File recovery from corrupted SD card

I would like to share a 'heart stopping' experience yesterday when 2 of my 8G SD cards with lots of new images could not be read. When inserted in the card reader it gave an error message that the card is not formatted! I was almost resigned to losing all the data until my wife suggested that I should try to recovery the files. After Googling the internet for file recovery apps, I found PhotoRec http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec and was able to recover all the JPG images and about 95% of raw files. The app is not user-friendly but did the job efficiently. The file names of the recovered files are different but the EXIF files are intact.

This is worth remembering should you encounter a similar situation. Apparently the app also able to recover deleted files in the card and also some files after formatting a card.

Dear Photography Gods,

By reading this thread I have in no way jinxed myself for this happening to me.

Thanks for the post Gary.

There's also RescuePRO that comes with every sandisk card, and the more recently free recuva (not sure if recuva will work on a corrupted card though)

I'm glad you where able to recover most of it, it can by quite a cruel experience.

Wim

ProSoft Engineering makes the best recovery applications available. They have two products - Klix and Data Rescue II.

I recommend Data Rescue II. It is a little more expensive but does a more thorough job.

It works on Macs and PC's. SanDisk no longer works on Macs unless you call their support.