CF Card erased by computer... (1 Viewer)

[James Eaton]

Dear All,

I had a major hard-drive failure on my laptop last month while away - the laptop no longer recognised the hard-drive and I have had to install a new drive. The biggest problem with this is during the last time it worked is it somehow erased the contents on my CF card - all my photos from a recent trip. Now when I put the CF card into another computer it reads; 'this card needs to be reformatted would you like to do it now?'

Obviously I wan to get my photos back - can I do this if my card is reformatted? If so, how? The card is unreadable if I press no to reformatting.

Any help would be greatly received!

Regards,

James

 

[PaulS]

Hi James,

can you still see the photos if you put the card back in the camera?

 

[theMusicMan]

James - if you reformat the card, the images on it will most certainly be lost. Some CF cards are supplied with a CD/software that allows you to recover any lost data - did yours?

 

[IanF]

Do the photos still show when the card is placed in the camera?

Either way I'd be inclined to give Art Plus digital photo recovery a go. It's a freebie program quite small and even recovers files from formatted cards - though not as many as from one that hasn't been.

 

[alan_rymer]

Dear All,

I had a major hard-drive failure on my laptop last month while away - the laptop no longer recognised the hard-drive and I have had to install a new drive. The biggest problem with this is during the last time it worked is it somehow erased the contents on my CF card - all my photos from a recent trip. Now when I put the CF card into another computer it reads; 'this card needs to be reformatted would you like to do it now?'

Obviously I wan to get my photos back - can I do this if my card is reformatted? If so, how? The card is unreadable if I press no to reformatting.

Any help would be greatly received!

Regards,

James

There are Freeware file recovery programs available, I used one a couple of weeks ago. Unfortunatley I don't have the program details with me ( at work ), but can look this evening.

 

[James Eaton]

Thanks for info so far guys. The images are not displayed on the camera either. the camera says 'no images'. I have a freebie from the internet but as the card is unreadable while it remains unformatted obviously I can't do anything unless I decide to reformat it. Though I do not want to do this if it means I lose photos - big dilemma!

Anybosy have any ideas if anyone at the birdfair would be able to help - any stands have any equipment to help with this - would be great marketing for them to show that their program works!

Cheers,

James

 

[Harold Stiver]

I've heard great reports about

Photorescue

I suspect your photos are still their but the "index" is corrupt. Photorescue is supposed to pick them up anyway. Don't format the card though.

 

[Macswede]

The images are not displayed on the camera either. the camera says 'no images'. I have a freebie from the internet but as the card is unreadable while it remains unformatted obviously I can't do anything unless I decide to reformat it. Though I do not want to do this if it means I lose photos - big dilemma!
James

James even though the computer says the card is unreadable your freebie should still be able to recover the images. Don't format the card. Install the programme you have or the one IanF suggests and follow the instuctions. It usually takes a while. An in-law deleted all the photos he took at our wedding and we managed to recover them all using a programme I downloaded after receiving advice in Bird Forum. If one programme doesn't work try another one. They really do work. I realize your sitiuation is different as the card may be damaged but it's still worth trying.

 

[alan_rymer]

James

The one I have used a couple of times is
www.pcinspector.de/Sites/file_recovery/download.htm?language=1
its free and worked for me, They use Tics and crosses for O.K and cancel which can be confusing though!.

 

[Duke Leto]

I had a lot of success with "active recovery" just google it you'll find it

 

[James Eaton]

Many thanks for all your help thus far. I'll give all of those a good bash and see what happens - either way I won't format the card!

I can't get to my laptop just yet so I'll try later today (stuck in Dubai airport staring gold and duty free!)

Fingers crossed....

James

 

[James Eaton]

Hi all,

Thanks for all the comments. Thought I would let you know how I got on...
I tried all the above freeware but unfortunately they failed to find the photos as the card was too corrupt to repair. Fortunately I found the Sandisk RescuePro CD for sale on ebay for 3 quid. This was a great move as it download all the photos at first asking... great news. Though frustratingly 10% of the photos appear not to have downloaded properly and are half grey/half photo - any ideas how to rectify this?

Thanks once again all!

James

 

[Mono]

10% of the photos appear not to have downloaded properly and are half grey/half photo

That's all the data that could be recovered I'm afraid that's that.

Just feel happy about the 90%