Corrupt compact flash card..... im just sick.....

I just lost 17 portrait sessions from this past weekend due to a bad Lexar compact flash card. This is the second one that has gone bad on me in the past six months. Both times they have come apart on me, exposing the inner workings. I took the card to a professional recovery service gladly willing to pay the $500.00 fee for recovering the files but yet the images are unrecoverable..... I have been sick to my stomach for 3 days now. I have about 30 or so compact cards of various brands and it seems I only have trouble with the Lexar brand.... Im not saying they are a bad brand but just want to let some users know to be aware and to be on the look out of them splitting open. Gotta go cry some more now.....

So sorry you had this happen. In the future, you might not keep so many sessions on one card. Use smaller cards and spread the photos out so that you aren't at risk of losing so many.
--
Jennifer

'Having is not so pleasing a thing as wanting, it may not be logical but it is often true.' Mr. Spock, Star Trek

I realize this does nothing to help your current problem.......

Are you aware that there are a LOT of "fake" cards sold? If you are buying cards on Ebay or at swap meets you have a good chance of getting a counterfeit. Not a real Lexar card. Cheapest components findable thrown together without pride or care. I've never had a name brand card (and, yes, I do have a Lexar) fall apart!

Hope that helps.

PS.... I backup every job to a laptop hard-drive before starting another project. Cheap insurance.
--
Tom Ferguson
http://www.ferguson-photo-design.com

A friend had the same trouble... I had advised him taking 2/4gig to Antarctica but he took 16/32 gig and had a faulty one..."But it's a Lexar..." Did it come in a sealed retail pack?"....."Well... no but it was half price on Ebay....".

You really have my sincere sympathy however you bought your cards and I mean that, the above is only an anecdote, certainly not directed at you.

I've had three branded Sony chargers before finally getting one that worked. They were not boxed and sealed and I wonder if perhaps someone is buying up the QC failures in the hope that some may work.

Might not help now but... what the heck were you doing with 17 sessions on ONE card that had no backup??

JOE FEDERER
Websites:
http://www.joefederer.com
http://www.federerphotography.com/blog
http://www.theprofessionalphotographyforum.com/

Again, no help to you but I've been using the same 2 Lexar cards for around 3 years, I do carry more and mainly shoot jpgs, as suggested its fatal to put so much work on a single card.

I should have stated that I own a mid-high volume portrait studio shooting 25-35 sessions a week, and this was on a smaller card. My studio is only open on saturday, sunday and monday (sometimes on other days to) and I just shoot till I fill up a card then put in a new one and continue. On tuesdays I normally load everything in the computer and back up everything then.

In the past I shot everything on 8 and 16 gig cards. Strange thing is that, for some reason unknown to me I used 4 gig cards this weekend. Im guessing I used the smaller cards cause it was a holiday weekend and I wasnt booked solid. I shot all day saturday and part of sunday on that card then changed cards and shot the rest of sunday and monday of a different card. I still have 4 sessions on the other card, thank goodness cause my last lession monday night was a bridal. The lost sessions were mostly family and such no real super big deal but I still expect to hear some complaints from the clients with lost sessions.

Im pretty sure these were real Lexar Professional cards cause I always get my cards from large retail stores like Best Buy and such.... Never I have got a card from ebay or used for that matter. Chaulk it up to a rare mishap..... But it generally takes something like this to wake me up and be more aware of everything....

That's horrible--sorry for the loss! Can you tell us the specifics of the label on the bad card? I use Lexar cards and want to avoid that one like the plague!

Do those cards have a lifetime warranty. If the card falls apart one would hope the manufacturer could put them back together.

Due to this mishap, I have a little time to closely to look over some of my equiptment when I would normally be stuck in front of this computer doing workflow. I have pulled all my compact flash cards and have found that the 1 other Lexar card I have and all the San Disk Ultra 2 cards I have both have a different style of plastic case than the others. Let me see if I can explain this (Im not real good at this) - on the part that plugs into your camera/computer (the female end) the plastic has like a seam where the card could (and did in my case) split in half right in the middle of the row of holes at the end of the card. Its like the card is pressed together from two pieces a top and bottom. My other brand cards dont have this seam, its like they are seamless in this area... I looks like to me the other brands of cards I have couldnt come apart in this area.

Im not saying that this is a bad design or anything like that, I m just trying to show where my card came apart and the difference in the cards I have. Im by no means trying to discredit any maker of compact memory cards, and untill now I really never knew they were different in design.... In reviewing my other San disk ultra 2 card it is slightly loose in this area. If I tryed I bet I could split it open with my finger nail... its headed to the trash.....

