My raw file disappeared. need help getting it back.

<p>I shoot raw/jpg. opened the raw file in Digital Photo professional and transferred a tiff to photoshop where I saved I worked on it and saved it as a psd. when I tried to open the tiff file again I received an error message saying I didn't have permission. when I went back to open it again it was gone. when I went back to the flash card all my raw files where there except this one. I only have the jpg backup. The raw and the tiff disappeared. I've tried two different recovery programs which recover everything from months ago up to the present except this one file. Does anyone have any idea on how to get that raw back and what may have happened? I've searched all drives in my computer and the flash card. one recovery program shows the raw file sitting on the flash card but doesn't get it. any ideas? unfortunately this is the one the client really, really likes. </p>

<p>It sounds like the PSD you've created is still drawing information from the TIFF.<br>

You could try saving the PSD as a copy and then delete the original PSD. <br>

Alternatively, if, as you say, the RAW file is still sitting on the flash card, why don't you just use another computer to access it and make a copy.</p>

<p>Before doing anything like that workflow, just copy the files off of the flash card and into a working directory on your local drive. Then properly dismount the flash card and set it aside. Do all of your work from copies of the files, not directly from the flash card.<br /><br />And of course, make sure you're also periodically making complete backups onto yet another drive that you then remove from the computer for safety.</p>

<p>+1. Never, ever work from the memory card. Copy the files first to your hard drive (if only for the overall performance improvement) and don't clean up the memory card until you're absolutely positive you've got the file safe and have at least one backup copy.</p>

<p>Ah, 20/20 hindsight. Sorry. Good luck on the file recovery. It should still be there on the card. Just don't write anything else to the card.</p>

<p>Concur with Gary and Matt for general work flow. </p>

<p>I think there's a misunderstanding. I always immediately make copies and I never work directly from a flash card. I was not working from the flash card in this case either. I made a tiff and jpg backup files to a separate drive on my computer which I do after every shoot. I was working on the tiff file from the backup drive on my computer(Not the flash drive) when I got the error. It allowed me to saved the tiff file under a different name, which I did. when I went back to open it again the orginal tiff was gone and the newly named tiff was gone. when I went back to the flash card card to get the original raw file , it was gone as well. When I ran the recovery program, the recovery program showed it in the directory but when I attempted to recover it it nothing happend. When I view the flash card in DPP or windows explorer the original raw file does not show up. I have run a deep full recover scan of the disk and it has recovered everything I've deleted from almost a year ago except this one file. Since, the shoot I have not deleted anything from the flash card nor have I take a single new shot. The file in question was the very last shot of the day, so it should be the last photo on the flash card. the only file I can bring up is the medium quality jpg backup that was recorded in the camera to the flash card along with the raw file when I shot the picture. My camera was set to raw/medium jpg.</p>

<p>FIrst, what operating system are you running and which version - Windows? Mac?</p>

<p>What is your hardware configuration?</p>

<blockquote>

<p>FIrst, what operating system are you running and which version - Windows? Mac?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>If you read his posts, you won't have to ask that question.</p>

<p>To be fair Jeff, dense, solid blocks of text with no paragraphing are pretty hard to read - I've had to read them a couple of times to find the single reference buried in the second post to (uncapitalised) "windows explorer".</p>

<p>Being potentially quite an important detail, OS <em>could</em> have been brought out more clearly.</p>

<p>Besides, Brooks' question about <em>version </em>isn't answered in the earlier posts.</p>

<p>I missed the reference to Windows Explorer, sorry Jeff. It still does not tell me which version of Windows.</p>

<p>From the description of the problem, assuming it is correct and the OP did not "trip over his fingers" (and I have tripped over my fingers many times), I suspect a hardware error.</p>

<p>1) Go here:<br>

<a href="http://www.memtest.org/">http://www.memtest.org/</a></p>

<p>scroll down and download :<br>

<a href="/digital-darkroom-forum/download/4.20/memtest86+-4.20.iso.zip">Download - Pre-Compiled Bootable ISO (.zip)</a> for version 4.20</p>

<p>Unzip the file and burn the ISO to a CD/DVD as an ISO file. This will give you a bootable disk. Do not simply copy the file to the CD/DVD.</p>

<p>2) Boot from the CD/DVD and run Memtest 86+. It may take quite some time to run depending upon how much memory you have on your system. </p>

