I was into my second 4GB card Saturday night shooting a wedding dinner in RAW. I got to around 200 shots and the camera said it had "corrupted data". I was shooting a Canon 5D and using a Sandisk Ultra II 4GB card. The camera would not play back any pictures. The counter on the camera recognized that how many pics were on the card though.
When I got home i attempted to connect the card to the computer with my reader to no success. I then connected the camera directly to the computer and also to no success. I wound up using Sandisk's "recovery" software. And I am happy to say that I was able to recover all files but approximately 10% were corrupted.
My questions are:
1) Has this happened to anybody else with this combination?
2) I was impressed with being able to recover most of the data. Is that the norm? When you have a corrupted card can you usually recover some/most of the files with softwrae tools?
3) Any suggestion or tips to mitigate/minimize the potential disaster that can occur from this kind of situation?
Hey Rich,
Maybe try formating the card before each use. I always do this and have never had a problem with my 2Gig cards. May be something to do with the card as well. I am not sure what to tell you. Glad to here that you recovered your images!! Robbie
I just bought that exact CF card per Darren's post. Mine is currenly on backorder at Dell. I also have a 5D. Did you buy it from Dell when they were on sale? I hope that this is not the reason they were on sale. This concerns me, becuase I bought my card for a trip to Alaska and I sure can't afford to have this happen during my trip. My only suggestion for minimizing this problem is to make sure that you have the latest firmware and upload pictures onto a computer frequently. Where did you get the Sandisk recovery software (with the CF card)? Being able to recover corrupted data is rare in my experience.
CF cards are sketchy to begin with because of their very nature (flash memory). You must take care to protect the data and the integrity of the file system on the card.
1. Format the card in the camera after each session spent copying to the computer and before you start shooting again.
2. Never delete, raname, or move any files on the card using your computer.
3. Use high quality CF card readers
In terms of workflow this translates to:
1. Always start a shooting session with a freshly formatted card.
2. When the card is full (or ideally, before the camera tells you the card is completely full) remove the card from the camera, and using your computer, copy all the files onto your hard drive using the Finder or Windows Explorer etc. DON'T EVER MANIPULATE FILES OR FOLDERS DIRECTLY ON THE CARD.
3. After copying all the files to your hard drive, "Safely Remove" the card from the computer.
4. After verifying all the files were copied (and you can preview them in Bridge etc) return the card to the camera, and reformat it in the camera.
All this being done, I had have had more problems with SanDisk than I have with Lexar. I wholeheartedly recommend Lexar Professional Series over SanDisk.
And it's supposedly safest to use cards that can store 60-80 images per card. Depending on your camera's resolution, this might mean 1GB or 2GB cards at the most. "Don't put all your eggs in one basket?" Better to have more, smaller cards than fewer, big ones.
Hope this helps. And congrats on recovering as many files as you did!
Richie,
I have been using Sandisk and Lexar CF cards in 1G, 2G and 4G capacities for years. In spite of many drops and other mis-handeling I have never had a problem with any CF card. I consider them quite robust! I agree with Nat that it may be better to have a couple smaller cards than one big one. Personally, I have 2 each 4G cards.
Per above, I concur that after each session and successful copy of the data to your computer you should put the card back in the camera and format it there.
Also, on some 4G + Cards there is a tiny switch on the side to divide the drive into 2 equal 2G partitions or into one 4G partition. I think the default from the factory is the 2 each 2G partitions. Make sure you check to see if your card has this switch.
Sorry that happened to you shooting a wedding...yikes! I guess the only thing worse would be to hike into the subway, take your shots hike out and find you lost your images...ouch!!!
Richie - sorry to hear about the glitches...rather scary. I've been considering some upgrades (camera and memory) and these kind of reports make me pause...
I've been a fan of the Lexar cards, but saw this article in Forbes recently...sounds like Lexar has been struggling as a company and are looking for SanDisk to step in with a buy-out counter-offer to their deal with Micron...not sure what that mean as far as product line for a combined SanDisk-Lexar...
Richie, there are many ways to crash a card. I know most of them and avoid all that I know of, but even with that I had a card crash during a studio shoot. I could see all the images on camera, but the computer could not.
In addition to Nat's list, I will add never fill up a card. Each picture is a different size depending tonal range (each f-stop represents a doubling of light and with it a doubling of information recorded) and the number images remaining is an estimation, so leave a little room at the end of a card. I would also deleting images in-camera and especially when the card is close to full, that is almost a guaranty it will crash.
Obviously none of those affect what you did, so assuming you formated the card before shooting, chalk it up to bad luck.
I have found that if a card has been corrupted you have about a 50% chance to recover them. When I was on my long trip this year I recovered files from several peoples cards for them. All of the files I recovered were from Canon cameras, but all of them had been using Lexar cards. You are the first, in my experience to have trouble with the newer Sandisk cards.
I have heard that Sandisk is very proud that there cards do not have the problems with Canon that Lexar has. You may want to contact Sandisk and complain about your experience. I have heard that their customer supportis supposed to be very good. I attempted to recover, from a 4 gig Lexar card, in a Canon (1d mk2) of a guys Royal Albatross (this is case then the camera could not see the files, but had error messages on the camera), and completely failed.
