SD card failed

[ncooke]

<p>I just had a SD card fail on me. Won't work in camera and my computer won't even acknowledge it plugged in. Curious if any one else has ever had a problem like this and recover the pics on it. I recently tried a program but since my comp doesn't acknowledge the card I wasn't able to use the program. The card has worked the last 2 months so its not a compatibility issue. Just wondering if any one knows a way to at least get pics off before I throw it away.</p>

[sgireland]

<p>It's possible, but you'll have to pay for a professional recovery service to do it. I have seen pretty miraculous results from Seagate and the like but it's usually a couple of hundred dollars. If you computer won't recognize it then it's down to taking apart the card and using hardware at this point.</p>

[steven_p]

<p>If you purchase an Extreme III or better, Sandisk includes RescuePro, image recovery software.</p>

<p>(Disclaimer: your results may not match my own.)<br /> I retrieved older, previous (long gone) images from cards that have been formatted several times.<br /> You may have to format the card to make it readable by your computer, a possible/probable booga-boo. I use a mac and always use a USB card reader.</p>

<p> </p>

[frank_skomial]

<p>What camera were you shooting when the card became bad?, Were you shooting Video ? or photo?<br>

Could possibly your computer card readed damaged the card?<br>

What card brand and size was it?<br>

Try to clean up te SD card connection comb to make sure there is no finger oil left on it.</p>

[elliot1]

<p>If your images are really, really important, DO NOT do anything further to your card - send it to a pro recovery service.</p>

[ncooke]

<p>Not sure what happened half think it was heat it was a hot day. I was taking pics through the day then one time I turned it on to take some more and it said memory card not usable. I tried to put the card in my comp to possibly save the pics and it wouldn't read. Nothings been usable for it. Could it really be just clean it off. It seriously was working had taken about 50pics turning it on and off then turned camera on again and wouldn't work. seriously at a lost with it. Bought a new card camera is working fine</p>

[tom_boston1]

<p>Just because the camera won't read it and a computer won't read it doesn't necessarily mean the proper recovery software won't be able to retrieve stuff on the card.</p>

<p>If you are lucky, critical OS data on the card became corrupted which would prevent a camera or computer from seeing the card properly. As long as most of the card can read as a physical stream of bytes, there's good chance of recovering most of the data on the card without too much trouble.</p>

<p>Every memory card has a built-in hard disk controller. If this is the part that has failed, the card will probably need to be physical disassembled to recover the data.</p>

<p>If it were my card and the photos weren't especially valuable, I'd probably try to format the card to get Windows to recognize it and then I'd run Rescue Pro to recover the images from the formatted card.</p>

<p>But before doing that, I'd try to do a disk dump of the card using Linux. I once had a failed hard disk that Windows wouldn't read but Linux did and I saved most of my data that way.</p>

<p>Your Mileage May Vary.</p>

<p> </p>

[ncooke]

<p>?? How do you format a card when your comp doesn't acknowledge it exists in the first place. Also if I format does that ruin my chances of recovering other ways? </p>

[tom_boston1]

<p>There is an initialization process to prepare a hard disk for partitioning. After a hard disk has been partitioned, the partitions can be formatted. Most memory cards are setup as a single partition that manages all the available space on the card, but it is very common for hard disks to be setup with multiple partitions.</p>

<p>I do NOT know this stuff well enough for you to completely rely on what I am saying. And all the storage failures I've had have been on hard disks. What I've learned the hard way won't completely translate.</p>

<p>I'm only familiar with this because I've installed new bare drives on my computer several times. And when I've done that I'm occasionally banged my head because I forget to initialize the disk before creating partitions.</p>

<p>In Windows, initializing a disk is done using the Disk Management utility in the Computer Management Console. Right click on your computer icon, select Manage, and take a look at the options in there.</p>

<p>If your card is visible in Disk Management when you put it into the card reader, you can have more hope that you might recover something. It's worth taking a look at what Device Manager shows too. USB card readers will show up under "Portable Devices".</p>

<p>If you do decide to play with these utilities, I recommend seeing how things behave with a card that doesn't have any important information on it.</p>

<p>Like people have said, if the images are really important, it's probably worth sending to a professional recovery service. Most of them don't charge if the information can't be retrieved.</p>

<p> </p>

[tom_boston1]

<p>Just occurred to me that you could try formatting it in the camera. If the camera can format the card, there is a high probability you can recover most of the files using the rescue utilities that could not read the card before.</p>

<p>But if the camera isn't even able to format the card, then the card might need professional disassembly to recover anything.</p>

<p>Have you tried calling the card manufacturer? What brand of card is it?</p>

 

[tom_boston1]

<blockquote>

<p>Also if I format does that ruin my chances of recovering other ways?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Will it ruin the chances of recovering other ways? Possibly. You should only try this technique if you have given up on the non-destructive techniques.</p>

 

[john_tran14]

<blockquote>

<p>The card has worked the last 2 months so its not a compatibility issue</p>

</blockquote>

<p>This is not true. In many cases, the compatibility issue only creates problems after you use it a while and/or written enough pictures on it or store big enough pictures on it. Also when the problem appears it is often a card error like that</p>

[ncooke]

