I just returned from an awesome trip to Colorado's beautiful San Juan Mtns. during peak wildflower season.
Upon arriving home I couldn't wait to preview and download the images. But when I tried to read the images from my 4 GB Ridata CF card I got an error message stating that the card was not formatted (WinXP + card reader), do I want to format? No!!!
So I tried reading it from my Camera (Canon 10D) and got a Canon Err 02. This indicates there is a problem with the card.
I couldn't believe it!!! I was in shock. I had four days of images on that card. After downloading and trying 6-8 data recovery tools last night I was at my wits end. Most of the recovery programs couldn't read the data. Some just crashed, others hung and one stated the data was too damaged to be recovered.
I spoke with Ridata tech support today and they said that they do data recovery, but can't guarantee the data retrieval. They will also send me a replacement card which is nice. But the images are much more important to me than the card at this point.
I have heard that data recovery can be very expensive if sending it in to one of the recovery groups.
Has anyone had experience with data recovery from a corrupted card before. This is the first time a card has gone bad on me.
This is why I prefer having multiple smaller cards rather then the mega size cards. (1GB) My images are not as big as some of yours, so it may be easier for me with the smaller size cards.
Peter - Your story sounds very much like mine. I have a feeling this card is too far gone. But I think I will send it in to the manufacturer and at least let them try to recover some of the data. What data recovery service did you use? OnTrack said they charge $400 for CF card recovery. $100 estimate/$300 repair. I knew it was expensive. But I really don't want to spend $100 just to find out that there is nothing they can do.
I have another Ridata cards and use it without any problems. So I don't know if it is just a QC issue or this particular model. Usually they are considered very good quality cards. Hmmm... This does make me a little nervous in using a replacement Ridata card.
Barbara, I like your idea and was just thinking the same thing. My 2 GB Ridata has never given me problems and smaller cards are cheaper anyway. If I move to the 5D this may be a bigger issue. But for now I may just go with a few smaller cards. At least that way all my eggs aren't in one basket.
Posted by Richard Wong on July 25, 2007 at 5:12 PM
I've had a portable flash drive crash but ended up using recovery software to get the formatted files off of the CF cards. It took me almost a month to be able to get it all out though. If inexpensive software doesn't work then I'd just forget about it unless you have some extremely marketable images on there. At least it's only 4gb worth of images.
We had a couple of discs corrupted, and yes they were from a very visible, important contract shoot. Of course! Backups wouldn't have helped because they came out of the camera corrupted.
I'll have to look up which service we used but recovery was quick, thorough and reasonably priced considering our stakes on the shoot. We got 100% of the images back and assurance that whatever the cause of the original corruption, the discs tested fine.
Being a "sky is falling" sort when it comes to such stuff, the camera (older) has been replaced, as have the discs. Still on hand for backups and casual use, but not for critical situations.
Sorry to hear about your problem Derek, and hope you can recover the images! I'm curious what might have caused this...were the photos readable from the card when you shot them? Did you play any of them back at the time? Or did the card simply go bad later?
Ouch! I hope you get more out of that trip than just good memories.
It's good to hear that the company actually offered you data recovery services!
None of the hard drive companies, that I am aware of, give you that option.
They just replace your drive - or tell you to reformat it!
I'd try that SanDisk recovery program mentioned by Peter, and if that doesn't work, cross your fingers and hope Ridata can get the job done.
I haven't bought any cards over 2GB with the hope of limiting how much is lost in a single crash. So far, never have had a problem.
I had that issue on a 1 GIG SanDisk CF card, I took it to CompUSA and a tech there was able to get all the images from the card within half an hour for $50.00, I bought a new CF and he transferred the images to that card. I don't know what program he used, I was just glad to get the images since I had been on a trip to Ding Darling Preserve.
After I reformatted the 'bad" card, I haven't had an issue with it since.
Hank - If you can remember the name of the recovery service you used I would appreciate the recommendation.
Alice - I was wondering about the reason for the corruption also. I have had problems with this card before when the camera battery was running low.
