# Memory Card: I see photos of Dead People



## Fren Banklin

I can see all the photos on the 1 Gbyte SanDisk SD Memory Card while it's in the Nikon E8400, but when I plug it into my generic "Multi Flash Reader USB Device", XP (Pro) asks me if I want to format my HD.

Properties says is "RAW"

Computer Management didn't seem to have a problem with the drive letter name, but I named it "W:\" anyways.

I've lost my USB data transfer cable (which has always worked in the past), and it will take $12.00 and 10 days to get another one. I'd like my photos now, if possible.

2 different data recovery programs fail to "see" my photos. PC Inspector finds a bunch of junk, and GetDataBack can only see a couple of FAT32 partitions, and no recoverable data at all. (Which is very weird, and I'd be interested in a lecture on some of the technical aspects of data recovery software, if anyone is so inclined.)

Okay so, I did a bit of searching for some kind of freeware application that might reach down the throat of my Nikon E8400 and pull those photos up from it's guts, before I toss the thing out the window of my moving truck, leaving it with the rest of the highway roadkill.

Is there any software that will either rebuild a pooched memory card and/or recover photos from it. I'd rather not wait 10 days for a USB transfer cable to come in from "Julio & Griselda Maldonado's Photographia y Tortilla Factory".


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## Fren Banklin

Update:

I've tried an additional 4 more data-recovery programs to no effect. Most of them cannot even see that there is a FAT-16 partition. PC Inspector can not only see the partition, it can also see the files with the correct filenames and everything, only the copied files are not viewable - something about the file data is wrong. Also the filenames are wrong. Instead of being named "DSCM*.*", they are named something like "DSC*N**.*" which is weird.

I can still see the photos while the card is in the camera, so I know the data is still good. Getting it OUT is the issue.



So yeah, anyone know of a good memory card repairer and data recovery software ?


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## zuluclayman

A couple of things to try:
* re-install your card reader (and in doing so update its drivers) - you are assuming that the card is at fault atm, could it be the reader?
* If you know anybody with an external reader try that one.
* When you have the card in the reader try opening an image from within whatever image manipulation software you have (Photoshop, GIMP, Paint.NET)
* if you can recover the files but not open them you may be able to use one of the many image repair programs to restore the file to an openable state

A question too: did you reformat (or originally format) the card using the computer? some cards (my Olympus Xd card for example) don't like being formatted by the computer - only use the in-camera command to format cards - I found this out by losing 30-40 photos and a 2GB card :sigh:


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## dm01

Recuva might do what you want, it managed to recover a borked external drive of mine: 
http://www.recuva.com/

What programs have you tried?

If they have been deleted/formatted, the file names may be garbled. Don't delete anything until you have verified that it is junk. Unopenable files and files full of "junk" may be picture files that can still be recovered.


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## zuluclayman

reading across a few blog/forums - some say RAW files are harder to recover/repair than jpegs or other file formats - I haven't had to try that yet (touches lots of wood) so I don't really know whether that may be a factor in your recovery success.
btw dm01 - how did the smashed hand end up?


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## DonaldG

I have used this programme to recover photos (including portions of an image) when my daughters Canon SD card was reformatted in my son's Palm

Zero Assumption Digital Image Recovery

It supports these files:
GIF 
JPEG 
TIFF 
CRW - Canon RAW data 
MOV, AVI movie 
WAV - Waveform audio 
CR2 - Canon CR2 RAW format (see notes below). 
ORF - Olympus RAW format

EDIT:
Although ZAR costs, I just noticed this notation:


> Please note that digital image recovery function of ZAR is available at no charge. You should use the trial version for digital image recovery.


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## Fren Banklin

Wow ! Thanks for all the help !



dm01 said:


> Recuva might do what you want, it managed to recover a borked external drive of mine:
> http://www.recuva.com/
> 
> What programs have you tried?
> 
> If they have been deleted/formatted, the file names may be garbled. Don't delete anything until you have verified that it is junk. Unopenable files and files full of "junk" may be picture files that can still be recovered.


I'll try Recuva after I post this, although it sounds familiar...

*Programs I've tried:*

PC Inspector File & Recovery - best so far. Can "see" the files, but cannot copy them in a viewable state.

