Photo Recovery

[mom2rtk]

Not to worry. I didn't lose my son's graduation photos! (Knock wood!)

But I do have a friend who is having some trouble and I said I'd ask over here for suggestions.

She took some photos this morning and saw them on the card when she took the photos. She tried to download them to her computer and it says they are an unreadable format.

She says she has downloaded something called cardrecovery but it also showed the files as unreadable.

Any suggestions on what she might try next?

 

[BirdsOfPreyDave]

Can the photos still be displayed on the camera if she puts the card back in it?

Is it possible that she shot in RAW mode and doesn't have the codex loaded on her computers? RAW files are in a proprietary format. They can't be read by the operating system unless you've loaded the drivers appropriate to the camera manufacturer.

 

[photo_chick]

Is she using a reader or downloading from the camera? And what kind of camera? Some cameras generate thumbnails that show on the LCD screen, so just because you see it on the camera doesn't mean the file is good.

 

[hakepb]

If its not a RAW issue, but instead a memory card issue, first try Recuva.

I thought I lost a number of pictures on memory sticks on my old camera. Most programs thought the memory stick had an unrecognizsble format. The Recuva's Deep Scan found the old pictures.
I think the cause of my cameras problem was an old battery losing power while the camera was writing a picture, thus hosing the file allocation table - the pictures still existed, but there was no index to easily find them.

Instructions and links here:
http://blog.computercrimeinfo.com/?p=190

 

[wiigirl]

If its not a RAW issue, but instead a memory card issue, first try Recuva.

I thought I lost a number of pictures on memory sticks on my old camera. Most programs thought the memory stick had an unrecognizsble format. The Recuva's Deep Scan found the old pictures.
I think the cause of my cameras problem was an old battery losing power while the camera was writing a picture, thus hosing the file allocation table - the pictures still existed, but there was no index to easily find them.

Instructions and links here:
http://blog.computercrimeinfo.com/?p=190

x2 for Recuva.

 

[mom2rtk]

Thanks for all the suggestions and ideas posted so far. I'm waiting to hear back from my friend on what sort of camera she has and I'll run some of these ideas past her.

Keep the ideas coming. I'll post back when I hear more!