Corrupt NEF files

I've found a few threads relating to this, but none are very hopeful

After accidently changing the setting from jpg to RAW on my D200 during a shoot, I downloaded all the images to my computer and then burned them to a DVD. Thought I had gotten all the images, so I erased the memory card.

Then I remembered an image that should be there, plus a few others. I used Photo Recovery software to recover the images from the memory card. Unfortunately, many of the RAW files are now corrupt, although the recovered jpgs are fine. Possibly they were corrupted at the time of shooting, hence they didn't appear in the original download.

I've tried opening them in Photoshop, Lightroom, and Nikon ViewNX. I can see the preview thumbnails in all the programs, including Windows file manager, and most of the images are full size. But when I try to open/edit them, I get the "unexpected end-of-file" error.

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thank you!

I can't help you with the file recovery, but I'd strongly advice against using DVD as storage media of important files. I found them highly unreliable and only using hard disks today. I have several times lost files the same way you describe, some times a whole DVD, some times just some files, so I don't trust DVDs any more for anything important. Hard disk space is cheap today and they are more reliable.

--
Paulo Goulart
( http://goulart.zenfolio.com )

I have lost a few cd's...Sometimes they will opeb on someone elses cd player.
Now I have two 500 gig external drives duplicated
--
Best Regards
Gale

http://www.pbase.com/techwish

You should be able to recover the files from you memory card if you haven't used it since "erasing". If by erasing you mean you deleted the files then for sure they are still available. If you formatted your card then it's a bit dicey but, there are free and pay programs available to recover the pics. Just Google "recover images from memory card" or something like that.

If you've used the card since erasing then they are probably gone.
--
Mitra
http://jmlphotography.smugmug.com/

Mitrajoon said:

You should be able to recover the files from you memory card if you haven't used it since "erasing". If by erasing you mean you deleted the files then for sure they are still available. If you formatted your card then it's a bit dicey but, there are free and pay programs available to recover the pics. Just Google "recover images from memory card" or something like that.

If you've used the card since erasing then they are probably gone.
--
Mitra
http://jmlphotography.smugmug.com/

Click to expand...

As I mentioned, I was able to recover the photos from the memory card. The problem is that the recovered NEF files are corrupted. The jpgs are fine. What I'm trying to find out is if there is a way to repair the files.

1. Transfer files to external drive. Confirm that they successfully transferred.

2. Copy the files from the first drive to a second drive. Confirm successful transfer.
3. THEN format the memory card in the camera.

Sorry, I don't have an answer regarding fixing corrupt NEF data...

alyse0705 said:

Mitrajoon said:

You should be able to recover the files from you memory card if you haven't used it since "erasing". If by erasing you mean you deleted the files then for sure they are still available. If you formatted your card then it's a bit dicey but, there are free and pay programs available to recover the pics. Just Google "recover images from memory card" or something like that.

If you've used the card since erasing then they are probably gone.
--
Mitra
http://jmlphotography.smugmug.com/

Click to expand...

As I mentioned, I was able to recover the photos from the memory card. The problem is that the recovered NEF files are corrupted. The jpgs are fine. What I'm trying to find out is if there is a way to repair the files.

Click to expand...

Once a file is corrupted, you'd be hard pressed to make it usable again. I doubt you'd even be able to extract the embedded Jpeg out of the NEF file.
--
Dez

http://photos.dezmix.com

I have experienced a similiar situation and after recovering the files (with some corrupted), I went back and did a second recovery action and received the corrupted files intact and usable.
Might try a second recovery action and see what comes of it.
Regards, Jim
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Odds N' Ends album here:
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I had an external hard drive that went bad. Managed to run some recovery software, and get most of the files back. No file was recovered with its original name, however (they were all renumbered). And they were organized by file type (something like a thousand jpegs, or a thousand psds, or tifs, per folder) rather than in the original folders by date as I had them. So it was tedious and time consuming to reorganize them. And.... many, many were corrupt.

Eventually, I managed to run some repair software, and defragment the hard drive. I then ran the recovery software a second time. All the files came out correctly named and organized in the folders I originally had them in, and almost none were corrupt.

Just for fun I've posted some of the corrupt images (-:

http://www.pbase.com/avertedvision/corrupt_image_files

Hmm.. After reading the previous post (from Jim N'AZ) I'm not sure if it was the defragmentation that did the trick, or if it was just doing a second recovery.

Good luck!

AvertedVision said:

Just for fun I've posted some of the corrupt images (-:
http://www.pbase.com/avertedvision/corrupt_image_files

Click to expand...

Very nice gallery. Fantastic!
Probably, you wouldn't make these great images (by yourself)!!

--
Paulo Goulart
( http://goulart.zenfolio.com )