand it and I couldn't get it to work! Most don't change anything BUT one possibly two DO seem to work at least on some of the videos. These are MP4 Repair and Treasured. They work not by you downloading an app onto your Mac but by you uploading the videos to their site, whereupon it 'processes' them, flashes up a price for the full thing and lets you download a 6-second clip to prove it works. The price, however is the major sticking point; for 1 video MP4 Repair quoted me US$47 while for 3 it went up to $84 - and I have about 100 of the damn things!

I was on the verge of giving up but now that I have seen the videos CAN be recovered it's given me more impetus to keep trying.

Anyone have any further ideas? Photographicsafaris - I hope your offer was genuine!!

Thanks in advance

Mark

[Senno]

I guess if you can't get any to work for now, keep hold of the recovered files. Who knows what software or solutions might be available in a few years time

[ilesmark]

Originally Posted by Senno

I guess if you can't get any to work for now, keep hold of the recovered files. Who knows what software or solutions might be available in a few years time

What, a sort of cyber version of cryogenic suspension?!

[Senno]

Originally Posted by ilesmark

What, a sort of cyber version of cryogenic suspension?!

Yeh kind of. Doing for your pics what they did with Walt Disney's head

Software and tech are always improving so if the files are important to you, hang on to them. They might be easily recoverable one day, even if not today

[jfman]

Being the tart that I am, I formated an SD card full of photos on a trip in 2014.

I bought a 40ish $ program called "Photo Rescue" and the photos were save



"Format Card All data will be lost!" SNAFU - Is there hope | Adventure Rider

[arrius]

Recovery tools are very advanced nowadays, I am sure there is numerous software that can help you recover your lost data such as Recuva and Puran.

[StephenTomas]

Originally Posted by ilesmark

What, a sort of cyber version of cryogenic suspension?!

That's right, as long as your data is not overwritten, you can recover data from corrupted SD card with a valid data recovery tool in a few years.：d

[branco]

Scandisk have a version that use can trial, I think it will recover all just not let you choose indervidual files. Funny enough I had a micoSD card last week that I snapped the little tail(handle) thingy off, I spoke with Scandisk support direct and basicly they said unless the computer can detect the card the tools they have will not work. So hopefully you can still see the card just not the contents.

[backofbeyond]

Some good free ones out there as well. Last week Word managed to delete an article I’d written for a bike mag just before I was about to send it. I used a recovery programme called EraseUS Data Recovery Wizard.

it didn’t find the exact file but did recover the previous version and I could remember the differences. It took two hours but better that than the days it took to write the article from scratch.