Restoring corrupt Canon RAW files from EOS 10D

I have caused a strange and rare problem. I was using the Canon File Viewer Utility to

convert a batch of RAW files to JPG (this is how I review photos as viewing RAW pics is too

slow) Yet while the files were being processed, I accidently pulled the AC power on my

external hard drive. After this incident, all the RAW files that were not already converted

(most of them) have become unviewable/useable. I need to recover my RAW files, as when

I try to view them I'm turned away with an "unable to create preview screen" warning. I can

see the thumbnails, and the files are still there -- same size, basically untouched.

Something is strangely tagging these files as unreadable -- I can't fathom what. I am

using a Mac, OS X.3. Or perhaps I can recover the files from the original CF card? I have

the CF card, I formatted the CF card after copying it over to the hard drive but have not

used it since -- perhaps the data is still there but recoverable? (Doubtful as it was

formatted by the camera -- not "deleted") Any wild Mac or Canon ideas on how I can

make my Canon CRW files useable again would be great. Thank you!

Hi Erick, I would think your best bet would be to use a CF recovery program on your CF card. I suppose you could try a data recovery program like Norton Disk Doctor on the hard drive that was unplugged; it couldn't hurt. If you Google "Compact Flash Data Recovery" you'll get a bunch of hits. Here's the first one that came up: http://www.datarescue.com/laboratory/smartflash.htm Good luck!

Hi,

 

My recommendation is that you use a recovery software for recovering the files from the formatted card. Depending the brand of card there is a particular software available from the manufacturer. The recovery software from Sandisk is Rescue Pro. There is another one for Lexar. I know little about generic image recovery software that can be used with any card, but it appears that several of these exist. In the mean time do not record anything on the card prior to recovery. I must tell you that this is something I have had to do on a few occasions and I am always successful with Rescue Pro for my Sandisk Cards.

You may have difficulty using some of these recovery programs as some only look for standard image file types. On my recently purchased Lexar CF (1Gb) there was a free image recovery program that claims to recover RAW files as well. If you don't get any luck with 'Google' try the one from Lexar.

Jeff and Alfred, perhaps I can humbly ask your help -- I own Lexar, SanDisk Pro, and

SimpleTech CF cards -- but they didn't come with the software. ) Perhaps it was

unavailable then) I tried downloading their demo versions, but the demo versions don't

seem to display the .CRW files -- only the JPGs. (I don't care to restore the JPGs, but I

desperately want to recover my dear .CRW files) Would you be terribly kind and email to

me a copy of your included recovery program? (Macintosh OS X version?) It ought to be

legal as too am a paying customer of the same. I just want to make sure that my .CRW

files can be saved -- that's the determining factor. Thank you, it looks promising and I

hope it might work: eridium@ocf.berkeley.edu

Erick, I'm puzzled that accidentally killing the conversion process would corrupt the original RAW files. FVU doesn't alter the originals, it just reads them. My guess is the files are actually okay and it's FVU's database that's messed up. Try using the Finder to copy the files to another folder. Just the .CRW files, not any others that may be in the same folder. Then browse the new folder with FVU.

 

-Dave-

Hi Dave, and thanks to all of you for your suggestions. I acquired an Image Rescue

program for Mac OSX which managed to rediscover my .CRW and JPG files straight from

the CF cards. Evidently I'm not the first idiot who needed to restore his deleted photos, as

there are several vendors who sell applications for photo recovery. I lost the filenames,

and the thumbnail files (THM) have been confused, but thankfully the photos are there and

useable. The optimistic lesson to this story: is that a Canon 10D's format function doesn't

destroy the underlying data, it just "clears" the card for overwriting.

<p>

Dave, I separated and recopied the files as you suggested, and to no avail. It's frightening

how the data in that folder was corrupted, but also the data in another folder which came

from the same batch of CF cards was also corrupted. (It wasn't involved in the batch

conversion) I now fear for things on my HD.

<p>

I tried one other thing: I ran DiskWarrior, but it couldn't do anything with my external drive

because it, a LaCie Firewire, is unfortunately in MS-DOS format, as it was

originally received. It should have been reformatted as Mac HFS or HFS+, but my friend

who delivered it to me with data didn't realize this... Will have to reformat it once I get

access to another external drive. Thanks for all of your input and well wishes. *WHEW!*

Glad to see you were able to recover your photos. I'm still puzzled about the corruption, but with DOS thrown into the mix all bets are off. :-)

 

-Dave-

I have encountered a similar problem recently. What I know is that recovering photos from a memory card is much easier than repairing pictures.