This time I had done some night photography (star trails) and the battery ran out during one of the shots. I reviewed the images and saw that the last image was corrupted. So I deleted it. I continued using and reviewing images as I went without a problem after that. There must have been something internal that triggered the corruption later. It could have been simply filling the card to its maximum capacity and overwriting some internal data.
Lia - $50 is a lot less than $400. I wonder if CompUSA still does data recovery? I'll have to check if the manufacturer can't recover anything.
Derek, I had over filled my card taking images in raw and not paying attention to the "full" metere, I think I corrupted the very last image. I was glad it was only $50 for the recovery, they could have charged me more and I would have paid it. :-(
Oh, I meant to add I do not buy cards larger than 1 GIG, that would be 158 images shooting Jpeg + Raw, but on a 4 GIG cards, that is quite a bit more images.
I'm waiting for my wife to look up the name of the company Derek, but in the meantime I have a couple of quick questions:
Do you reformat your cards in the camera after each use or simply erase them?
Do you cull images from the cards while you are shooting and before downloading the final set?
In our experiences (and in many others' experience), erasing rather than reformating them or doing the reformating in the computer can occasionally cause card corruption.
We also have found that culling images from cards too often while shooting can also cause corruption.
We always reformat each card in the camera after each use. We also don't do any erasing or deleting from the cards while we shoot. The corruption of two cards last month was the first instance for us in more than five years, since switching to this approach. It occurred in an older body which has been developing "personality" lately, and we suspect it was more camera-related than card-related.
We used LC Technology International, Derek. Charges were $100/card, and service was very fast. The person my wife talked to was superb, both in calming a distraut photographer and in technical knowhow. It may sound like lotsabux, but it's pretty cheap compared to what you have invested in getting the shots in the first place.
As always, great info in this thread - for a problerm I hope i never face! THis is why my 8 GB card makes me nervous, and I only use about 1/4 of it before I download to my portable device (Epson P-5000, which i highly recommend, by the way) and then also use my smaller cards.
Derek, I hope these ideas above work out for you!
Sandy r
Oh...man Derek, what a bummer!!! That was such an awesome trip too! Was that the card we were chimping on the way back? It all looked fine in cam. I was wondering why you had not posted any yet. I hope you get 'em recovered somehow. My new 4Gb Sandisk Extreme III worked just fine but I tested it at Indian Peaks and re-formatted in cam before heading out. I am still sorting mine and have not processed yet. I hope it works out.
John
I've had this exact same thing happen as well, except on a 4 gig Sandisk Ultra II memory stick. I used Lexar Image Rescue 3 with 100% recovery results. IR3 will recover any images, including RAW, from any type of card from a standard card reader. Great program!
http://www.lexar.com/software/image_rescue3.html
Posted by Derek Sedillo on July 26, 2007 at 11:41 AM
Thanks for the great tips everyone. I have decided to send it to the manufacturer (Ridata) first. They will not charge me for attempting to recover the data and will replace the faulty card.
Then if they are unsuccessful, I will most likely try one of the data recovery services like the one that Hank recommended. I have already tried a dozen recovery programs and none work thus far. I think filling it up to max capacity overwrote something as Lia experienced.
In answer to some of the other Qs I normally format the card 'in camera' and never from XP. I also delete images after uploading. This has worked flawlessly after 6+ years of shooting Canon digitals. So I really think it is a faulty card. I have had batteries die while shooting before and used cards to their max capacity with 'no problems.' I also know everything was working fine prior to my last shot because I was chimping to check exposure in the early AM hours.
I just hope I can get something back. Either way I have learned a valuable lesson about not putting everything on one larger card. I am an IT guy and that is a big no-no in the IT world.
- Derek
Posted by James Audett on July 27, 2007 at 2:30 AM
I had the same problem. Tried everything and nothing worked. I finally sent the card to the manufacturer, Kingston, (they also said no guarantees), but they recovered all of my images. Hopefully, you'll get the same results with the manufacturer. Good luck.
