Card failure

jude - first, DO NOT SHOOT WITH THE CARD. set it aside. do NOT write to the card.

I'm going to guess that something happened with the reader reformatting the card, but the data could easily still be there.

something happened to me recently when a card reader had a bent pin somehow - don't know how. it caused the card to short out and reformatted it. I was able to recover it, however.

here's what you do - check out "photorescue" and buy the $30 wizard version.

I have lost gigs of data for a variety of reasons (both human and technical error) and have recovered nearly all of it everytime using photorescue. sandisk's product has never worked for me, but photorescue works pretty well.

I feel your pain, similar thing happened to me a few months ago, same set of images. I would recommend two places- Drive Savers and a member here, Bob Bernardo. I would even go to Bob first. Drive Savers gives PPA members a 10% discount and both places do not charge you unless data is recovered.

I wouldn't do ANYTHING with the card. According to Bob, the more attempts are made at recovery, the lower the chances of recovery are. Don't monkey around with it, send it to a professional data recovery expert. You wouldn't take a BMW to the redneck mechanic for an engine overhaul, don't trust wedding photos to cheap software.

Sam

Thanks Sam for your kind words. Jude, follow Sam's suggestions. There are a lot of recovery types of software, but often it isn't a software issue, but a hardware issue, such as a defective card, or bad sectors.

A tip of advice for the future. Use 1 and 2gb cards. I generally use 1gb cards for the MUST shots and 2gb cards for candids and the reception. The reason for this is if the card is bad you can sometimes reshoot the missing shots, before the wedding is over. With 1 gb cards you can pretty much remember most or all of the shots you took, so if and when the card goes bad most of the time you can recreate the lost images.

Cards are a lot like hard drives on computers, you never know when they will crash, but they will at one time or another.

Feel free in emailing me. I've been pretty suggessful getting images back for people. If I can't get the images backthere is no charge. Let me know the make of the card, the camera you used and the size of the card.

Yet another walking advertisment for any of the professional, dual card shooting cameras (new or used) ... don't leave home without one.

Hard drives, CFs, SDs, SDHCs, Memory Sticks, Card Readers, Software glitch, bad Firewire/USB feed, User Error ... it's inevitable ... there WILL be a faliure sooner or later.

I and a number of pros I know, shoot to dual 16 gig cards. I never have to swap cards during a wedding. One of the danger areas with CF cards is swapping them out constantly at a hectic wedding ... lots of things can go wrong. I shoot ALL of the most important "must have" shots with a dual card camera. I use a single card camera for back- up and to shoot some candid work.

Upon returning home one of the 16 gig cards is set aside as insurance. It then doesn't matter what happens ... lightening can strike my home and fry my computer ... or whatever ... I have the images. And even then I carry full insurance just in case I get held up at gun point ... or a tornado demolishes my entire studio ... or whatever.

Canon has produced dual card cameras for some time now and there are excellent ones on the used market ... Nikon now offers this with the D3 and presumably will with the high meg camera coming. Why do you think they do that?

Do a quick search on "card failure" and you'll pull up a bunch of prior threads. Chances are good that you can recover the files.............

I don't think it is a good idea to use small 1G, 2G cards. If you use cards that small, you can easily end up with 5 to 10 cards per wedding. I have personally seen more cases when the photographers misplace cards, thus losing them forever with no chance of any recovery, than card electronic failures, which can be recovered in many cases.

For serious wedding photographers, like Marc points out, use a camera with a dual card system such as the Canon EOS 1D and 1Ds family cameras or the Nikon D3. You can put two 16G cards into a D3 and never need to change cards for the entire wedding. Since the cards are always inside the camera, unless you somehow lose the entire camera, you'll always have the cards. Memory card failures are rare; using dual cards is as close to 100% safe as you can get.

Hopefully you can get the current "lost" images recovered.

Card format failures are a when not any if. Careful photogaphers keep handy software that works - SanDisk has one which they bundled with the firewire 800 card reader. Photorescue also works fine. Infact had to use it last month when a card got scambled by card reader (not a cheapie off the block 8-( a SanDisk reader which is pretty darn reliebale). Most times its not the cost of using professional recovery service providers but the turn around time.

Quick tip: label your cards with a phone number and "Reward if found".

I just about lost all the most important photos from a wedding last week by accidentally formatting the card before saving the pictures to my computer. Photorescue saved my butt! I was able to recover ALL of the images. Best of luck and let us know what works for you!