Get Data Back, both the NTFS & DOS software (they are two separate programs)

DiskInternals Flash Recovery

Vaiosoft Recovery Manager, version 1

Data Doctor Recovery Memory Card (Demo)

Data Doctor Recovery Removable Media (Demo)


I don't think the data is "damaged", I think the file system is "corrupt". Thing is, it (the Memory Card) works just fine in the camera, so by the camera's standards, the card is just fine. It's XP that has the problem with it. The card has not been deleted or formated.



zuluclayman said:


> reading across a few blog/forums - some say RAW files are harder to recover/repair than jpegs or other file formats - I haven't had to try that yet (touches lots of wood) so I don't really know whether that may be a factor in your recovery success.


I don't know that these are "RAW" files. Is that a file format ? My understanding of "RAW" is that it is a card/disk that has not formatting, so that when XP calls the Memory Card "RAW", it is saying there is no format that it can recognize (FAT 16, FAT 32, NTFS, etc...)

At least one of these data recovery softwares offers to search the Memory Card using a "RAW" format (compared to the others I just listed), but to no result. If the "raw" suffix is used for a particular photo format (i.e. "somephoto.raw") this is the first I've heard of it.



DonaldG said:


> I have used this programme to recover photos (including portions of an image) when my daughters Canon SD card was reformatted in my son's Palm
> 
> Zero Assumption Digital Image Recovery


All the photos from the Nikon E8400 are .JPG's. I'll try this one if "Recuva" fails.



Alright. Thanks again for all the help. I'm off to download, install and run some more data recovery softwares, woo- HOO!


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## Fren Banklin

Oh, and in case anyone asks, the SanDisk 1 Gbyte card I have is NOT on the "compatible" list Nikon has for this camera. The largest card they say is compatible is a 512 Mbyte card, so that may be the ultimate source for the trouble. Prolly should have checed that BEFORE I bought the card....


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## Fren Banklin

*Report on Recuva*

Recuva installed fine, ran the scan; immediately errored-out saying "unable to read boot sector". Off to Google what this error message might mean, then to install the other recommended software.


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## Done_Fishin

I seem to remember having and using a program called file recovery angel some years back 
http://www.filerecoveryangel.com/

seems they are still around .. don't know how good they are but seem to remember that it was aimed at photo recovery from USB media 



> Filerecoveryangel is an effective and professional data recovery software that is very simple to use.
> 
> This software will help you to recover files that caused by accidentally deleted, emptied from Recycle Bin, system crash, virus damage or disk formatted.
> 
> This software can recover files from disks with all windows file system,including FAT12, FAT16,FAT32 and NTFS.
> 
> It can run on all windows system, including WIN95, WIN98, WINME, WINNT, WIN2000, WINXP, WIN2003.
> 
> Not only the hard disks,Filerecoveryangel can work well on floppy disks, digital cameras, USB drives,ZIP disks and so on.




btw .. why is the card formatted in FAT16 .. I thought the norm was FAT32

You can also try testdisk & Photo recovery .. 

TRY to recover the partition AFTER doing everything possible to recover your raw data .. 

also Ontrack .. but they were aimed at recovery from hard drives .. support raw recovery ..


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## Fren Banklin

Grr.

I'm so mad right now I probably shouldn't post.

GRR!

So, I lost patience after trying about 4 more software recovery programs, and finally thought <deleted>-it, and did something to the "Master Boot Record", knowing full-well that the Memory Card was not a bootable device.

Put the card into the camera to check and see if I did any damage to the ability of the camera to read the card (it had worked just fine 15 minutes priort) and, 

no photos.

DOH!

I'm still mad.

So then I tried to format the card, thinking I could go back to the customer's house (these are photos of a recent job I intended to post on the internet as advertisements) and XP (Pro) says it can't "complete the format".

I've uninstalled & reinstalled the multi-flash reader device, so either

- the drivers that reinstalled are the wrong drivers (but they used to work just fine)

- the device is bad (it's a $16.00 cheap no-name from the storefront up the street

- the Memory Card itself is bad.

I'm going to Wal-Mart later today to buy another one, and see if the new Memory Card works. If not, it will have to be the device.

I'm tired of trying software recovery programs; I am of the opinion now that they are ALL crap and/or there are so many variables involved with regard to data recovery that one can never expect to get data off a malfunctioning device (I've failed at data recovery numerous times in other situations also).

Grr.

Thanks for the help. I'm off to medicate my emotional state with too much food with too much cholesteral, trans-fats, salt and other toxic substances.