If some of you get a chance double check your cards and make sure they are not coming apart in this area...

mrapb said:

I should have stated that I own a mid-high volume portrait studio shooting 25-35 sessions a week, and this was on a smaller card. My studio is only open on saturday, sunday and monday (sometimes on other days to) and I just shoot till I fill up a card then put in a new one and continue. On tuesdays I normally load everything in the computer and back up everything then.

Click to expand...

Lesson learned then. I don't know how many employees you have, but it would seem prudent to have someone to download a session after it is done, maybe an administrative staff person. The photos could be downloaded to a temporary storage location, as a backup, and you can do your normal download on Tuesday. But you'd have your files backed up in case you have a problem with the memory card.

I have a Lexar or two among about 16x CF (and maybe 8 SD) mem cards from a variety of manufacturers and capacities. So far, NONE has ever come apart, however, I did have a pair of 2Gb TwinMOS fail 2 weeks apart.

Whenever practical, I shoot teathered, or, with a pair of camera - even for seniors.
Both are ways to minimize risk of single point of failures.

Counterfit products have been reported at the big box stores too, btw.

I know you've been to a recovery service but let me suggest you try "Photorescue". http://www.datarescue.com/photorescue/

I had a corrupt CF card. All my once in a lifetime images from the Namibian Dessert on it. I tried a lot of different solutions but this was the one that worked. I was able to recover everything.

good luck,

Kerkula

To the OP, it sounds like a Raid CF/SD card setup would have worked for you in this situation. I have been paranoid about this happening to me so I use the 1D bodies and make both cards write the same thing. What camera body do you have?

mrapb said:

...I took the card to a professional recovery service gladly willing to pay the $500.00 fee for recovering the files but yet the images are unrecoverable...

Click to expand...

The part I don't get is why a professional recovery service couldn't recover your data. This makes no sense at all. You said that the case split apart, a simple mechanical failure of the external casing. Why wouldn't the internal electronics still be intact?

I think that you should find a recovery service that can either recover your data or give a good explanation for why not. Unless the electronics have been damaged, the data should be in tact. What could you possibly have done to hurt the electronics?

I have had two SD cards fail by their case falling apart. One was an A-Data, the other a Top-RAM (used for my palm). In both cases I was able to recover the data on the cards. I have also had a Kingston CF card go bad electrically. Kingston replaced it no charge, but what about my data? Today, I only buy Sandisk Extreme III or better.

-Gene L.
http://www.ttl-biz.com
http://www.studiography.blogspot.com

Very sorry to hear about that.

Back in the old days of film, we were so paranoid about losing work that I sent jobs out on separate days, with the idea that no one job would ever have all its images held by the same courier or processed by the lab at a single time.

Since converting to digital ten years ago this year, we've never had a problem where we permanently lost images. We might have lost a set of images, but backups have saved our butts!

One of the things I REALLY like about my 1DII N and 1DsII bodies is that they both have two cards slots. I set them for dual file writing (or "backup" mode), in which every image is written to both cards simultaneously. In the 8MP 1DIIN, I use 8GB SD and CF cards. In the 16.7MP 1DsII, I use 16MB SD and CF cards. After a job, the cameras go back into their cases with the CFs, but the SDs go into a pouch and into my pocket. While no method is foolproof, this does provide me with a reasonable amount of assurance.

I don't know what camera you use, and yours may not have dual slots. If not, I cannot recommend enough a backup agent in both the field and studio. Acer One netbooks are great in this respect, featuring reasonably large harddrives and built in SC card slots. (And it doesn't hurt to have a monitor for image viewing.) At just over $200 these days, they're cheap for the protection they provide.

Again, I'm sorry for the loss. Best of luck in the future.

mrapb said:

I just lost 17 portrait sessions from this past weekend due to a bad Lexar compact flash card. This is the second one that has gone bad on me in the past six months. Both times they have come apart on me, exposing the inner workings. I took the card to a professional recovery service gladly willing to pay the $500.00 fee for recovering the files but yet the images are unrecoverable..... I have been sick to my stomach for 3 days now. I have about 30 or so compact cards of various brands and it seems I only have trouble with the Lexar brand.... Im not saying they are a bad brand but just want to let some users know to be aware and to be on the look out of them splitting open. Gotta go cry some more now.....

Click to expand...