I work in a lab that does recovery. So long as you don't shoot more on that card, you should be able to get all the information off of it. Depending on the camera, reformatting just makes all the memory on the card available for writing files. The Fuji line of cameras will wipe everything, professional and consumer, so don't format with a Fuji camera. If you put the card into a reader and the computer can see it, but it shows no images, you should be able to recover them. If your computer cannot see the card, then you might be out of luck. Most of the time, in my experience, the problem is caused by pulling the card out while the camera is on or shooting beyond the card's memory capacity (it tries to write one more image than it can hold...). If it can't "write" the last file directory, then it gets all "wonky" and fails. Most digital cameras can be set to count down the available number of images you have left on a particular card. Once you learn your camera's limitations, you know when to pull a card. It's really easy to think that you have enough room on the card for "one more image" and in reality, you don't (especially if you switch modes during a shoot/event). I make it habit to pull mine whenever I get to 15 images or less. That's just the way I work. In a perfect world, I would have the dual card slots, but I don't. So, you make do with what you have. We bought the Photorecovery software from LC Technology and paid for it within a month. We have the older version and it has worked like a champ.

thank you all for your help. I've learned a lot of what I shouldn't have done or should know. Wish it helped now, but it's good for future reference. I will be looking into recovery software. wish me luck...

photorescue + reliable card reader. Lexar or Sandsik comes to mind.

You can get ImageRescue version 3.0 from Lexar by downloading from their web site.

http://store.lexar.com/imagerescue3

Just provide an email address.

Some basic rules for good memory card usage:

1) Never eject the card while the camera is writing to it, or while a computer is accessing it.

2) Always use the camera to format the card, and NEVER use Windows to format it.

3) Copy your files from the card to your computer, rather than cutting/pasting.

4) Never use your computer to delete files from your card, use the camera's format feature for this.

I'm not sure if the original poster violated any of these or not, but they're good rules to follow.

It doesn't help the poster, but I would also recommend pulling and reinserting the card before reformatting to make sure the contacts have a good circuit.

If you don't have a dual card camera, consider shooting two cameras for sure during the formals and possibly throughout the event. Even a D40 or Rebel as backup would be preferable to nothing.

Like others, I prefer to use a card big enough to hold a whole day's worth of shooting.

Make sure you buy cards recommended by your camera maker and test them up to their limit before using them live. Cards are NOT the place to save a few bucks.

I hate that for you Jude; a wedding photographers worst nightmare has happened to you. You've got all the answers here for typical recovery and preventive measures. The best being, IMO, is to use the large capicity cards and the dual slots offered on some pro model cameras. I have the dual slot cameras and just started implementing the dual slots this year. I'm thankful that i did because i've had, for the first time, CF failer this year.

There seems to be different kinds of failure. If your camera, or reader, at least recognizes the card, then there is hope for you. If the camera or reader can't acknowledge a card, then, in my experience, you have trouble. That happened to me recently and after several attempts with various readers/devices, i concluded the card experienced iirrepairable damage. The kiker however was that i had a duplicate copy of the shoot on a SD card (dual slot back up) and simply threw the CF away without a single worry. How much are you willing to spend for that kind of protection? I'll never personally shoot anything of importance without a dual slots capabilities and enabled. I hope you can recover your files.

Actually, Jude's problem could be an argument for using smaller cards, so that your whole day's shooting isn't lost on one card, just a few shots. I use 4 gig cards, so I really don't strictly adhere to that, but I do take a laptop to my events and download my cards at the reception to do a "teaser" slideshow of the day's best images. That's a great backup method for me, too.

A couple of my cards have been through the washing machine, but still work reliably (thank God!).

This is a perfect argument for using dual slot 8/16 gig cards. I'll never shoot with a single card again and I'm in total agreement with Marc Williams.

As it stands, I've sent my card out to Bob (Bernardo) and we'll see what happens. He's really nice and I know he'll try his hardest to help me. I refuse to think about what I'll do if the images are completely gone - I believe in the law of attraction so I'm going to keep thinking the data is there somewhere waiting for Bob's magic fingers (or brain).

I've learned a lesson here (or several).. I'm done taking wedding photos. I've been debating continuing for a long time - where I live people cannot afford to pay much and it's way too much work for the fee. It's stressful and I don't like having to please other people (lol). I do a decent job and people hire me just for my style, but I don't have what it takes to enjoy the process like one should. I just don't think I want to be responsible for an important part of someone's life being screwed up. I have my own life to do that to, lol.

I think wedding photographers are a unique breed and I admire those who do it well. I'll let you all know what happens with the card... Thanks for your thoughts, advice, and help.