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## Done_Fishin

you should know by know that this sort of work requires patience .. lots of it .. also since the card was working originally from within the device ... maybe you should have tried again from within ..

testdisk may have been able to recover your partition, or at least allowed you to see what files were on the card .. it has a backup facility .. you may have been able to copy to another device 

It's still not too late to try since it would already appear that you've decided to go back and start agin .. but in the mean time .. go have a sleep and calm down .. things always look better, the brain functions better, after a good sleep!


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## Wrench97

Fren Banklin said:


> Update:
> 
> even see that there is a FAT-16 partition.



I didn't think XP could read Fat16?


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## Fren Banklin

Done_Fishin said:


> testdisk may have been able to recover your partition, or at least allowed you to see what files were on the card .. it has a backup facility .. you may have been able to copy to another device


Erm, yeah it was Test Disk that "fixed" my MBR. It's not so much the photos; at some point I had to factor in the value of my time, and I decided that I could live without the "Before" photos, and just go back and get new pics of the "After", put them on the newly-formated card and be done with the whole thing. In a bit, I'm going to see if I can get TestDisk to undo the MBR "fix".



Done_Fishin said:


> btw .. why is the card formatted in FAT16 .. I thought the norm was FAT32
> 
> You can also try testdisk & Photo recovery ..





wrench97 said:


> I didn't think XP could read Fat16?


Yeah, I didn't know that. PC Inspector was the only software that could see anything at all, but only if I selected a FAT16 partition, so I assumed from that that the Nikon operated using FAT16.

I don't know whether or not XP can read FAT16, nor am I certain the card was FAT16. It was mostly a guess.


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## Wrench97

It may be that because the card was larger then the camera could handle it formatted in Fat16 instead of Fat32.


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## Done_Fishin

XP can read FAT 16 .. it also reads FAT (aka FAT12 = floppy drive) & FAT32

it's FAT, Fat16 & FAT32 that are unable to discern NTFS the more commonly used formatting method used in Windows 200, NT & XP.

I also have a Nikon Coolpix 4300 that uses a 2GB CF card .. photos are normaslly saved in jpg format but there is an option to save as TIFF.

I have just placed it in my USB CF card adapter bought in Dixons a few years ago .. it shows my card as 2Gb and in FAT .. not FAT32 .. I must have been confusing with Flash Drives when I said FAT32 .. I know they are formatted in FAT32 normally .. so there should have been no problem with using testdisk ..

Did you search for a partition using Testdisk or just rewrite the partition ??

Filerecoveryangel or ontrack might help with raw recovery should all other attempts fail ..


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## Done_Fishin

wrench97 said:


> It may be that because the card was larger then the camera could handle it formatted in Fat16 instead of Fat32.


FAT 32 is larger than FAT16 so I suspect you may be thinking correctly but twisting your words around ..

FAT -- Floppy DRives 

FAT16 .. Windows 95 / 98 hard disk drive limits drive size to 2048MB or 2GBytes .. using LBA

FAT32 .. Windows 98 / ME / XP Hard disk drive .. LBA increased partition size to a max of 137GB when using LBA24 or >137GB when using LBA48. File size using FAT32 was max 2GB's .. required NTFS to create a file greater than 2GB .. max I believe is 4GB .. but don't hold me to that .. :laugh:


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## Wrench97

That's the Idea only I'm thinking since the camera can't handle the size the format info is reading wrong making it appear as Fat16 to XP


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## Done_Fishin

Like I say .. MY 2GB CF Card is also seen as FAT .. I have used it on NTFS & FAT32 formatted installed Operating Systems ..


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## zuluclayman

Just a reminder from my post above (lots before this):



> A question too: did you reformat (or originally format) the card using the computer? some cards (my Olympus Xd card for example) don't like being formatted by the computer - only use the in-camera command to format cards - I found this out by losing 30-40 photos and a 2GB card


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## Fren Banklin

zuluclayman said:


> Just a reminder from my post above (lots before this):


Yeah, sorry, I read it and then forgot to answer.

In fact I DID format the card using the computer. Until this morning, I didn't know that they camera was capable of formating the card. So there's something to remember for future reference. Thanks for that.


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## Done_Fishin

The Camera's FORMAT places folders and text file inside the card .. I don't know if it also creates some sort of mbr boot instruction for the camera too ..

however as soon as I plug it into my USB CF adapter, Windows automatically opens the folder for me to view the files


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## DonaldG

It is similar with Canon cameras too. I ALWAYS format the cards with the camera, never with the computer. I have not heard anywhere that it should only be don in the camera, it always seemed to be the correct why to do it, on the principle that If the camera does it, it will be mated with the camera. My thoughts on the subject, for what it is worth.