--
Michael Thomas Mitchell

I know it's no consolation and I feel for you but from my experience with card dramas you should -

• be able to rescue the images by using a reputable company

• try 'photo rescue' or other s'ware packages - they have worked for me on three occasions with corrupted data on cards

• download/back up each card after each session (especially if you work in a studio)

• use smaller cards

Cards are pretty reliable these days but as long as computers are involved quick backups never go astray.

I've even had a card go thru' the wash that I could read data from later.

Zoooming

mrapb said:

I just lost 17 portrait sessions from this past weekend due to a bad Lexar compact flash card. This is the second one that has gone bad on me in the past six months. Both times they have come apart on me, exposing the inner workings. I took the card to a professional recovery service gladly willing to pay the $500.00 fee for recovering the files but yet the images are unrecoverable..... I have been sick to my stomach for 3 days now. I have about 30 or so compact cards of various brands and it seems I only have trouble with the Lexar brand.... Im not saying they are a bad brand but just want to let some users know to be aware and to be on the look out of them splitting open. Gotta go cry some more now.....

Click to expand...

I took the card to the best place in my city, if they cant do it no one can. They have an outstanding rep. Its just cant be fixed..They said it had electrical damage. What ever that means? I know if these people could recover the images and get $500.00 or more out of me or not recover the images and get nothing....Im sure the would rather have the money..

Its actually turned into not that big of deal after all, as of now all but 6 clients have been reschedualed, 3 are having to call us back and tell us when and 3 we havent been able to get in touch with.... Everyone was very understandable. My studio has an excellent reputation, but I just feel bad for my clients to have to come back for a reshoot...

Now that I have had some time to calm down, I dont think there is not alot of changes I will do other than just be more aware of the condition of my cards. In 12 years of being digital this is the first time I actually completly lost images from a card and maybe one other time I lost some edited images from a hard drive but I had the unedited backup files.... If I was a wedding photographer or some other type of photographer that had a higher risk of failure of more important images I would be far more secure.

I shoot (most of the time) 30 minute sessions all day saturday and sunday, and mondays are my hour long sessions. I shoot between 600 and a 1000 images a week and been doing this for years and never had this problem before. Theres no way I could shoot tethered in my studio, Im all over the place. Plus I still trust compact flash cards more than I do laptops, I have had alot more laptops fail on me than compact flash cards..

Before this happened, I have been rolling around this idea in my head about trying to hire someone to do my workflow on sundays and mondays in the studio. I always just load up everything on tuesday and do my workflow from bed at home during the week. But Im getting so burned out, I have no life, just shoot and edit... thats my life...

If I had someone to come in on sunday and work the images that I shoot on saturday and the work the images I shoot on sunday on monday, then I would work the monday images during the week. Which mondays are always my bigger $$$ shoots. I hired an laid off graphic artist during xmas to do my workflow, even after a few weeks of showing her how I liked my images she just couldnt do it. I know its not her fault, its hard to see someone else's vision for a image. But maybe I can get lucky and find someone to help in this area of my business. My sales person is great as well as my session bookers, they are real go getters. I guess Im the one dropping the ball this week..

Whatever I do, I do know I will pay closer attention to cards......

Robert Hoy said:

mrapb said:

I should have stated that I own a mid-high volume portrait studio shooting 25-35 sessions a week, and this was on a smaller card. My studio is only open on saturday, sunday and monday (sometimes on other days to) and I just shoot till I fill up a card then put in a new one and continue. On tuesdays I normally load everything in the computer and back up everything then.

Click to expand...

Lesson learned then. I don't know how many employees you have, but it would seem prudent to have someone to download a session after it is done, maybe an administrative staff person. The photos could be downloaded to a temporary storage location, as a backup, and you can do your normal download on Tuesday. But you'd have your files backed up in case you have a problem with the memory card.

Click to expand...

My own policy is that for any shoots in-house, data is loaded onto the computer and backed up onto redundant externals before the client even leaves the premises. I just offer up coffee/tea and a snack and they are usually obliging in hanging around for a few minutes. If they want see the previews, I have no problem with that.

Sorry to hear about your loss. I know there is not a worse feeling then that. This is way I don't understand why people get 16 and 32 gb cards. Putting thousands of images on 1 card is just asking for trouble. Using smaller cards helps minimize the lose if the cards goes bad. Sure losing any images makes you feel sick. But losing 300 images compared to 2700 just doesn't make you as sick. But you still feel sick.

Since you are in the studio, have you though about using a wireless file transmitter to transmit your images to your computer? These are great for studio work and they speed up the post process as your images are already on your computer when you get there. It saves you time by not having to wait for the images to download.