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Corrupt SD Card
9 replies 220 views
06-11-2016, 09:48 PM Nancy Stocker
Does anyone have any experience rescuing images from a corrupt SD card? When I put the card into my computer, the computer says it cannot read the card. Yet I think I recall reviewing many of the photos after taking them, so there should be something there.

I have a download from Sandisk that says it can rescue SD card files, but because the computer won't download from the card I can't make use of the program.

Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
06-11-2016, 10:04 PM Roger Clark
The best recovery program that I know of (and it is free) is http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

Also get testdisk which is a companion program, also available on the above web page.
06-12-2016, 09:09 AM Chuck Summers
Try a different card reader device. I recently had a card reader device go bad and it made the card look bad. Have you put it back in the camera to see if you can see images on it when it's in the camera?

If you can get it to work in your computer and it still says corrupt, you can QUICK format it and recovery programs mentioned in this chain should be able to recover the files from the quick formatted card.
06-12-2016, 09:21 AM Jim Esten
PhotoRec may work fine, but FYI, you don't need an undelete program that is specific to photos or flash drives. Recuva - http://www.piriform.com/recuva - works on all manner of files. Can you still see the photos if the card is in your camera? If so you should be able to attach the cable which came with the camera and use a file browser or camera app to transfer the files. If that works then perhaps the card reader in the camera is defective. When you're done with the card, I'd suggest you do a low-level format on the card, then do some shooting, then try to read it again in the computer.
06-12-2016, 04:43 PM Nancy Stocker
Thanks Roger, Chuck and Jim.

Neither of my computers nor my camera could access the images now. I tried the program Roger suggested. On a practice card, it pulled photos taken prior to at least two formats. With my problem card, however, it saw nothing. My camera also refused to format the card now.

This may turn out to have something to do with the write protect tab. When I first stuck the card into my camera, it said the card was write-protected. I moved the tab that controls that, and reinserted the card. The message did not occur this time. Since Bob (husband) had previously had this experience and successfully used the card afterwards, I assumed the card was okay.

I routinely check exposures periodically, and would be very surprised to have photographed for several hours and not looked at any of my photos. I think I remember reviewing them quite a bit. But that action is so automatic, I can't be sure.

My current plan is to talk to a few places like Englewood Camera and a data recovery business near MicroCenter to see if they have ideas. I'll let you know what happens.
06-12-2016, 04:56 PM Charlie Summers
Please let us know what you learn Nancy. All of the recovery programs I am aware of seem to recover from a format but not corrupt files. I have a folder I have saved since 2009 that has corrupt files. At least I could copy them from CF card to computer, something it doesn't sound like you can do.

Charlie
06-12-2016, 04:57 PM Charlie Summers
Please let us know what you learn Nancy. All of the recovery programs I am aware of seem to recover from a format but not corrupt files. I have a folder I have saved since 2009 that has corrupt files. At least I could copy them from CF card to computer, something it doesn't sound like you can do.

Charlie
06-12-2016, 04:57 PM Charlie Summers
Please let us know what you learn Nancy. All of the recovery programs I am aware of seem to recover from a format but not corrupt files. I have a folder I have saved since 2009 that has corrupt files. At least I could copy them from CF card to computer, something it doesn't sound like you can do.

Charlie
06-12-2016, 05:21 PM Terry Mieger
I doubt this is the solution but make sure the contacts are clean on the card. SD cards have those awful exposed contacts. If you try to clean them be very careful
06-12-2016, 05:26 PM Terry Mieger
Charlie: I doubt this will help but I had a similar problem once and discovered that some how the file extensions (.jpg etc.) were dropped I went back and manually added the extension and it worked

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