BS: Tech: Help re Lost Digital Photos

Subject: BS: Tech: Help re Lost Digital Photos
From: Bonecruncher
Date: 08 Sep 07 - 10:24 PM

On a new digital camera I changed the SD memory card (32 mb) when it became full. At the end of my holiday I tried to download the photos to my computer and got an error message "No Image".
It looks like the File Allocation Table, or index, might have become corrupt or the photos deleted.
Does anyone know of a computer program which might restore these unrepeatable photos, in the same way as a corrupted or deleted hard disk can be restored?
Any help would be most appreciated.

Colyn.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help re Lost Digital Photos
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 08 Sep 07 - 11:08 PM

My Canon I use for work uses a Lexmar memory card that came with some software for retrieving photos off of disks where they are otherwise unreachable. You might poke around (www.lexmar.com) and see if they have anything to suggest.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help re Lost Digital Photos
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Sep 07 - 11:23 PM

Hi, Bonecruncher -
Well, I'd suggest that you don't use a card smaller than 512 Mb next time. Many cards have a "restore" program on them that will fix that FAT, and almost all USB "flash drives" have one.
The program may work - and it may not.

I'm sure there's a downloadable FAT restoration program available, and I'm sure somebody here will post a link to one they've used and liked. The best thing to do is buy another card of reasonable size, give the little card to a geek friend and challenge him/her to restore the FAT. It seems that everybody knows a computer geek nowadays - the trick is finding one who actually knows what he/she is talking about.

-Joe-

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help re Lost Digital Photos
From: katlaughing
Date: 09 Sep 07 - 12:53 AM

Ya know, Joe, if yer gonna call someone FAT you might consider using OBESE instead!**bg**

Good luck, Colyn!

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help re Lost Digital Photos
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 09 Sep 07 - 12:53 AM

Amen Joe - and one who is not a teenager.

They tend to do things in a way that does not permit future easy maintainence - to quote JiK... :-P

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help re Lost Digital Photos
From: nutty
Date: 09 Sep 07 - 03:21 AM

I've just had a problem downloading some video clips from the SD card of my stills camera.
I tried numerous times using the Windows Wizard that is built into my system but each time it only copied a few seconds of what I knew was a clip at least 20 mins long and refused to acknowledge that other clips existed.

In the end I resorted to downloading them manually. EG accessing the files manually and copying then to Windows Explorer. This worked a treat.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help re Lost Digital Photos
From: nutty
Date: 09 Sep 07 - 03:42 AM

Another thought....

If the camera has its own internal memory it may have automatically returned to that setting when the SD card became full. Making sure that the SD card is enabled in the camera settings might solve the problem.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help re Lost Digital Photos
From: nutty
Date: 09 Sep 07 - 12:44 PM

ME AGAIN .... if non of the above work then a file retrieval program might be the answer .....

something like this WINUNDELETE has a free trial download

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help re Lost Digital Photos
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 09 Sep 07 - 01:22 PM

I have used this one to recover digital photos deleted from a card. http://recuva.com/
It is freeware and does a good job.
It will identify files which can be recovered and save them to a different location, so you do not cause further problems with the files already on the card.
Quack!
Geoff the Duck.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help re Lost Digital Photos
From: DMcG
Date: 09 Sep 07 - 02:26 PM

This one is not free, but I used it to recover lost photos from my son's digital camera in similar circumstances. PhotoRecovery

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help re Lost Digital Photos
From: Bonecruncher
Date: 09 Sep 07 - 09:13 PM

Thanks for the recommendations for suitable software to retrieve lost photos. I will give each of them a try.
My first digital camera, a Canon G7, after many years of semi-professional SLR's and large format plate cameras, with all the wet chemistry that goes with them. Darkrooms being solitary places and not conducive to marital stability I opted for the digital route.
Naturally, one first plays with what the manufacturer gives you, before shelling out on additional equipment.
However, I rapidly invested in a 1 Gb SD card, so should be well enough equipped for most of my purposes. Unfortunately Canon, in their wisdom, seem to believe that cameras are purchased only by kids who have grown up through the technical revolution. They have not allowed for those of us who are still powered by steam and find that too many buttons and knobs to press will cause a cerebral malfunction!
The basic software provided does not appear to include a recovery program.

Colyn.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help re Lost Digital Photos
From: nutty
Date: 10 Sep 07 - 03:14 AM

All their help is now on line as well. I Googled for 'CANON TUTORIALS' and came up with a variety of 'HELP' sites including this one

SUPPORT

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help re Lost Digital Photos
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Sep 07 - 10:31 AM

I don't know what I was reading when I looked at my card earlier. It's Lexar. No "M" in it.

Subject: RE: BS: Tech: Help re Lost Digital Photos
From: Charley Noble
Date: 10 Sep 07 - 10:40 AM

Colyn-

Whatever you do don't try to add anything more to that flashcard. The images are probably still there, even if there directory has gone missing. We used "Data Rescue II-1.1.dmg" and it worked even after I had deliberately deleted the images from the flashcard (our hardrive subsequently died and we needed to rescue as many images as we could from an important photoshoot).

Good luck!

Charley Noble