<p>I never realized that John. I'm still doubtful thats the problem though I've taken over 1000 pics on that card and all are in the 5mb size. I formated the card in the camera the first day I got it. Also though the card should still work in my computer. The cards a PNY Optima SDHC 4GB class 4 and I was just using a point and shoot Nikon coolpix S4000. I was on vacation visiting sister and friends. Had been taking pics all week and transfering the pics to computer every night. Then just about the end had taken pics didn't transfer them that night went out the next day. Was shooting and it crapped out so lost 2 days worth of pics. I'm hoping to recover them but not really worth forking $300 out to send the card in and try to recover them. Was hoping to find some ideas that might have worked for other people before I just toss it.</p>

[iso200]

<p>If it's a card from a reputable manufacturer [e.g. Lexar, Sandisk] send it back to them a] for replacement and b] for data recovery. It may take them a while [took Lexar three or four months to recover data from a dud CF card in 2005] but that's what warranties are for.<br>

I had problems copying data off a CF card this weekend - however all that I had to do was restart my computer and everything worked as expected.</p>

[ncooke]

<p>I didn't realize they offered to recover. I will have to look into that with PNY. Thanks Dave.<br>

About getting card replaced not sure if I want to trust them again but I guess it could have just been one bad one or who knows. Any good opinions of PNY or should I just stick with another company. I went out and bought a SanDisk the next day. I believe they are good. The packaging confused me though or maybe I'm miss informed. On the card there is a 4 in a circle which I thought indicates a class 4 card but on the back of the package it said "class 2" not sure what to make of that. </p>

[ShunCheung]

<blockquote>

<p>About getting card replaced not sure if I want to trust them again but I guess it could have just been one bad one or who knows.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>If your criterion is that a brand can never have any failed products before you would buy, pretty soon you'll have absolutely nothing to buy.</p>

<p>I mainly used Sandisk and Lexar memory cards, and I have had exactly one failed from each brand. One Sandisk card gradually went bad over 2 weeks but fortunately it gave me plenty of warning along the way so that I didn't trust it any more. I had a Lexar that was bad out of the box; I got an exchange from B&H and the replacement has been perfectly fine.</p>

<p>I would avoid those "no name" brands; stick with the few well known ones and watch out for counterfeit cards. There are lots of counterfeit Sandisk cards from various sources, especially some eBay sellers.</p>

[ncooke]

<p>I'll probably give them a chance again, just irritated right now. I do own a usb flash drive from them and have been happy with it. But to add to my skepticism a family member bought a bulk pack of 5 PNY usb flash drives. Which after a month 3 of them failed in a 2 week period. I don't know full circumstance though so can't be to bias. Everything can't be perfect :). Which brand do you trust out right as the better card? if you don't mind me asking.</p>

[tom_boston1]

<p>I trust SanDisk. For critical stuff, I use Extreme III and Ultra II compact flash cards, though I'm not sure if SanDisk uses those marketing labels any more.</p>

<p>I also have some Kingston SDHC cards that I use in my point-and-shoot cameras.</p>

<p> </p>

[carly_barnett]

<p>SD card failures are so scary!!</p>

<p>Lots of things can go wrong with SD cards or CF cards... especially if you are using a card that is not fast enough for how fast your camera is capable of shooting. Then there are times where cards just fail.... that is super scary for someone like me, where photography is my livelihood. <br /> <br />I've been a wedding photographer for 4 years on a professional level, and over the years I have had a few memory cards fail. I always used the Lexar Recovery program (even though I use Sandisk cards) and I can't tell you how many hundreds of images I've recovered like that. It always worked.... until one day.<br /> <br />I shot a wedding this past June and after dinner and the speeches we took the couple out for some extra little portraits during golden hour. I was shooting on a card for speeches and our golden hour portrait time and the dance, etc. When I got home my card was only half readable by Lightroom, and by my computer (although I could see the images greyed out... they weren't in a recognized format).<br /> <br />I tried several recovery programs on my own. All of the recovery programs failed to retrieve the lost memory card data. I took the card to a professional recovery store in town, and they were unable to retrieve the card.<br /> <br />I looked around on the internet for days and found a place in Germany (I live on the West Coast of Canada), who had rave reviews for repairing and recovering images from memory cards that no one else could recover. So I sent the corrupt, unrecoverable sd card to Germany.... <br /> <br />Four days later I got an email from this company Recoverfab, showing me the files they were able to recover from my disk, and it was all of the golden hour portraits and the dance!!! I am so glad I didn't just throw away the card and inform my clients. Recoverfab uploaded all the RAW full sized files online and I was able to download them straight to my computer.<br /> <br />If you haven't been able to recover a very important memory card and recovery software has failed, I HIGHLY suggest contacting Recoverfab in Germany. They have amazing customer service and have some sort of magical skills. Here's the link: <a href="http://recoverfab.com/" target="_blank">http://recoverfab.com/</a></p>

[Albins images]

<p>Since this reply is new and TODAY I tried to rescue images from a crashed SD card, let me share my experiences! <strong>photorec_win.exe</strong> (and testdisk) proved to be my big helper. Most JPEGs and NEFs came out great, where other software only recognized the JPEG's. Some of the NEFs were damaged. But in the end, the result was much better than I dared to hope for.</p>