I like having the larger cards (three 4 GB cards) for the option to load one up when the light is great and I'm shooting heavily, but regardless of how full or empty one is, I download daily just to be safe. When on longer outings, I take my laptop for the daily downloads. Then, without erasing the downloaded images from the card, I'll put the partially used card back in the camera and keep shooting. Once full, I'll download the new images, put that card aside and put in a fresh card. I won't reformat the first one until I'm out of space entirely on all 3 cards. That way, should something happen to my laptop, there's still a good chance that the images are still on the card. Eventually I'll buy a portable drive as a backup to the laptop, but this has worked well for me in lieu of that approach.
Ha! We share a similar paranoia about backups Rick. I download directly to an Epson P2000 in the field, then again to my laptop in the evening. But before I erase the card, I also copy from my laptop to a portable drive. All that adds up to carrying at least enough cards for a full day of shooting plus a few extra. I sleep better with the files copied to three locations before reformating the card.
I realize larger cards are inevitable in the same way larger files are. Until you get burned you probably won't think about it much. I know I didn't. But now I want to take extra precautions to avoid the loss I experienced. I think the best way to avoid this is to take Rick's approach which I did in Yellowstone and the Tetons. Daily backups are a very good rule of thumb. It does require taking a laptop around on longer outings. The risk there of course is theft. But I think it is worth the risk considering the alternative for potential loss of *all* your images on larger cards.
Even though larger cards are the future this simple fact does not guarantee data integrity as I discovered. The best thing that happended to me on this past trip was that I used up all 4GB on the bad card our last day. This forced me to break out my smaller 2GB card and use it part of that last day. So at least I came away with *some* images of the trip. I just wish I would have run out of space prior to morning light. We had great pink clouds at American Basin that last morning. Oh well, live and learn.
Don't forget the utility of a portable download device like my now-two-year-old (OLD!!!) Epson P2000. Lots of subsequent models are available today with more features, capacity and performance for less than I paid, so I bet you can find a P2000 today for not much money. For comparison I can download around 13gb on a single charge, provided I don't get carried away with viewing images on that great little screen. Mine has "only" a 40gb capacity, compared to 80gb and more in contemporary models. It's about the size of two decks of playing cards and relatively light, so it can hang from your belt or reside in a bag or pack with little notice. Depending on your rate of shooting, it will suffice to replace a laptop for several days in the field, especially if you can get near a power source each night for recharges.
Posted by Derek Sedillo on July 29, 2007 at 12:24 PM
Hank,
Those portable devices sound like a really good bakup tool in lieu of a laptop. This would especially be usefull when a laptop is just too large to pack.
I searched the B&H site for more info to pass along, and the first thing I found was this. Looks like it would solve the recharge issues for a reasonable price. Here is the first of three pages of options they list under their "Stand Alone Data Storage" category. Lots to choose from, but I've been so happy with my old P2000 that I haven't kept tabs on the recent developments they offer.
I do a lot of pistol shooting and reload my ammunition. In the Mid 90's one of the calibers I reload for was making people nervous due to the number of pistols that had blown up. Like a corrupt disk, a "KaBoom" can seriously impact your enjoyment of the day.
When a large group compared their experiences on line a patter emerged...almost all of the "KABooms" had occurred with reloads using ONE particular powder out of all the different options that were available.
It would be interesting to see if there is a particular camera/card combination that is more prone to problems than others.
Our two failures were an older 1gb Sandisk card and an older 1gb microdrive. The camera was one of our (much used) Fuji S2's. All signs point to a problem with the aging camera rather than either disc. The S2 has since been replaced with a D2X.
Like Hank, I also have an old Epson P-2000. It has worked flawlessly. For a 9 day Grand Canyon raft trip, I brought along 3 extra batteries. I love the large screen, and it was wonderful to be able to review and share the images while on the trip. A laptop was really not an option for that trip.
However, transferring all you images to the portable hard drive and reusing the memory cards still leaves you with only one copy! Today, with the VERY low cost of memory cards, I would find it hard to pay $400 to $600 for such a portable hard drive. I would opt to just buy enough memory cards and take my chances with 2 GB cards.What's the probability of more than one card failing on a single trip? Probably a lot less than the portable hard drive crashing. Of course, wedding photographers or a pro on assignment would want that 2nd backup copy and not think twice about carrying both.
