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My first D30 RAW disaster - HELP!

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BryanS

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Just got back from the zoo with my kids and had taken a bunch of photos on the Microdrive.

I've just gotten a Lexar Firewire reader, so I've been taking the microdrive out of the camera and loading the pictures from the reader to my PC using Chris Breeze's Downloader program. The problem is, today it showed no files on the disk.

A little history, the last couple of days, when taking the microdrive out of the reader I got an error message that it couldn't save all the data on the drive or some such nonsense. I just ignored it, as Downloader had already deleted all the files.

Anyway, I ran the "Fixdisk" option in Win2K, and got a bunch of files back with the .CHK extension. Some are 32KB files, and the others are right around 3000KB (various sizes). I'm figuring these are the .CRW files and the corresponding .THM files, but obviously they don't match.

I've tried renaming the bigger ones to .CRW and moving all the smaller ones to a different directory (so they won't be confusing to any programs), but no program I've tried will convert them or even do anything with them. If I open Breezebrowser to the directory with the renamed .CRW files, it quickly crashes.

Am I SOL on these files from today? Any way to recover and convert these files into usable .JPG or .TIF files?

Also, there must be some trick to removing the Microdrive from the reader. Do I need to use the "Eject" command (it only gives an error, but perhaps it makes sure the media can be removed)? I know some of you must know what I'm seeing and have experienced something similar, right?

Luckily, these were not precious shots... a good lesson to learn when I have just simple "mess around" photos on the drive. However, I'd like to learn to recover from this disaster... the next time might just make me sick!

Thanks!--Bryan
http://www.siverly.net
 
Bryan, I think you DO need to use some "eject" command, or the like. OR at least, you must insure that no software currently has the drive "open," and/or shut down the software you were using to read the drive.

With a Win2000 notebook, reading a 1GB Microdrive in the PC card slot, I have to close the directory and/or software, as noted above, then use the Windows "Unplug or Eject Hardware" icon in the system tray. With previous computer, and CF cards, I used to remove media without using the Windows Eject. Never had a problem. With Win2K, though, I've found that that crashes my system. Best to be safe.
Bryan Siverly said:
Also, there must be some trick to removing the Microdrive from the
reader. Do I need to use the "Eject" command (it only gives an
error, but perhaps it makes sure the media can be removed)? I know
some of you must know what I'm seeing and have experienced
something similar, right?
Click to expand...
 
BryanS said:
Also, there must be some trick to removing the Microdrive from the
reader. Do I need to use the "Eject" command (it only gives an
error, but perhaps it makes sure the media can be removed)? I know
some of you must know what I'm seeing and have experienced
something similar, right?
Click to expand...
Cant help you with the recovery - but my guess is that windows was still accessing the drive to delete the files, even though downloader thought it had finished.

You should always use the eject function to ensure that there are no further accesses going on before you remove the drive. If you don't, you can end up with a corrupeted Fat (directory structure) which will mess up future writes.

Alternatively, always have the camera format the disk at the start of a shoot.--Tony [email protected] Photo website : http://www.digifotoinfo.co.uk
 
Bryan,

Do you have a program like Norton's which can re-write corrupted directories? Also, is it possible you formatted your Microdrive in the computer rather than the camera? I used to run W2K and I needed to use the eject button for my Firedrive or I would get scolded, but with XP it doesn't need eject when removing the contents of the Firedrive.

Good luck
Bryan Siverly said:
Just got back from the zoo with my kids and had taken a bunch of
photos on the Microdrive.

I've just gotten a Lexar Firewire reader, so I've been taking the
microdrive out of the camera and loading the pictures from the
reader to my PC using Chris Breeze's Downloader program. The
problem is, today it showed no files on the disk.

A little history, the last couple of days, when taking the
microdrive out of the reader I got an error message that it
couldn't save all the data on the drive or some such nonsense. I
just ignored it, as Downloader had already deleted all the files.

Anyway, I ran the "Fixdisk" option in Win2K, and got a bunch of
files back with the .CHK extension. Some are 32KB files, and the
others are right around 3000KB (various sizes). I'm figuring these
are the .CRW files and the corresponding .THM files, but obviously
they don't match.