You've gone where I never want to be! I really feel for you. To protect myself from this occurrence, I only shoot 1 and 2 gig cards. I also ALWAYS carry my Epson p-2000 and IMMEDIATELY download a card when it comes out of my camera. I have a sytem of keeping uncopied cards in a specific pocket in their container and moving them to my other pocket (or into my bag) when completely backed up. Have you checked with the card manufacturer to see if you have a legitimate card???? I purchased 80 Sandisk cards for a huge sports shoot last year only to find out that all of them were counterfeit. When it came time to download into the computer, several cards came up empty...but the images were on my Epson. I was told at Sandisk that there is an issue with counterfeiting their product in China and I've since moved to Kingston 1 gig cards without any issues. Kind of like PC and Mac....more PC owners so hackers create viruses to mess with the masses! Only buy cards from reputable suppliers and beware of flash card deals on e-bay!!! That's where I bought mine. I'll bet if you call the manufacturer and provide the serial number on the card, you'll find it's not theirs. Then you know it's not a card reader but card issue. Hope this helps and sorry for any type-os. Does anyone know if there is a spell check feature for our postings???? I hayt lookin lyke I kan't spell write!

Tony, the main problem with your process is that if your card fails between the time you capture the images and the upload to your EPSON, you will be out of luck.

Only buy from authorized dealers - only buy pro cards for weddings.....SPEND THE EXTRA MONEY! Some even come complete with recovery software. Where you able to recover the images?

Hi Shun,

You're right! It's the most nerve racking time of my shoots......but I have it down to a science. Card comes out of the camera and goes into the epson. If one card is copying already, it goes in my pocket and waits in line. Nothing is more important than getting those cards into my portable backup. I'm certain a body with dual cards is in my future but not at the moment. That's why I'm steering away from Sandisk (potential counterfeiting issue) and toward other mainstream manufacturers who I can rely on (like Kingston). I've never lost an image due to card failure and, for the moment, my portable backup is the reason. Again, just my method of protection. I'm certain there are many others out there. Have some fun today!

The computer hard drive is the most vulnerable part of any conventional computer. It is a mechanical device that spins at high speed and prone to failures. In fact, the failure rate for hard drives is far higher than flash memory cards. Therefore, I wouldn't depend heavily on single hard drives to store your images; therefore, I am somewhat skeptical about hard-drive-based devices such as the EPSON P-2000 and equivalents. It is ok to create a 2nd copy there, but they are far more risker than flash cards.

I do use hard drives a lot, but I have every image duplicated on at least 3 or 4 drives so that even though a drive fails, I still have multiple backups.

Again, personally I don't like using small 1G, 2G flash cards. While I am busy shooting, I don't want to pay attention to all the little cards that I am swapping in and out. It is another process that is prone to errors.

For those interested, Bob just called and he recovered the photos off my card. I can't tell you how happy I am and how grateful I'll always be to him. I appreciate all the advice - I've learned a great deal, believe me.

Thanks for Sam Ellis for suggesting Bob in the first place. And thank you Bob.. I can honestly say you're my hero right now.

All's well that ends well ... now to win that lottery on Friday ;)

Glad to help you out. You can now sleep well, because your worries are long gone!

Oh, don't forget to send the card back to Lexar. They will probably replace it. With Canon's I actually prefer Sandisk as already stated. The files were pretty messed up, corrupted, and just about everyone of the 400 plus images needed mending.

Is Lexar on Canon's recommended list?

I've used Sandisk in Canons for more than 5 years with no failures.

Maybe Jude should throw away that card and switch.

Another idea to reduce risk is to used the USB cable to transfer files before removing the card.

Also to check from time to time during the shoot by going into slide show mode on the camera.

Whenever I hear/read about card failure it's been a lexar. Wonder why photogs still use them.

Scary situation but generally files are recoverable in full or part. Curious to know if anyone has ever had a *total* card failure? (read/write electronics fried or similar)

Talking to fellow club members, the only failures I've heard about are with Lexar cards.

Hi Shun,

Tony here. Ultimately, my images make it to 2 computer hard drives and then to dvd (so they're actually in 3 permanent storage locations). I only use the epson to back up immediately after the shoot since my camera body doesn't have the capability of writing to 2 cards. I still feel backing up to another device (no matter what it is) is much better than only having the images recorded on one media. Call me paranoid but I take every precaution I can to eliminate lost images. Thanks for the interaction. Have a fun weekend.

Hi -- I just posted on this topic, but worse because i can't even blame technology -- if anyone would like to travel over to the new wedding posts mine is called something like "NIGHTMARE ----900 images lost"... I've read this post and wonder if any of you can help me out? In my desperate state of guilty grieving I would greatly appreciate any suggestions/advice. thanks greatly katt