We've come a long way since I paid $200 for my first 256 meg memory card!
Excellent point Bill! The P2000 lets us generate a backup immediately in the field, but we don't We have dozens of 1gb chips now, but those early ones cost as much as today's portable drives. BTW- We have so many and continue to buy the 1gb, and sometimes the 2gb, for file management. We keep each client or each shoot on one chip or a set of chips for convenience as well as safety. Come to think of it, without thinking I usually change chips with each location or subject change on nature shoots. As someone else observed we're increasing the chances of a failure simply by having so many chips, but the cost of a failure is more bearable for us if it only affects a single shoot rather than a day's worth of shooting.
I can endorse the Epson portable hard drives. I use a P3000 40gb and I carry a spare battery with it. I'm most often out for a week or more at a time in a remote Canadian wilderness park, so a laptop is out of the question. Usually 4gb of memory in 1-2gb cards is sufficient for a week long trip. I don't put un-necessary mileage on my shutter as long as I get the raws exposed correctly. Every night when I'm settled in my tent I load my day's images to the Epson but I won't format a card unless I really need it. This works well for me and my Epson has been totally reliable. They come with a soft foam travel bag and fit nicely into available space in your backpack.
Did you try using PhotoRescue? This software is highly recommended for problems like this. You can download it for free, and it'll tell you what it will be able to recover off your card. If it says it can get the files back, you pay for the full version (and it's not expensive), to be able to do that. And once you've got it, it's good forever.
Read this article for better instructions on how to use it: http://www.naturescapes.net/092004/ej0904.htm
-Paul
Posted by Derek Sedillo on August 10, 2007 at 1:03 AM
Yes,
I actually tried this and a dozen or so more of the popular ones. Nothing worked. I just heard back from the manufacturer and they were also unable to retrieve any data.
So I guess my last effort will be to try one of the photo recovery groups mentioned above. Sometimes it is an easy fix other times the data corruption is more severe. This was a good but hard lesson to learn. I definately will practice better backup techniques in the future.
Posted by Derek Sedillo on September 1, 2007 at 1:04 PM
Good News to end this story!
When talking with the manufacturer, Ridata, I told them that I was going to use an outside data recovery service since they could not recovery the data.
Well about a 10 days later they called back and said they 'were' able to recovery the majority of the images. So it sounds like they elevated my problem to the next level and possibly hired an outside group to perform the recovery.
Anyway I just recieved two DVDs with about 85% of the images back along with a new 4 gb card. So needless to say I was very pleased with their service and the final outcome overall. The only downside was that in the process of data recovery they somehow coverted all images to jpgs. And the auto conversion wasn't pretty. So although the images weren't the highest quality in terms of noise, color, contrast, etc... I at least have something from my trip this summer.
Posted by Mia McPherson on September 1, 2007 at 4:24 PM
Derek, I am glad you were able to get some of the images off that card. And they are beautiful (I saw them on your site).
I'm so homesick for Colorado now.
Posted by Carson Wilcox on October 16, 2007 at 11:53 AM
I've seen this problem on my 40D a couple of times. In my case it wasn't a bad card. But for some reason when a do delete rather than a format after using the card, it will work fine for a few shots, then just stop. If I reformat on the camera before each use I have no problems at all. I've seen this on a couple different brands of card as well. That is also way I use multiple 2 gig cards rather than a single large card.
Discussion
35 repliesUpon arriving home I couldn't wait to preview and download the images. But when I tried to read the images from my 4 GB Ridata CF card I got an error message stating that the card was not formatted (WinXP + card reader), do I want to format?
So I tried reading it from my Camera (Canon 10D) and got a Canon Err 02. This indicates there is a problem with the card.
I couldn't believe it!!! I was in shock. I had four days of images on that card. After downloading and trying 6-8 data recovery tools last night I was at my wits end. Most of the recovery programs couldn't read the data. Some just crashed, others hung and one stated the data was too damaged to be recovered.