I've tried renaming the bigger ones to .CRW and moving all the
smaller ones to a different directory (so they won't be confusing
to any programs), but no program I've tried will convert them or
even do anything with them. If I open Breezebrowser to the
directory with the renamed .CRW files, it quickly crashes.

Am I SOL on these files from today? Any way to recover and convert
these files into usable .JPG or .TIF files?

Also, there must be some trick to removing the Microdrive from the
reader. Do I need to use the "Eject" command (it only gives an
error, but perhaps it makes sure the media can be removed)? I know
some of you must know what I'm seeing and have experienced
something similar, right?

Luckily, these were not precious shots... a good lesson to learn
when I have just simple "mess around" photos on the drive.
However, I'd like to learn to recover from this disaster... the
next time might just make me sick!

Thanks!
--
Bryan
http://www.siverly.net
Click to expand...
--Joe Hawblitzel
 
Joe Hawblitzel said:
Do you have a program like Norton's which can re-write corrupted
directories? Also, is it possible you formatted your Microdrive in
the computer rather than the camera?
Click to expand...
Nope, don't have Norton... but I think I have the files back if anything would read them.
Joe Hawblitzel said:
I used to run W2K and I
needed to use the eject button for my Firedrive or I would get
scolded, but with XP it doesn't need eject when removing the
contents of the Firedrive.
Click to expand...
Yes, I'll use the Eject command from now on, even though it give an error message. Or, I suppose I could "stop" the device using the Tray icon for the firewire reader. I'll experiment some more with non-crucial photos.

So nobody knows how to do something with these .CHK files?--Bryan http://www.siverly.net
 
Bryan Siverly said:
Just got back from the zoo with my kids and had taken a bunch of
photos on the Microdrive.

I've just gotten a Lexar Firewire reader, so I've been taking the
microdrive out of the camera and loading the pictures from the
reader to my PC using Chris Breeze's Downloader program. The
problem is, today it showed no files on the disk.

A little history, the last couple of days, when taking the
microdrive out of the reader I got an error message that it
couldn't save all the data on the drive or some such nonsense. I
just ignored it, as Downloader had already deleted all the files.

Anyway, I ran the "Fixdisk" option in Win2K, and got a bunch of
files back with the .CHK extension. Some are 32KB files, and the
others are right around 3000KB (various sizes). I'm figuring these
are the .CRW files and the corresponding .THM files, but obviously
they don't match.

I've tried renaming the bigger ones to .CRW and moving all the
smaller ones to a different directory (so they won't be confusing
to any programs), but no program I've tried will convert them or
even do anything with them. If I open Breezebrowser to the
directory with the renamed .CRW files, it quickly crashes.

Am I SOL on these files from today? Any way to recover and convert
these files into usable .JPG or .TIF files?

Also, there must be some trick to removing the Microdrive from the
reader. Do I need to use the "Eject" command (it only gives an
error, but perhaps it makes sure the media can be removed)? I know
some of you must know what I'm seeing and have experienced
something similar, right?

Luckily, these were not precious shots... a good lesson to learn
when I have just simple "mess around" photos on the drive.
However, I'd like to learn to recover from this disaster... the
next time might just make me sick!

Thanks!
--
Bryan
http://www.siverly.net
Click to expand...
 
Bryan Siverly said:
Nope, don't have Norton... but I think I have the files back if
anything would read them.
Click to expand...
If nothing can read them, then the file is corrupted. Probably, based on the rest of the thread, the FAT table was corrupted and there wasn't enough left to pull the correct blocks off the disk, so Fixdisk started making guesses - bad ones. But the upshot of this is that, if the file's headers are corrupted, then you may as well not have the file at all.
BryanS said:
So nobody knows how to do something with these .CHK files?
Click to expand...
If you want to spend a lot of time at it, you should try each and every one of the large files in the RAW converter and see what comes out. It's possible that some of them are uncorrupted.

So what about getting ALL of them back? I'd suggest that you treat your kids to another day in the zoo next Sunday. :) While I'm not completely sure, I suspect it'll be the cheapest, easiest, and most fun way of "recovering" your work.
 
Hate it when I make blank posts....

As far as something to read the strange extensions, I can't help you. The only thought I had was maybe using a different method to try to recover the images would give you usable files.

There is some good information here, maybe some of it can be of help.

http://www.robgalbraith.com/diginews/2002-01/2002_01_23_cf_recovery.html

Good luck.

