Major SD card problem after trip

Hello,

I just got back from a 3 week trip to Vietnam where I used the e-pl6 and 17 1.8 a lot.

The problem is that, now that I'm eager to transfer those 900 pictures to my computer, disaster appears to have struck. I used a Sandisk Extreme 16gb card - one of the red 30MB/sec ones from a few years ago, but it hasn't been used that much. I 'think' I formatted it before I used it but I really can't be sure. (I know, lesson learned - always be sure...) When the card filled up I changed it, and the shots were there at that point.

Now none of the pictures I took show up in Lightroom 6, only shots from 5 years ago that were taken with a different (Nikon) camera. When I inserted the card back into the camera it showed 'card full' and when I hit play it shows 'picture error'. I did an evaluation of the card using RescuePro Deluxe and it only shows the Nikon files. To double check I also tried a different recovery software ('z-a-recovery') - it shows those same pictures along with some FAT files (which I think just refer to the file structure?) and two 'RAW PPM' files of a few thousand KB each.

Basically it's as if those shots were never taken. What I don't understand is this: If the card had become corrupted or some similar error, wouldn't the damaged files at least be visible? Is it possible for them to vanish, apparently without trace, like this? I know I'm jet lagged but this just seems bizarre. I'm pretty certain I'm looking at the right card, and I've transferred all the other cards from my Nikon along with the 300 shots from the epl-6 after I changed cards. I'm happy to provide more detail as needed.

I don't really know what I can do at this point and would really appreciate any informed advice. I'm not a novice by any means, but not a hardware guy either and it's obviously mildly devastating to lose so many irreplaceable photos.

(Sorry in advance if I'm posting this on the wrong forum - I couldn't seem to see one that was more appropriate so went with the camera that took the shots.)

Thanks,

Craig

Sandisk  has its own recovery software that's usable on Sandisk cards. Have you tried that?

PurpleFringe wrote:

Sandisk has its own recovery software that's usable on Sandisk cards. Have you tried that?

Yeah, thanks. That's the RescurePro one. Only showed the Nikon files.

J Craig H wrote:

Hello,

I just got back from a 3 week trip to Vietnam where I used the e-pl6 and 17 1.8 a lot.

The problem is that, now that I'm eager to transfer those 900 pictures to my computer, disaster appears to have struck. I used a Sandisk Extreme 16gb card - one of the red 30MB/sec ones from a few years ago, but it hasn't been used that much. I 'think' I formatted it before I used it but I really can't be sure. (I know, lesson learned - always be sure...) When the card filled up I changed it, and the shots were there at that point.

Now none of the pictures I took show up in Lightroom 6, only shots from 5 years ago that were taken with a different (Nikon) camera. When I inserted the card back into the camera it showed 'card full' and when I hit play it shows 'picture error'. I did an evaluation of the card using RescuePro Deluxe and it only shows the Nikon files. To double check I also tried a different recovery software ('z-a-recovery') - it shows those same pictures along with some FAT files (which I think just refer to the file structure?) and two 'RAW PPM' files of a few thousand KB each.

Basically it's as if those shots were never taken. What I don't understand is this: If the card had become corrupted or some similar error, wouldn't the damaged files at least be visible? Is it possible for them to vanish, apparently without trace, like this? I know I'm jet lagged but this just seems bizarre. I'm pretty certain I'm looking at the right card, and I've transferred all the other cards from my Nikon along with the 300 shots from the epl-6 after I changed cards. I'm happy to provide more detail as needed.

I don't really know what I can do at this point and would really appreciate any informed advice. I'm not a novice by any means, but not a hardware guy either and it's obviously mildly devastating to lose so many irreplaceable photos.

(Sorry in advance if I'm posting this on the wrong forum - I couldn't seem to see one that was more appropriate so went with the camera that took the shots.)

Thanks,

Craig

Hope you sort it out Craig losing our photos from such a great trip is about as bad it gets for us photographers , have you tried Recuva the do a free version to try out. Best of luck

https://www.piriform.com/recuva

Alex

look for a sub directory (Oly) in your nikon folder

Narcosynthesis wrote:

If it is showing as 'card full' then the data has been set aside for something, but the only option I can think of for recovering it is what you have already tried - running sme of the recovery software designed to recovered deleted or corrupted data - I know there are a few options out there, so it may be worth trying more than one version to see if it picks up anything differently.

How are you downloading the images? Are you doing it directly through the camera or through an external reader? and have you made any updates o any of your software recently (camera firmware/lightroom/computer)?

Thanks, I'm downloading them through the slot in the back of my iMac. I would like to try it through the camera to see if there's any difference (?) but can't find the cable t the moment. I did update to LR 6 recently, but just tried it on LR5 and got the same result.

Hope you sort it out Craig losing our photos from such a great trip is about as bad it gets for us photographers , have you tried Recuva the do a free version to try out. Best of luck

https://www.piriform.com/recuva

Thanks, Sam. Yeah, it's an awful feeling. I lost (in the old sense of the word) a load of photos from a trip to South Africa in 2010 and since then have been carrying my cards around in a red sock! This latest techno-snaffu is bringing back those bad times. I couldn't get recuva to work on a Mac and have to go to work soon but I might try it later on my windows laptop.

agott123 wrote:

Alex

Thanks, I'll try to look again, but TestDisk didn't seem to recognize the card.

Araldite wrote:

look for a sub directory (Oly) in your nikon folder

Thanks, nothing unfortunately - once 'DCIM' folder with 730 Nikon images.

Craig,

If the images on the card were visible for review in your camera before you pull the card out, it would seem that they are buried somewhere in the card memory. However, you may be facing a situation where you would need to send the card to a recovery service to retrieve them -- and that could be costly.

I know there is a highly regarded service in Germany that a number of professionals use, but can't recall the name.

The fact that the card allows the Nikon files to be accessed would indicate to me that the card is not corrupted, but that the Nikon files are simply 'blocking' access to the Olympus files.

I hope you can get the files back. For what it's worth, I've had pretty good success with "DiscDigger" in the past.

Well I'm more than delighted to report that I am an idiot!

I had the card in a plastic bag in a hidden pocket of trousers that I hadn't worn for the last 10 days of the trip. I was so sure I had moved that card in with the others, and I'd somehow marked an identical SD card as used so concluded that had to be it, but there you go.

There's a lesson in there somewhere - for now I'll go with 'get over your jetlag before you start transferring your photos'.

I really do appreciate people's thoughts and ideas on this.

Craig

I know how you feel when you do something "stupid".  Lord I have been there.  A little advice:

I travel with a small laptop and download the images every night.  I do not use the same SD card until I get another backup off the laptop.  Once that is done, I do the full format of the card and put it back in the que.  I travel with two cameras and 8 SD cards.

One of my travel buddies lost his (probably a format) and I used Rescue Pro.  The only time I have ever used it.  It worked.

Put card back in camera...see if camera sees them, if yes download from camera to pc