Basically it looks like I am left with two options.
1. Send it to a data recovery group such as http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/photo-recovery/
2. Send it in to the Manufacturer: Ridata.
I spoke with Ridata tech support today and they said that they do data recovery, but can't guarantee the data retrieval. They will also send me a replacement card which is nice. But the images are much more important to me than the card at this point.
I have heard that data recovery can be very expensive if sending it in to one of the recovery groups.
Has anyone had experience with data recovery from a corrupted card before. This is the first time a card has gone bad on me.
Thanks,
Derek
I have another Ridata cards and use it without any problems. So I don't know if it is just a QC issue or this particular model. Usually they are considered very good quality cards. Hmmm... This does make me a little nervous in using a replacement Ridata card.
Barbara, I like your idea and was just thinking the same thing. My 2 GB Ridata has never given me problems and smaller cards are cheaper anyway. If I move to the 5D this may be a bigger issue. But for now I may just go with a few smaller cards. At least that way all my eggs aren't in one basket.
I'll have to look up which service we used but recovery was quick, thorough and reasonably priced considering our stakes on the shoot. We got 100% of the images back and assurance that whatever the cause of the original corruption, the discs tested fine.
Being a "sky is falling" sort when it comes to such stuff, the camera (older) has been replaced, as have the discs. Still on hand for backups and casual use, but not for critical situations.
It's good to hear that the company actually offered you data recovery services!
None of the hard drive companies, that I am aware of, give you that option.
They just replace your drive - or tell you to reformat it!
I'd try that SanDisk recovery program mentioned by Peter, and if that doesn't work, cross your fingers and hope Ridata can get the job done.
I haven't bought any cards over 2GB with the hope of limiting how much is lost in a single crash. So far, never have had a problem.
I had that issue on a 1 GIG SanDisk CF card, I took it to CompUSA and a tech there was able to get all the images from the card within half an hour for $50.00, I bought a new CF and he transferred the images to that card. I don't know what program he used, I was just glad to get the images since I had been on a trip to Ding Darling Preserve.
After I reformatted the 'bad" card, I haven't had an issue with it since.
Alice - I was wondering about the reason for the corruption also. I have had problems with this card before when the camera battery was running low.
This time I had done some night photography (star trails) and the battery ran out during one of the shots. I reviewed the images and saw that the last image was corrupted. So I deleted it. I continued using and reviewing images as I went without a problem after that. There must have been something internal that triggered the corruption later. It could have been simply filling the card to its maximum capacity and overwriting some internal data.
Lia - $50 is a lot less than $400. I wonder if CompUSA still does data recovery? I'll have to check if the manufacturer can't recover anything.
Did you format the card in the camera or did you erase the prior use on the computer? It is important to let the camera do the formatting.
John
Do you reformat your cards in the camera after each use or simply erase them?
Do you cull images from the cards while you are shooting and before downloading the final set?
In our experiences (and in many others' experience), erasing rather than reformating them or doing the reformating in the computer can occasionally cause card corruption.
We also have found that culling images from cards too often while shooting can also cause corruption.
We always reformat each card in the camera after each use. We also don't do any erasing or deleting from the cards while we shoot. The corruption of two cards last month was the first instance for us in more than five years, since switching to this approach. It occurred in an older body which has been developing "personality" lately, and we suspect it was more camera-related than card-related.
Derek, I hope these ideas above work out for you!
Sandy r
John
http://www.lexar.com/software/image_rescue3.html
Then if they are unsuccessful, I will most likely try one of the data recovery services like the one that Hank recommended. I have already tried a dozen recovery programs and none work thus far. I think filling it up to max capacity overwrote something as Lia experienced.
In answer to some of the other Qs I normally format the card 'in camera' and never from XP. I also delete images after uploading. This has worked flawlessly after 6+ years of shooting Canon digitals. So I really think it is a faulty card. I have had batteries die while shooting before and used cards to their max capacity with 'no problems.' I also know everything was working fine prior to my last shot because I was chimping to check exposure in the early AM hours.
