Recover images from broken CF card?

Gary Kinghorn

Gary Kinghorn

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One of my cards has been playing up today. Was shooting all morning with the card this, no issues. Left the camera for an hour at lunch time and now it isn't being recognised / not working.

I don't have a computer to try it in as I'm on holiday, but have tried it in two cameras with the same result.

Any tips on getting the data back if the card reader won't pick it up at home? Not the end of the world, but I'd prefer not to lose the images if possible. Nice holiday snaps etc.
 
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I had a similar issue and thought I had lost my Scandinavian trip pictures. I downloaded the free ZAR recovery programme and it recovered all the images on there. Im not technical but simple to follow, takes a lifetime but it does recover them. Hope this helps, and good luck!
 
Gary Kinghorn said:
One of my cards has been playing up today. Was shooting all morning with the card this, no issues. Left the camera for an hour at lunch time and now it isn't being recognised / not working.

I don't have a computer to try it in as I'm on holiday, but have tried it in two cameras with the same result.

Any tips on getting the data back if the card reader won't pick it up at home? Not the end of the world, but I'd prefer not to lose the images if possible. Nice holiday snaps etc.
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'Recuva' is free generic software that will restore images that have been accidentally deleted or re-formatted over. V easy, takes a couple of minutes, but maybe not for your problem http://www.piriform.com/recuva

If the card is 'dead' then it's likely the controller has gone down, and you'll need a specialist company to bi-pass that to access the data files. Even if some data cells have also been corrupted, there's a very good chance that a great many images will be intact, if not all. Have a look at recovery firms here, eg Datatrack www.datarecoveryprofessionals.net

Edit: the golden rule with card problems is to stop using the card as soon as you spot a problem. That way, nothing can get over-written and there's a very good chance that all the data will be intact and can be restored.
 
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Thanks for the comments and ideas. I will check them out when I get home tomorrow.

The card is going on the bin once I have seen if it's possible / economically viable to get the images of it. Luckily there is nothing majorally important on it.
 
Gary Kinghorn said:
Thanks for the comments and ideas. I will check them out when I get home tomorrow.

The card is going on the bin once I have seen if it's possible / economically viable to get the images of it. Luckily there is nothing majorally important on it.
Click to expand...

If you get any quotes Gary, be interesting to know the outcome :)
 
Recuver did the job and was nice and easy to use. Thanks for the help people.

Card is going in the bin this morning, I'm not going through that again.
 
Gary Kinghorn said:
Recuver did the job and was nice and easy to use. Thanks for the help people.

Card is going in the bin this morning, I'm not going through that again.
Click to expand...

:thumbs:
 
For future reference, I have recovered images using Sandisk's software. Corrupt cards, failed hard drives are worse than my worst nightmare.
 
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