Emergency Help Needed!

[Beth]

I just put my 128 mb compact flash card in my reader which has about 100 photos of shots i took on vacation. I got an error on my computer and now I cannot get the computer to read the card and my G3 says "no images" when I put card in the camera to view the images. However, when I turn the camera to the ON position, it says the card is full.

The error on the computer said:

"Windows was unable to save all the data for the file/device/hardisk1\dp(1)0-0+4\DCIM. The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a faliure of your computer hardware or a network connection. Please try to save this file elsewhere"

I can understand losing photos that i had opened on in a photo software program, but could the computer actually wipe out all the photos on my compact flash disk? and now why does the card say no images but yet, the G3 says the card is full? help!!!!!

[eric1]

Hi Beth,

Are you using the camera to get your pics in the
computer? I would suggest using a card reader!
always works for me, and I find it much more
convenient.
Eric

[Dana]

Did you try hooking your camera directly to the computer w/the card in it?

Is there another computer/card reader combination you can try?

If you have a computer-tech friend (or if you are), sometimes you can use tools like Norton disk utilities to recover "lost" files on a memory card.

Dana

[Beth]

I am using a card reader and the card reader is reading another disk i have, but I have not yet tried to download directly from the camera....it will be my next step.

[Beth]

Just put the card in my HP 1100 printer to read the compact flash disk and it said "0 photos found on card". the card read fine a few days ago, and i can't understand how all the photos just vanished yet the camera says the card is full.

[eric1]

Beth,
Try using another CF card, if the card reader can read
pics off another card, you could have a bad CF card.
It's also possible the data on the card in question
is corrupt, you may have to reformat it and try again.
Hope this helps.

Eric

[Beth]

Eric - If i reformat the card then will i lose all the photos on the card?

[eric1]

Beth,
Yes you will lose all pics on card! Make sure all of
the other components of your problem,like the computer,and the card reader are functioning
properly before you reformat. Your CF card has
not been exposed to water or heat has it?
eric

[Beth]

Eric - no the card did not get exposed to any elements. In fact, i put the card in the reader the other night, and opened some of the photos in a software program. Then I closed the program, but left the card in the reader. Tonight i opened up the software program, and as i was removing the card from the reader to install another card, the error popped up. I just can't figure out what could have happened! I do have a computer company in town who may have the necessary tools to try and recover the data. i hope so as it was my first big trip in which i only used my G3. The first few photos i viewed looked really good too!

[eric1]

Beth,
I would try the computer co.,and not reformat until I
was absulutely sure I could not recover the pics.
I hope you have more CF cards to use untill then. I
have 4 or 5 of them. I fear my 512mb card will fail
when it"s full of pics. Kinda like having all your eggs in one basket! Hope you get your pics back! I"m a roof
inspector, so I get a onetime shot at skylines from the top of skyscapers. then it"s time to move on, I rarely
get to go back!

Eric

[eric1]

Beth,
I forgot to mention you can't take the card out of the reader while it's reading or writing. This can cause data loss. I hope this didn't happen to you.
Eric

[Sheri]

Beth, Its a good idea to right-click the reader's drive letter in Windows Explorer and select eject before removing a card from your reader. This finalizes any disk activity. If your software program was still in the process of reading or writing to the card, it could have been damaged if you suddenly removed it.

Don't reformat it, as this would likely remove any chance of recovery.

I guess your experience shows that its a bad idea to use the CF for anything other than copying the files to the PC, at least to make a backup.

You say the camera says the card is full, does it see any of the pictures? If it does you could transfer the files using the camera's USB connection.

Sheri

[w302nv]

Try BadCopyPro (http://www.jufsoft.com/badcopy/)

or

http://www.file-recovery.net/

This used to be free..you may be able to find an old version out there....

http://skyscraper.fortunecity.com/amd/887/dir/

[henkbos]

Try a program called Photo Rescue. HAve good experience with it and can even find shots agfter the disk/card has been formatted. It costs about $50 and is well worth the money.

[onehotrx7]

There are plenty of free options for recovering images off your card, providing you don't shoot over them... this one is free - don't spend $50 you don't need to, use that for another card...

As a bonus, it will recover headerless images, block by block... I have at least 4 freeware image recovery options on my machine, this is just the first that came to mind, and one of the best...

http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/UK/welcome.htm

Cheers,
Stuart

[w302nv]

found it.....
http://www.happyfoto.de/rescue.htm

[Beth]

To all of you who have given me some ideas and ways to recover my photos, THANK YOU VERY MUCH. I have not had time to try any of your suggestions (my job keeps getting in the way -how dare it!) but i plan to get as soon as I can. I will let you know how it turns out!

[leafpile]

Beth,

How did things turn out with your CF card error?

Please tell us you were able to retrieve all your pics!

I remember when you mentioned planning a vacation. So when I read your post, I felt really bad for you!

I've been keeping my fingers crossed....

lp

[Beth]

Happy ending! Photos were recovered using Photorescue software! Whew!

here's the link to their website

http://www.datarescue.com/photorescue/