I once formatted a card that had not been downloaded and manged to get all of them! It took about 3 hours to recover the 2 gigs of files. I have been followingthe same advice as Nat gave and I have not (knock wood) ever had a corruption on a card.
I have heard that an organization/class D65 suggests the use of microdrives as they supposedly have a significantly lower failure rate. The fact they have many moving parts scares me, besides I frequently cards, which makes them even scarier in my mind.
Discussion
10 repliesWhen I got home i attempted to connect the card to the computer with my reader to no success. I then connected the camera directly to the computer and also to no success. I wound up using Sandisk's "recovery" software. And I am happy to say that I was able to recover all files but approximately 10% were corrupted.
My questions are:
1) Has this happened to anybody else with this combination?
2) I was impressed with being able to recover most of the data. Is that the norm? When you have a corrupted card can you usually recover some/most of the files with softwrae tools?
3) Any suggestion or tips to mitigate/minimize the potential disaster that can occur from this kind of situation?
Thanks in advance.
RichieV
Maybe try formating the card before each use. I always do this and have never had a problem with my 2Gig cards. May be something to do with the card as well. I am not sure what to tell you. Glad to here that you recovered your images!! Robbie
I bought these through Newegg. I got the recovery disk when I bought an Extreme III 4GB card. The firmware on the 5D is 1.05.
Very scary stuff.
RichieV
Guy
CF cards are sketchy to begin with because of their very nature (flash memory). You must take care to protect the data and the integrity of the file system on the card.
1. Format the card in the camera after each session spent copying to the computer and before you start shooting again.
2. Never delete, raname, or move any files on the card using your computer.
3. Use high quality CF card readers
In terms of workflow this translates to:
1. Always start a shooting session with a freshly formatted card.
2. When the card is full (or ideally, before the camera tells you the card is completely full) remove the card from the camera, and using your computer, copy all the files onto your hard drive using the Finder or Windows Explorer etc. DON'T EVER MANIPULATE FILES OR FOLDERS DIRECTLY ON THE CARD.
3. After copying all the files to your hard drive, "Safely Remove" the card from the computer.
4. After verifying all the files were copied (and you can preview them in Bridge etc) return the card to the camera, and reformat it in the camera.
All this being done, I had have had more problems with SanDisk than I have with Lexar. I wholeheartedly recommend Lexar Professional Series over SanDisk.
And it's supposedly safest to use cards that can store 60-80 images per card. Depending on your camera's resolution, this might mean 1GB or 2GB cards at the most. "Don't put all your eggs in one basket?" Better to have more, smaller cards than fewer, big ones.
Hope this helps. And congrats on recovering as many files as you did!
I have been using Sandisk and Lexar CF cards in 1G, 2G and 4G capacities for years. In spite of many drops and other mis-handeling I have never had a problem with any CF card. I consider them quite robust! I agree with Nat that it may be better to have a couple smaller cards than one big one. Personally, I have 2 each 4G cards.
Per above, I concur that after each session and successful copy of the data to your computer you should put the card back in the camera and format it there.
Also, on some 4G + Cards there is a tiny switch on the side to divide the drive into 2 equal 2G partitions or into one 4G partition. I think the default from the factory is the 2 each 2G partitions. Make sure you check to see if your card has this switch.
Sorry that happened to you shooting a wedding...yikes! I guess the only thing worse would be to hike into the subway, take your shots hike out and find you lost your images...ouch!!!
Jim
I've been a fan of the Lexar cards, but saw this article in Forbes recently...sounds like Lexar has been struggling as a company and are looking for SanDisk to step in with a buy-out counter-offer to their deal with Micron...not sure what that mean as far as product line for a combined SanDisk-Lexar...
http://www.forbes.com/2006/04/21/lexar-micron-icahn-cx_ck_0421disk.html?partner=yahootix
In addition to Nat's list, I will add never fill up a card. Each picture is a different size depending tonal range (each f-stop represents a doubling of light and with it a doubling of information recorded) and the number images remaining is an estimation, so leave a little room at the end of a card. I would also deleting images in-camera and especially when the card is close to full, that is almost a guaranty it will crash.
Obviously none of those affect what you did, so assuming you formated the card before shooting, chalk it up to bad luck.
I have found that if a card has been corrupted you have about a 50% chance to recover them. When I was on my long trip this year I recovered files from several peoples cards for them. All of the files I recovered were from Canon cameras, but all of them had been using Lexar cards. You are the first, in my experience to have trouble with the newer Sandisk cards.
I have heard that Sandisk is very proud that there cards do not have the problems with Canon that Lexar has. You may want to contact Sandisk and complain about your experience. I have heard that their customer supportis supposed to be very good. I attempted to recover, from a 4 gig Lexar card, in a Canon (1d mk2) of a guys Royal Albatross (this is case then the camera could not see the files, but had error messages on the camera), and completely failed.
I once formatted a card that had not been downloaded and manged to get all of them! It took about 3 hours to recover the 2 gigs of files. I have been followingthe same advice as Nat gave and I have not (knock wood) ever had a corruption on a card.
I have heard that an organization/class D65 suggests the use of microdrives as they supposedly have a significantly lower failure rate. The fact they have many moving parts scares me, besides I frequently cards, which makes them even scarier in my mind.