Help! CF card corrupted while copying?
Discussion
Uh oh.
2gb CF card in my camera, full up.
Put it into card reader, then into my PC USB. Opened folder, could see everything fine. Started to copy across to a folder on my PC. 1/4 of the way through it comes up with an error. It can now no longer see the card (explorer says I need to format it to use it if I try to open it) and when I put it in my camera (30D) it says "ERR CF" and it says there's no images on it.
There's lots of very nice pictures of a very shiny Enzo on it... is there anything I can do?!!?
Gulp.
Thanks!
2gb CF card in my camera, full up.
Put it into card reader, then into my PC USB. Opened folder, could see everything fine. Started to copy across to a folder on my PC. 1/4 of the way through it comes up with an error. It can now no longer see the card (explorer says I need to format it to use it if I try to open it) and when I put it in my camera (30D) it says "ERR CF" and it says there's no images on it.
There's lots of very nice pictures of a very shiny Enzo on it... is there anything I can do?!!?
Gulp.
Thanks!
have you tried another computer? Or the infamous turn it off and on again?
Before you try another card it's worth checking the pins are all straight, present & correct. I fried a card with a card reader with a bent pin. Same symptoms as you have. It was game over - noting got it working.
Before you try another card it's worth checking the pins are all straight, present & correct. I fried a card with a card reader with a bent pin. Same symptoms as you have. It was game over - noting got it working.
Thanks for the suggestions one and all. I had a go with recuva last night, and upon putting in it simply didnt recognise the card. Explorer kept trying to get me to format it so I could "use" it (obviously I didn't) and recuva wouldn't even begin scanning it because it wouldn't 'see' it.
Are there different levels of recuva? I'm not sure which I have on my pc.
Thanks again for the thoughts though.
Are there different levels of recuva? I'm not sure which I have on my pc.
Thanks again for the thoughts though.
eltawater said:
Pop it in the post to me and I'll have a go 
A very generous offer, thanks very much indeed! IT geek here at work has a Linux recovery program that he's going to try for me (someone mentioned it above), if that doesn't work I shall take you up on that very kind offer. Thanks 
TonyHetherington said:
A very generous offer, thanks very much indeed! IT geek here at work has a Linux recovery program that he's going to try for me (someone mentioned it above), if that doesn't work I shall take you up on that very kind offer. Thanks
I've used the Sandisk recovery program a few times. Had a card that would screw up regularly (exchanged under warranty when I knew for certain that it had a problem). Works well.Interstingly I also discovered that it would recover some files that had existed on the card before the most recent format. Obviously the area of memory had not yet been overwritten by new shots for that to be possible.
In common with most deletion and formatting options on any media the older 'files' are not often destroyed (which is why forensic work on a disk is possible) but rather the index to and of the file is removed. The recovery programs mostly work by assuming there may be no 'index' and seek out then re-construct file fragments.
Thus whilst it may be necessary to format the card to see if it can be made readable (the messages you are seeing) actually formatting it may not remove the data. It will create a low level index for an apparently empty card in order to allow other devices to read it. From that point the recovery software will likely work. However try the other routes first for a more comfortable decision path to the point of last resort. And of course it is possible that some form of internal damage has occurred and the card will not format anyway. Which would be very bad luck.
TonyHetherington said:
Ah I see what you mean; that makes sense.
So, to summarise if I understand you correctly; format the card, then a recovery program will be able to read it and recover the images. Of course, there's an element of hope in there, but I see where you're going with that. Thanks
Yep. But given the nature of your card's failure I would be tempted to try any other options open to you for trying to read the card and grab an image of it first. If that fails cross fingers and format.So, to summarise if I understand you correctly; format the card, then a recovery program will be able to read it and recover the images. Of course, there's an element of hope in there, but I see where you're going with that. Thanks
Extremely coincidentally the MicroSD card in my phone has just gone 'unreadable' for some reason. No idea why. Both it and the phone are only a few weeks old. Nothing of great importance on it since the thing is mainly a project for concepts and not my main phone ... however it is a bit odd that it should suddenly fail.
My Sandisk rescue software is reading it (a Lexar card) now - I think it has found all the files but of course a number of them were app related so all that stuff to go through to get them working again. Hmm. I sometimes envy those who eschew modern technology and rely on previous ways of living one's life.
Only another (empty) 16Gb to investigate ...
My Sandisk rescue software is reading it (a Lexar card) now - I think it has found all the files but of course a number of them were app related so all that stuff to go through to get them working again. Hmm. I sometimes envy those who eschew modern technology and rely on previous ways of living one's life.
Only another (empty) 16Gb to investigate ...
Well, that took a while although for some reason it suddenly sped up a lot for the last 3000 or so files.
A problem message just after I left it to run last night probably cost about 6 hours and from what I could see there are about 3 or 4 files that seemed to be of unlimited size that it gave up on. But otherwise nearly 17k files recovered.
Now to format the memory and see if it works.
A problem message just after I left it to run last night probably cost about 6 hours and from what I could see there are about 3 or 4 files that seemed to be of unlimited size that it gave up on. But otherwise nearly 17k files recovered.
Now to format the memory and see if it works.
Odd, glad you got it sorted though!
My IT geek here at work tried some very specific things with a Linux system, and found nothing. He said it seems it's actually damaged (not physically, but the file structure).
He formatted it (similar to the suggestion above) to get the structure to it back, but could find nothing. I'm going to try and use the recuva software I have at home on the now formatted card, but i can't see it going well.
I'll be taking up the offer above it seems, fingers crossed!
Thanks very much
My IT geek here at work tried some very specific things with a Linux system, and found nothing. He said it seems it's actually damaged (not physically, but the file structure).
He formatted it (similar to the suggestion above) to get the structure to it back, but could find nothing. I'm going to try and use the recuva software I have at home on the now formatted card, but i can't see it going well.
I'll be taking up the offer above it seems, fingers crossed!
Thanks very much
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