Faulty Memory Card

Z

Zyk1

Expert Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2014
Messages
1,513
Reaction score
220
Guys I need some help.
Just took out some photos on my DSLR camera. On the camera I could view all the pics and they were fine. I took out the memory card from the camera and into a laptop to download the photos. It tells me the card cannot be read and needs to be formatted. I put the card back into the camera and I get the same error. I cant see the pics anymore.

Seems like I have lost all the photos and need to format the card. I have not done this yet and was hoping there is some way to recover the pics.

Note that I did format the card when i bought it 2 years ago and I have used it many times before and downloaded from it many times before as well with no issues. First time this has happened.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Thanks
 
Yes I did.
Pretty sure of it.
But lets say I didnt....what would then be the remedy....if any
 
There are plenty of app you can try to recover your photos. I use DiskDrill on OsX but SanDisk RescuePRO is equally as good.
 
Zyk1 said:
Note that I did format the card when i bought it 2 years ago and I have used it many times before and downloaded from it many times before as well with no issues. First time this has happened.
Click to expand...
This almost sounds like you haven't formatted the card in the last two years? :confused:
 
Thanks guys. I will try these options.
I think I formated the card twice in the 2 years I have it.
How often should one be formatting these cards?
 
Zyk1 said:
Thanks guys. I will try these options.
I think I formated the card twice in the 2 years I have it.
How often should one be formatting these cards?
Click to expand...

General consensus is that you shouldn't be deleting individual, or groups of photos, either via the camera or your computer. You should rather use the camera to format the card after you've copied everything across to the computer. Also, don't use the computer to format the card.

Personally I format my cards only after I've made backups of what I've copied across
 
Zyk1 said:
Thanks guys. I will try these options.
I think I formated the card twice in the 2 years I have it.
How often should one be formatting these cards?
Click to expand...
This is not about how frequent card is formatted. I usually do not do format. Rather do testing entire space when card is new, so I can pickup faults and fakes. Once it is formatted on PC, the best is to format it again in the camera (it is what bwana was about).

In your case the card got probably damaged by static electricity. If you don't care about losing photos, you can try to format it again.
 
I did some research and found out that even If I do format it again, I can still recover the photos.
I must just not overwrite on it by using it before I recover the stuff.
I may have to reformat before I can recover since the card is unreadable at present.
Will try something out tonight
 
Definitely try use the recovery software online - have to play around with them - can't remember the one I used. Some say they free, but once you use them, they say pay to get your stuff.

Don't try format it yet, first try run this software on it - I recovered all my photos
 
Last edited:
bwana said:
General consensus is that you shouldn't be deleting individual, or groups of photos, either via the camera or your computer. You should rather use the camera to format the card after you've copied everything across to the computer. Also, don't use the computer to format the card.

Personally I format my cards only after I've made backups of what I've copied across
Click to expand...

Also found (with a 550d anyway) that it seems to be a bit better on the card if you copy/move the photos via cable.
 
AstroTurf said:
Also found (with a 550d anyway) that it seems to be a bit better on the card if you copy/move the photos via cable.
Click to expand...
Not sure if your camera is USB3 but with mine it's a lot faster using a card reader. Except last night - I popped my card to file some images and bent a pin in my reader :o
 
bwana said:
Not sure if your camera is USB3 but with mine it's a lot faster using a card reader. Except last night - I popped my card to file some images and bent a pin in my reader :o
Click to expand...

Yea for sure, card reader is much faster but the cable means the card never gets pulled out of devices :)
 
Thanks for all the input guys.
Managed to retrieve my photos with Filescavenger.
 
It works with HDD too.
Not free.
Used friends copy
 
AstroTurf said:
Yea for sure, card reader is much faster but the cable means the card never gets pulled out of devices :)
Click to expand...

Shooting tethered is even faster! :D

I have had the USB port on the camera come loose and hide itself inside the body so these days the only times I use it are when I'm syncing the time or shooting tethered.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top
Sign up to the MyBroadband newsletter
X