recovering deleted or corrupt images

[SharonLowe]

Golf4Food - I definitely recommend trying a specific card data recovery program then. But, I had something similar happen to me on 2 4-Gig cards with photos from a trip to Mono Lake. I had them all backed up except for the last day/night of shooting. Got home, nothing would recognize my memory cards as even existing. I tried at least 5 different programs - nothing. Fortunately, they were Lexar Pro cards and Lexar guarantees those and even provides a free service to attempt recovery of your images. It took awhile but they managed to recover them plus sent me 2 new 4-Gig cards. So, if you can't recover them, there are companies who specialize in doing it. Unless you have a guarantee like the Lexar ones, you will have to pay for it though.

 

[Master Mason]

Did you look at the contents of the card directly with a card reader? sometimes the name gets currupted and while there, they don't show because the software is looking for specific extentions.

 

[MICKEY88]

I hghly recommend { Recover My Files }

i used it to recover over 10,000 files from a hard drive that had been inadvertantly formatted, then had windows xp reinstalled...it still recovered the pics....

 

[Golf4food]

Did you look at the contents of the card directly with a card reader? sometimes the name gets currupted and while there, they don't show because the software is looking for specific extentions.

Yup. Pulling straight from the card reader they are not showing. No in the HD folder they were in before, not on the SD card, not on Flickr.

I'll see about one of the recovery programs.

Thanks.

 

[webshark3]

Here's a free one that I've had luck with. Try it first, if nothing, then look paying for the other reccomendations.

http://www.z-a-recovery.com/digital-image-recovery.htm

 

[lorimc]

**Previously posted on CB**

I'm upset. We went to WDW a couple weeks ago and when we went to view our video we get an error message and are unable to view ANY of our footage. This is DD's first trip, our first trip as a family, my husband did the flag retreat and I can't believe it is gone. We can always go back to WDW, but it's never going to be the first time again.

I took the discs to our local computer repair and the guy there has tried for days to recover it but could not.

I think we got a batch of bad discs. We've called the maker of the discs and the maker of our dvd camcorder.

Anyone else have this experience and was able to recover data? Any recommendations on where esle to try?

Thanks.

I am just ill, ill, ill about it.

 

[webshark3]

one of my many fears about dvd-r and camcorders. I still love tape.

I'll post a link if I find it, but there are recovery programs that ignore the data, but read the bits (if that makes any sense). Instead of trying to "read" a disc the way it suppose to read, it just pulls raw data.

A new image can then be created from there (no guarantees).

 

[webshark3]

Here's the one I remember. I never tried it, but it fits what you need.

http://www.isobuster.com

Quick question. Is this a new camcorder? If so, did you finalize the disc before trying to read it? Gotta ask.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Is the disk scratched? Do you get read errors or does it just not play back correctly?

There are several possible problems. It could be scratched, in which case the scratch either needs to be buffed out, filled in, or both.

It could be that the media the laser burned data onto was bad and the disk is unreadable.

It could be some type of alignment issue where your video camera can write disks that others can't read. In that case, perhaps the video camera itself can play them back.

It could be that the disk is readable, but the information on it is corrupted. If that's the case, it might be possible to find and edit out the bits that are corrupted and salvage most of the recording.

It could be that the camera wrote in a format that isn't supported by your playback device. If that's the case, the camera itself should be able to play it back.

 

[webshark3]

What Mark said. LOL

The more info you can post, the better we can diagnose.

 

[Groucho]

I've used a program called Unstoppable Copier in the past to copy a CD that had some damage in the middle. This free program will do its best to pull data out of a damaged area, and then continue on, rather than aborting with an error message like your normal copy operation.

 

[Cricket2]

Anything is possible. I work 5 minutes from a state police forensics lab and they have some gear in there that can recover data from a shredded CD (not melted though, I asked ). It's all a question of how much you are willing to pay someone to recover the data.

Not enough information is given to tell what is really happening though. There are trouble shooting steps that need to be done which Mark has brought up already.

 

[lorimc]

Okay, here's a bit more info....

I have finalized 3 of the four discs. They work fine in camcorder and our dvd player (which is a cheapie from Wal-Mart).

The remaining one gives me an error message in my camcorder that my disc is dirty. I've tried wiping it gently with one of my husband's clean plain white t-shirts. There are no scratches that are visible to my eyes. I can't by-pass this message so I can finalize the discs.

I have contacted Panasonic (the makers of the dvd-r) and they want me to let their tech gurus take a look at it and see if they can get it to work on a Panasonic unit.

Thanks for the tips! I really appreciate it.

PS--Webmaster Cricket, how much $$$ are we talking for about 28 minutes of data? A ball-park figure would do. Thanks!

 

[Cricket2]

PS--Webmaster Cricket, how much $$$ are we talking for about 28 minutes of data? A ball-aprk figure would do. Thanks!

You would have to contact a data recovery center in your area to know for sure. I don't know too much about costs since it's a time and materials deal in many cases and most of them that I have knowledge of are recoveries that involve data from server hard drives in disaster situations. Many of them are from crimes that they can't tell me anything about but I know tax $ is involved.

 

[lorimc]

You would have to contact a data recovery center in your area to know for sure. I don't know too much about costs since it's a time and materials deal in many cases and most of them that I have knowledge of are recoveries that involve data from server hard drives in disaster situations. Many of them are from crimes that they can't tell me anything about but I know tax $ is involved.

Okay!

 

[Cricket2]

Things like thiis might work but I'm not familiar with any specific ones:

http://www.cdroller.com/htm/camera.html

Groucho mentioned a CD app. but I don't know if it works on DVD's.

 

[Groucho]

I believe Unstoppable Copier will work on anything - CDs, DVDs, hard drives, as long as it can get a list of files.

Data recovery from damaged hard drives is extremely expensive (like in the four-figure range), I'd guess that recovery from damaged CDs is not quite as expensive but probably not cheap. Usually the quantity of data isn't so much of a big deal, it's the whole process. I think for CDs, what they may do is separate the layers and put on a new clear layer on the bottom, which is what usually gets scratches. I'm not sure about the technique for shards of CDs - I have a couple guesses but don't know.

 

[Cricket2]

I'm not sure about the technique for shards of CDs - I have a couple guesses but don't know.

They set each speck on a mirror upside down and shoot a laser array at it for a few seconds (assuming it's clear) and then a Cray takes over and puts them all together again virtualy somehow. There is some loss but many images and about 80% or so of the data are easliy recovered. Takes about 3 hours to do 1 CD if they know it's just 1. If there is a mess of CD's in a pile, they said it could take a couple of days in just processing time to sort them all out.

 

[webshark3]

The professional data recovery services run in the hundreds of dollars into the thousands based on the specific job. You are NOT looking at a sub $100 job. I'd definitely try some of the apps mentioned first.

 

[webshark3]

BTW, on the final disc, use a really good disc cleaner. Youd be suprised how many discs are "dirty" when you can't see any dirt or smudges. Wiping it with your husband's shirt isn't enough.