# Unable to view photos



## devagral

I have one Sony DSLR-A 290 camera. Till yesterday it was working OK. Today after clicking some photos I wanted to transfer those photos to my computer.After connecting the camera to my computer through usb, instead of photos , it shows some folders with wierd characters.When I try to open these folders, I get 'file name directory name volume label syntex is incorrect.' Is there any way to retrieve those photos. 
Thanks.


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## Done_Fishin

you could try using a usb card reader or even photo recovery software .. but don't use that card again in the camera until you have recovered your photo's otherwise you may find that you have written over the files you want to recover.

can you still see the photos using the camera ?? ie using the cameras display rather than the computer ?


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## devagral

I have used card reader but results are same.I took 3 more phots while the card was in camera and I can see these photos in computer but when I try to see these in camera, it says ' no Images' 

While using card reader, it shows a yellow folder 'DCIM' then a white rectangle with right upper corner folded named 100MSDCF. The card shows ' 7.04 GB free of 7.53 GB. It shows that files are there on the card. I think somehow the format has changed, which can not be read either by computer or camera itself.
Further please suggest some photo recovery software, preferably free. I deseperately want to retrieve those photos and shall be grateful for any guidance in this regard. Thanks for replying.


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## zuluclayman

ZAR - the freeware image recovery software is excellent - takes some time to scan then recover the images but has worked well in the past for me.
Read Donald's sticky here

Edit: found some info on the net about file names for files within the 100MSDCF folder:

The picture names must be DSC0001.JPG. DSC0002.JPG etc

You could try renaming the files (and the main folder if need be) and see if that helps

The path should be DCIM/100MSDCF (or 101MSDCF)/DSC0001.JPG. and DSC0002.JPG etc


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## Done_Fishin

Is the card you are using the original card that came with the camera ? 

Is there any possibility that the pictures were saved to camera memory rather than the memory card ?

Did you format the card before taking your pictures (don't do that until you have recovered your missing photos) or at any time afterwards?

sorry for all the questions but need to know a little bit of the events leading up to the failure.


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## devagral

Yes, it is the original card ( purchased saperately as no memory card was included )
Camera itself does not have any memory, can be used only with a memory card.
Never formatted the card. Ofcourse after problem arose, I scanned it for problems and fixing.Thanks


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## Done_Fishin

there is every possibility that your problems arose because you didn't understand that before taking your first photo's with the new memory card, it required formatting. It is even possible that your problems were compounded by the fact that you then "fixed it".

Formatting is best done only using the application on the camera. It is possible to use a PC but you really must be sure what format the camera requires in order to ensure that your card remains compatible.

There are many applications available on the net that will help you recover "recoverable" files from memory cards, even Sony has one although I don't remember either the name or where it is stored. 

Try the one that ZCM linked you to above (which I haven't used) & you can also try *PhotoRec*  

Since the card has already been through a repair process, there are no guarantees that your photos will be recoverable. If the repair method wrote back data to your card you may have overwritten some important information related to where the original files were stored, or worse, overwritten part of the data that made up the files.

Good Luck and let us know how things go.


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## devagral

Done Fishin, I forgot to mention that I have used the same card with the same camera many times in the past and never had any problem. So it is something new.

zuluclayman, while thanking you, I may point out that the path is ' DCIM/100MSDCF ' but upon double clicking' 100MSDCF' it asks for the program to open it and no program opens it.


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## Done_Fishin

devagral said:


> zuluclayman, while thanking you, I may point out that the path is ' DCIM/100MSDCF ' but upon double clicking' 100MSDCF' it asks for the program to open it and no program opens it.


sounds like the card is corrupted somehow .. try testdisk or photorec (both from the link given above testdisk shows on the lefthand side in the margin)

testdisk allows you to investigate "drives" & recover files / partitions that have become corrupt. best to copy whatever files it can find to another drive though .. use in conjunction with photorec so you get two attempts at retrieving your data


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## devagral

Further to my post. I have recovered some pictures and word documents through 'R-studio'. In properties the picture format is shown as .jpg but i can not open it. I have tried Photoshop (invalid jpg marker), Photoviewer (format not supported) . Similarly, word documents are gibberish and inilgible when opened in MS Word. Pl. help. Thanks.


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