-Merlynn
runt said:
Bryan Siverly said:
Just got back from the zoo with my kids and had taken a bunch of
photos on the Microdrive.

I've just gotten a Lexar Firewire reader, so I've been taking the
microdrive out of the camera and loading the pictures from the
reader to my PC using Chris Breeze's Downloader program. The
problem is, today it showed no files on the disk.

A little history, the last couple of days, when taking the
microdrive out of the reader I got an error message that it
couldn't save all the data on the drive or some such nonsense. I
just ignored it, as Downloader had already deleted all the files.

Anyway, I ran the "Fixdisk" option in Win2K, and got a bunch of
files back with the .CHK extension. Some are 32KB files, and the
others are right around 3000KB (various sizes). I'm figuring these
are the .CRW files and the corresponding .THM files, but obviously
they don't match.

I've tried renaming the bigger ones to .CRW and moving all the
smaller ones to a different directory (so they won't be confusing
to any programs), but no program I've tried will convert them or
even do anything with them. If I open Breezebrowser to the
directory with the renamed .CRW files, it quickly crashes.

Am I SOL on these files from today? Any way to recover and convert
these files into usable .JPG or .TIF files?

Also, there must be some trick to removing the Microdrive from the
reader. Do I need to use the "Eject" command (it only gives an
error, but perhaps it makes sure the media can be removed)? I know
some of you must know what I'm seeing and have experienced
something similar, right?

Luckily, these were not precious shots... a good lesson to learn
when I have just simple "mess around" photos on the drive.
However, I'd like to learn to recover from this disaster... the
next time might just make me sick!

Thanks!
--
Bryan
http://www.siverly.net
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
Bryan, I wonder if BB is crashing precisely because it's looking for the missing .thm files...

If so, perhaps you can match .crw and .thm files by date/time (I'm guessing the recovery program may have processed them in their original date/time order).

You might also try - horrible thought - running them through the original Canon software in case it's more forgiving in some way than BB.
Bryan Siverly said:
Just got back from the zoo with my kids and had taken a bunch of
photos on the Microdrive.

I've just gotten a Lexar Firewire reader, so I've been taking the
microdrive out of the camera and loading the pictures from the
reader to my PC using Chris Breeze's Downloader program. The
problem is, today it showed no files on the disk.

A little history, the last couple of days, when taking the
microdrive out of the reader I got an error message that it
couldn't save all the data on the drive or some such nonsense. I
just ignored it, as Downloader had already deleted all the files.

Anyway, I ran the "Fixdisk" option in Win2K, and got a bunch of
files back with the .CHK extension. Some are 32KB files, and the
others are right around 3000KB (various sizes). I'm figuring these
are the .CRW files and the corresponding .THM files, but obviously
they don't match.

I've tried renaming the bigger ones to .CRW and moving all the
smaller ones to a different directory (so they won't be confusing
to any programs), but no program I've tried will convert them or
even do anything with them. If I open Breezebrowser to the
directory with the renamed .CRW files, it quickly crashes.

Am I SOL on these files from today? Any way to recover and convert
these files into usable .JPG or .TIF files?

Also, there must be some trick to removing the Microdrive from the
reader. Do I need to use the "Eject" command (it only gives an
error, but perhaps it makes sure the media can be removed)? I know
some of you must know what I'm seeing and have experienced
something similar, right?

Luckily, these were not precious shots... a good lesson to learn
when I have just simple "mess around" photos on the drive.
However, I'd like to learn to recover from this disaster... the
next time might just make me sick!

Thanks!
--
Bryan
http://www.siverly.net
Click to expand...
--James
 
Bryan Siverly said:
A little history, the last couple of days, when taking the
microdrive out of the reader I got an error message that it
couldn't save all the data on the drive or some such nonsense. I
just ignored it, as Downloader had already deleted all the files.
Click to expand...
You might have had an explorer window open with the cf drive. I did the same thing about twice, and then learned to close the explorer as well. Never got the error message after that, and I never have used eject.
 
Bryan Siverly said:
Just got back from the zoo with my kids and had taken a bunch of
photos on the Microdrive.

I've just gotten a Lexar Firewire reader, so I've been taking the
microdrive out of the camera and loading the pictures from the
reader to my PC using Chris Breeze's Downloader program. The
problem is, today it showed no files on the disk.