<p>Yes, memory errors can cause all sorts of file errors since garbage is being written from memory to the disk, including to directories and the MFT.</p>

<p>3) Run CHKDSK on you disks. Be sure to check not only the file system but also the free areas. This will take some time to run.</p>

 

<p>Brooks: Thanks for the suggestion. I will try this and hope it works.<br>

my description is correct. I shoot thousands of pics every week and always back them up before doing anything else and I have never ever worked off the Flash card. I was told long ago working directly off the flash card might over heat the card and ruin the pics and card itself. <br>

My OS is windows 7,<br>

What "hardware configuration" are you referring to? camera, card, computer, drive??</p>

<p>Hi John,</p>

<p>The hardware configuration I was referring to was:</p>

<p>1) Computer - desktop or laptop</p>

<p>2) How many hard drives in the computer.</p>

<p>3) What type of external drives.</p>

<p>4) How do you read the files from your camera - card reader or direct connect to the camera? What software do you use to read the card and transfer the images?</p>

<p>If I understand your work flow you:</p>

<p>1) Downloaded the images from your camera.</p>

<p>2) Disconnected the camera or ejected the card from your card reader, without modifying the card in any way.</p>

<p>3) Backed up the images. What happened to the original RAW file? Backed up? Where?</p>

<p>4) Worked on the image on your computer and had the error.</p>

<p>I am puzzled by the fact that one and only that one image disappeared from your flash card. That does not make any sense.</p>

<p>Let's see what MemTest 86+ comes up with.</p>

<p>Brook: the fact that one and only one raw file suddenly vanished is puzzling to me to. to add insult injury it was my favorite shot of the day.<br>

I use a desktop HP<br>

I have 6 drives or slots. the hard drive and external drive and all the slots for the different types of card,. I have one C drive or hard drive, I guess.<br>

I read cards by removing them from the camera. I never connect the camera to the computer.<br>

I use Canon Digital photo profession to read the card and transfer tiff and jpgs to external disk connected to computer with a usb. Original raw files remained on them flash card. I worked on the tiff files on my computer, saved them. when I tried to reopen them I got the error then they disappears and the raw file on the flash card was gone to. But it only happened with this one shot,. The jpg version is still on the flash card.</p>

<p>Hi John,</p>

<p>Weird, to say the least.</p>

<p>So Canon Photo Professional reads the RAW file and converts it to a TIFF? The TIFF was stored on your external drive and you worked on the TIFF until you had the error. It sounds as though you may have had an error in the transfer on the external drive.</p>

<p>Let's see what MemTest has to say about your computer. Hopefully it is "only" a drive problem. If it is a memory problem, you <strong>may </strong>have many corrupted files.</p>

<p>If the memory is good, I would like to suggest a slightly different work flow. Please post back with the MemTest results. Let MemTest run over night to stress test the memory.</p>

<p>Brook: No. DPP reads the raw files and I can choose to convert them to tiff or JPG. I usually transfer them to photo shop as tiff and save both a tiff, psd and jpg copy to an external drive. when I closed the tiff file and tried to reopen I got the error saying I didn't have permission to open. after that the tiff was gone I went back to the original flash drive that was used in the camera during the photo shoot to open the raw and it was gone to. This was the only picture affected. t</p>

<p>If I understand correctly:</p>

<p>1) DDP reads the RAW file from the flash card attached via a USB connection and converts to TIFF and/or JPEG. You never transfer the RAW file itself from the card to your C-drive or external drive. I am not familiar with DDP. Do you invoke DDP from Photoshop or do you save the TIFF on your external disk then load it into Photoshop?<br>

<br /> 2) You process the TIFF and save the TIFF, PSD and JPEG from Photoshop to an external USB connected drive.</p>

<p>If this is correct you have another point of failure - the USB connection. Are the external drive and the card reader connected through a USB hub or are they connected directly to the computer? I assume since you say you have a built in card reader, the external drive is connected directly to a USB port on the computer. In this case both card and drive data streams still go theough the USB controller in the computer. The USB controller is a possible common point of failure.</p>

<p>Have you had a chance to run Memtest 86+? This should be done as soon as possible; if you have a memory error, you can end up with many corrupt file without knowing it until it is too late.</p>

<p> </p>