Help! File recovery software not finding files

[billsh]

I really need some help recovering lost files. Here's the situation. I shot an event for local charity last week. It was probably about 20 images. I didn't immediately download the images(What an idiot) , but reviewed them as I shot so I know they were on the card. Last Sunday I went out and shot some wind surfers at a local lake. I accidently must have deleted them as I was shooting, I think. When I came home, I downloaded all my cards (3). The pictures were not there. I also could not find about 30 other photo's I had taken that day. I'm not sure if it matters but, I totally filled at least one of the cards while shooting.

I downloaded file recovery plus from total shelf and began looking to recover the images. I found some really old images on a couple cards, but none of the 50-60 I was looking for. If anyone has any ideas, I would appreciate it. I'm wondering if I should try another software, or am I SOL, or ?

Thanks for your help !

[chucksberg]

Sounds like they were written over. Probably nothing you can do.

[rebel61021]

Did you download all pictures at once or seperate them then do multipul downloads? maybe they got downloaded into the wrong dir. on your puter. Hopefully you will find them.

[billsh]

I searched my computer for the files, thinking I could have downloaded to the wrong directory. It's not sounding good.

[Huckaback Photo]

The way it works.
if you take the images and have checked some as they were shot to ensure they are there.
if you fill the card or even part fill it , then accidently delete all or even format that card.

the majority of images can then be recovered by most disc rescue software.
The big problem occurs if you had formatted/deleted and then carried on taking on same card.
as the software will not find any overwritten images.

However say you have 512mb card fill it totally then delete all and carry on shooting but this time only take 200mb of files, the remaining files shot previously have not been written over and can be recovered.
Hope this makes some sense cause even i seem confused ??

Wishing you luck
Martin (huckaback photo)

http://www.pbase.com/huckaback_photo

[Huckaback Photo]

One final point did you format the card before running recovery soft ware ,you normally should.as far as i am aware.
Cheers
Martin

[billsh]

I didn't format the card. What I think happened was I deleted the files, then filled up the card with other shots. I was hoping I could still retrieve some of them, but it sounds like that's the problem. I don't generally format my cards. It may be a good idea, but I haven't incorporated it into my routine.

Thanks

[Huckaback Photo]

Bill sorry Mate looks dodgy in your case.
just stick the card back in camera and format it you have nothing to loose by sound of it whatever was recorded last should then be recovered when disc rescue is run,
sometimes on a disc can be found images from way back.
first time i did this i found stuff 18months old.
Cheers
Martin

[tim]

I think you're probably out of lunk, but give this program (http://home.arcor.de/a.niggemann/dir.zip) a go before you give up.

[robertwgross]

I guess I'm lucky. Early in my DSLR experience, I developed a standard procedure for handling CF cards and files.

1. Shoot RAW until the first CF card is filled. Continue with other cards.
2. Place the "full" card into a separate pouch away from the "clean" cards.
3. When I get to my computer, I use a card reader to transfer files.
4. In the same order that the cards were filled, I transfer all RAW files to a directory on my computer's hard disk "CANON RECEIVING".
5. I use the Canon utility for conversion to TIF. The completed TIF files go into a directory named "CANON CONVERTED".
6. When there are 700MB of RAW files in receiving, then they are written out to CDR.
7. The converted files get manipulated and copied to other places.
8. When all is done, and everything is accounted for, then I delete the RAW files from hard disk that have been successfully written to CDR.
9. Then I take the finished CF cards and put them back into the camera for format (actually quick format). In the event of CF card problems of any type, I stick them back into the card reader for a complete format job (very rare). Once a clean format is on each CF card, then I put them back into my "clean" pouch, in the same order.
10. I don't lose image files.

---Bob Gross---

[xarqi]

Frankenthread - reanimated after 3.5+ years.