I just hope I can get something back. Either way I have learned a valuable lesson about not putting everything on one larger card. I am an IT guy and that is a big no-no in the IT world.
- Derek
I realize larger cards are inevitable in the same way larger files are. Until you get burned you probably won't think about it much. I know I didn't. But now I want to take extra precautions to avoid the loss I experienced. I think the best way to avoid this is to take Rick's approach which I did in Yellowstone and the Tetons. Daily backups are a very good rule of thumb. It does require taking a laptop around on longer outings. The risk there of course is theft. But I think it is worth the risk considering the alternative for potential loss of *all* your images on larger cards.
Even though larger cards are the future this simple fact does not guarantee data integrity as I discovered. The best thing that happended to me on this past trip was that I used up all 4GB on the bad card our last day. This forced me to break out my smaller 2GB card and use it part of that last day. So at least I came away with *some* images of the trip. I just wish I would have run out of space prior to morning light. We had great pink clouds at American Basin that last morning. Oh well, live and learn.
- Derek
Don't forget the utility of a portable download device like my now-two-year-old (OLD!!!) Epson P2000. Lots of subsequent models are available today with more features, capacity and performance for less than I paid, so I bet you can find a P2000 today for not much money. For comparison I can download around 13gb on a single charge, provided I don't get carried away with viewing images on that great little screen. Mine has "only" a 40gb capacity, compared to 80gb and more in contemporary models. It's about the size of two decks of playing cards and relatively light, so it can hang from your belt or reside in a bag or pack with little notice. Depending on your rate of shooting, it will suffice to replace a laptop for several days in the field, especially if you can get near a power source each night for recharges.
Those portable devices sound like a really good bakup tool in lieu of a laptop. This would especially be usefull when a laptop is just too large to pack.
- Derek
When a large group compared their experiences on line a patter emerged...almost all of the "KABooms" had occurred with reloads using ONE particular powder out of all the different options that were available.
It would be interesting to see if there is a particular camera/card combination that is more prone to problems than others.
I'll start:
Our two failures were an older 1gb Sandisk card and an older 1gb microdrive. The camera was one of our (much used) Fuji S2's. All signs point to a problem with the aging camera rather than either disc. The S2 has since been replaced with a D2X.
However, transferring all you images to the portable hard drive and reusing the memory cards still leaves you with only one copy! Today, with the VERY low cost of memory cards, I would find it hard to pay $400 to $600 for such a portable hard drive. I would opt to just buy enough memory cards and take my chances with 2 GB cards.What's the probability of more than one card failing on a single trip? Probably a lot less than the portable hard drive crashing. Of course, wedding photographers or a pro on assignment would want that 2nd backup copy and not think twice about carrying both.
We've come a long way since I paid $200 for my first 256 meg memory card!
Bob
Read this article for better instructions on how to use it: http://www.naturescapes.net/092004/ej0904.htm
-Paul
I actually tried this and a dozen or so more of the popular ones. Nothing worked. I just heard back from the manufacturer and they were also unable to retrieve any data.
So I guess my last effort will be to try one of the photo recovery groups mentioned above. Sometimes it is an easy fix other times the data corruption is more severe. This was a good but hard lesson to learn. I definately will practice better backup techniques in the future.
When talking with the manufacturer, Ridata, I told them that I was going to use an outside data recovery service since they could not recovery the data.
Well about a 10 days later they called back and said they 'were' able to recovery the majority of the images. So it sounds like they elevated my problem to the next level and possibly hired an outside group to perform the recovery.
Anyway I just recieved two DVDs with about 85% of the images back along with a new 4 gb card. So needless to say I was very pleased with their service and the final outcome overall. The only downside was that in the process of data recovery they somehow coverted all images to jpgs. And the auto conversion wasn't pretty. So although the images weren't the highest quality in terms of noise, color, contrast, etc... I at least have something from my trip this summer.
I have posted some of the images which weren't as butchered here:
http://derek.zenfolio.com/p686587977
I'm so homesick for Colorado now.