A little history, the last couple of days, when taking the
microdrive out of the reader I got an error message that it
couldn't save all the data on the drive or some such nonsense. I
just ignored it, as Downloader had already deleted all the files.
Click to expand...
Bryan:

For what it's worth to you at this time, I had the same problem once with a 340mb card (the one that came with the Canon rebate). I wasn't able to recover the files, but after that I always reformatted the card in the camera when reinserting it and never had another problem. I also do the same with all my 1GB microdrives and type I cards, and have never had any problems with them either. It only takes about 45 seconds, and I figure it's good insurance.

A thought for the future.

--Wileythe other Wiley
 
Bryan

What error message are you getting? I regularly use eject on a CF card in a PC slot adapter on a laptop running W2K with no error message.

Cheers
Ian
Bryan Siverly said:
Also, there must be some trick to removing the Microdrive from the
reader. Do I need to use the "Eject" command (it only gives an
error, but perhaps it makes sure the media can be removed)? I know
some of you must know what I'm seeing and have experienced
something similar, right?
Click to expand...
--Ian S http://www.rainpalm.com/orch01.htm
 
Bryan:

1) Always eject your MD/CF. Don't just pull it out.

2) Always format the MD/CF IN THE CAMERA prior to each new shoot.

3) You need to find out what is causing the error when you eject and get it corrected.
Bryan Siverly said:
Just got back from the zoo with my kids and had taken a bunch of
photos on the Microdrive.

I've just gotten a Lexar Firewire reader, so I've been taking the
microdrive out of the camera and loading the pictures from the
reader to my PC using Chris Breeze's Downloader program. The
problem is, today it showed no files on the disk.

A little history, the last couple of days, when taking the
microdrive out of the reader I got an error message that it
couldn't save all the data on the drive or some such nonsense. I
just ignored it, as Downloader had already deleted all the files.

Anyway, I ran the "Fixdisk" option in Win2K, and got a bunch of
files back with the .CHK extension. Some are 32KB files, and the
others are right around 3000KB (various sizes). I'm figuring these
are the .CRW files and the corresponding .THM files, but obviously
they don't match.

I've tried renaming the bigger ones to .CRW and moving all the
smaller ones to a different directory (so they won't be confusing
to any programs), but no program I've tried will convert them or
even do anything with them. If I open Breezebrowser to the
directory with the renamed .CRW files, it quickly crashes.

Am I SOL on these files from today? Any way to recover and convert
these files into usable .JPG or .TIF files?

Also, there must be some trick to removing the Microdrive from the
reader. Do I need to use the "Eject" command (it only gives an
error, but perhaps it makes sure the media can be removed)? I know
some of you must know what I'm seeing and have experienced
something similar, right?

Luckily, these were not precious shots... a good lesson to learn
when I have just simple "mess around" photos on the drive.
However, I'd like to learn to recover from this disaster... the
next time might just make me sick!

Thanks!
--
Bryan
http://www.siverly.net
Click to expand...
 
Bryan Siverly said:
Just got back from the zoo with my kids and had taken a bunch of
photos on the Microdrive.

I've just gotten a Lexar Firewire reader, so I've been taking the
microdrive out of the camera and loading the pictures from the
reader to my PC using Chris Breeze's Downloader program. The
problem is, today it showed no files on the disk.

A little history, the last couple of days, when taking the
microdrive out of the reader I got an error message that it
couldn't save all the data on the drive or some such nonsense. I
just ignored it, as Downloader had already deleted all the files.

Anyway, I ran the "Fixdisk" option in Win2K, and got a bunch of
files back with the .CHK extension. Some are 32KB files, and the
others are right around 3000KB (various sizes). I'm figuring these
are the .CRW files and the corresponding .THM files, but obviously
they don't match.

I've tried renaming the bigger ones to .CRW and moving all the
smaller ones to a different directory (so they won't be confusing
to any programs), but no program I've tried will convert them or
even do anything with them. If I open Breezebrowser to the
directory with the renamed .CRW files, it quickly crashes.

Am I SOL on these files from today? Any way to recover and convert
these files into usable .JPG or .TIF files?

Also, there must be some trick to removing the Microdrive from the
reader. Do I need to use the "Eject" command (it only gives an
error, but perhaps it makes sure the media can be removed)? I know
some of you must know what I'm seeing and have experienced
something similar, right?