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## Done_Fishin

I believe the software looks for the .DSC file because that is where it holds the photo numbers .. also inside the Nikon100 folder there is a text file called info.txt which contains the photo number and a few details about the shots .. like this 



> DSCN3923.JPG
> CAMERA : E4300V1.5
> METERING : MATRIX
> MODE : M
> SHUTTER : 1/60sec
> APERTURE : F2.8
> EXP +/- : 0.0
> FOCAL LENGTH : f8.0mm(X1.0)
> IMG ADJUST : AUTO
> SENSITIVITY : ISO400
> WHITEBAL : AUTO
> SHARPNESS : AUTO
> DATE : 2007.05.06 09:29
> QUALITY : 2272x1704 FINE
> FOCUS AREA : CENTER
> 
> DSCN3924.JPG
> CAMERA : E4300V1.5
> METERING : MATRIX
> MODE : M
> SHUTTER : 1/60sec
> APERTURE : F2.8
> EXP +/- : 0.0
> FOCAL LENGTH : f8.0mm(X1.0)
> IMG ADJUST : AUTO
> SENSITIVITY : ISO400
> WHITEBAL : AUTO
> SHARPNESS : AUTO
> DATE : 2007.05.13 19:39
> QUALITY : 2272x1704 FINE
> FOCUS AREA : RIGHT
> 
> DSCN3925.JPG


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## Fren Banklin

Here's how "It all turned out"; The Final Report.


Grr.

So, I go to Wal-Mart to get a 512 Mbyte memory card, the largest Nikon's support says my E8400 will support. The don't HAVE anything smaller than 2 Gbytes. So, under the theory that my old memory card is bad (it doesn't work in the camera anymore, since I messed with that TestDisk program and "fixed" it's Master Boot Record", I drop $24.00 on a new 2 Gbyte memory card.

Put it in the camera, and it works just fine. Take some pictures and put the card into the multi-flash memory card reader, and it says it's not formatted, and would I like to format it now ?

Grr !

So, back to Wal-Mart to find out if THEIR computer can read this card, and it can. So the Wal-Mart gal & I start talking (HOT!) and I tell her about how I kinda figured the multi-flash card reader I bought at the local and over-priced store front shop (named "AllGen", a place to avoid) was only $17.00 and I should have figured it was going to be a piece of junk, because it was so cheap.

So the Wal-Mart hottie says that she sells multi-flash card readers, and I figure I should just bite the bullet and drop $30 to $40 on a new one, and so I ask how much are they, and she says they are only $13.00.

I hate All-Gen. They sell garbage product, and it's over-priced.

So I drop another $13.00 and get a little USB thing with a cable, take it home, plug it in, insert the new memory card, and it has a bunch of pictures in it.

All that hassle, and it was the multi-flash card reader that was the problem.

Grr. Someday, I'm going to meet someone that knows how to fix all this Tech stuff, 'cause apparantly I'm not very good at it.

How does the rest of the world DO this ? Am I the most unlucky electronics owner in the world, or does everyone else pay a lot of money to fix this junk ?


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## Done_Fishin

Congrats on your cure .. your cable sounds about right and similar to what I bought from Dixons years ago .. 

Have you tried looking at the old card in your new cable ?? 

also .. my Nikon Coolpix E4300 uses a 2GB card and it must be a lot older than your E8400 .. originally came with 16MB card , upgraded to a 128MB just after I first bought it, then about a year ago I upgraded to a 2GB with similar doubts to yourself but ws really happy that it worked.

if you are really certain about having lost all your old photo's on your old card .. try using a partition program , maybe Partition Magic .. or just from Administration Tools/ Computer Management / Disk Management to see if you can delete whatever partitions are on the card .. then place in camera and try formatting again ..


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## Fren Banklin

Done_Fishin said:


> if you are really certain about having lost all your old photo's on your old card .. try using a partition program , maybe Partition Magic .. or just from Administration Tools/ Computer Management / Disk Management to see if you can delete whatever partitions are on the card .. then place in camera and try formatting again ..


Good suggestion. I'll wait a while for the rage to pass before trying to do anything, but yeah good idea with the Acronis. I haven't tried to look at the old card's pics in the new reader, I'm still trying to schedule with the (previous) customer so I can take the new pics and get them posted.


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