Luckily, these were not precious shots... a good lesson to learn
when I have just simple "mess around" photos on the drive.
However, I'd like to learn to recover from this disaster... the
next time might just make me sick!

Thanks!
--
Bryan
http://www.siverly.net
Click to expand...
Brian,

Are the "corrupted" files on your PC or also on the MD? When you use the Breeze downloader do yu just "Move" all the files to your PC, or "Copy" them?

I'm guessing that you put the MD back into your camera and attempted to see if any files were still on the card. Did you happen to see if the image files appeared to be intact (using the camera's view image mode) before the problem download?

When you attempt to duplicate the problem, see if it has anything to do with the fact that the files are CRW as opposed to JPEG files, that may give you a clue. Can you use Windows Explorer (is there such a think in Win2K?) to just transfer all the files on the MD without using BB?

I had tried BB but since I only shoot in JPEG on my G1, I do the easier (for me) "Move" using Win Explorer (W98SE) with the MD in a ZiO! reader. I haven't had any problems with this method for a year and a half.

I have never used the "Eject" command when transfering files off of my MD or CF card is completed. I just yank the card out and put it back in my camera. If I've used several CF cards I just F5 (refresh) when I load subsequent ones into the reader. Is it possible that this is a problem with Firewire? My reader is the original ZiO! USB model (Thailand version-as is my MD as it so happens.)

If you need any photos of the Zoo let me know, I'm across the street from Lincoln Park Zoo. ;-) Sorry that I won't be able to get any with your kids in them! Or were you at Brookfield? I won't drive out there for you but my 1st grader has a field trip there on Wednesday. Don't think I'll give her my camera, though!

Larry

http://www.pbase.com/larryrz
 
OK - file received. I've started to have a look. The file seems to be intact. The one you sent me appears to be the raw file for image CRW_2466.CRW.

I need to match that with the appropriate THM file. After that the conversion should be OK. I've written a small exif data reader that will read exif data for any file you drop on it: you can use that to find out the original file name for each of the THM files. From that you can match THM files with RAW files. Once I've established that everything works OK for one file I'll set you up with a program to identify the original name for each of your RAW files. I'll send you the EXIF reader by email. Hopefully you can then identify the correct THM file to send me.

Also bear in mind that if you rename the THM sized files as jpgs you should be able to view them directly as jpgs (and even use a normal EXIF reader)
 
Janne I. Turunen said:
Bryan Siverly said:
A little history, the last couple of days, when taking the
microdrive out of the reader I got an error message that it
couldn't save all the data on the drive or some such nonsense. I
just ignored it, as Downloader had already deleted all the files.
Click to expand...
You might have had an explorer window open with the cf drive. I did
the same thing about twice, and then learned to close the explorer
as well. Never got the error message after that, and I never have
used eject.
Click to expand...
In which case you are dicing with death. I lost half a days work because of this.

Right click on the drive in Explorer and hit eject. It's simple and will ensure you never have to go through the pain of reshooting a massive number of shots.

dd
 
You do have to use Eject command with all media where you can just remove it from the drive. It prevents you from interrupting the read/write process. As for the .CHK files, these are just fragmenst of the corrupted files on the drive. It may contain a whole image file or just part of it. There is little chance you can put this puzzle back together.
 
Just for anyone interested in following whats going on (and may be able to offer help!)

Brian has sent me all the small files which I can positively identify as THM files....

Here's a quick extract from my last e-mail to Brian:

I have now managed to match THM file with CRW file, but am still struggling to extract the full image data. I'll have a go for a short while this morning. Having examined the raw file, I can see that the start is OK because it starts with "byte order" marker as I would expect and a line that describes the data as "HEAPCCDR". The end of the file contains information about the file and what appears to be a medium size jpg. If the start and end match the layout of a standard CRW file, then I would expect the middle to be OK (especially since the entire file length appears about correct).

If I can't succeed using the standard RAW converters I may have to dive into the CANON developers toolkit, which will take a bit longer to sort out. Hopefully I will end up with sufficient knowledge to recover similar problems for myself and others in the future,

In case you haven't noticed, I'm in a different time zone, and am quite busy with other things, so sorry for the delays!
 
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