Rebel XSi delete files on its own?

I just had a friend call me frantic. She is on her bachelorette getaway weekend and they took a ton of photos with a friend's Canon XSi and no-name 4gb SD card. They had originally viewed the images, deleted some bad ones (to conserve space). They just turned the camera on and all the files from the weekend are gone, and there are just a few old photos (prior date to this weekend) on the card now.

Her friend states this happened once before but she thought it was a bad memory card, so she bought the one they used today.

I advised her to put the card in a computer and turn on hidden files to see if they somehow were hidden. I also recommended file recovery software.

I haven't used a rebel in ages but is there a way to delete a folder, possibly by accident? It wasn't a format because there are photos still on the card?

Any idea what could be going on? (Besides cheap sd card failure?)

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.


There are ways to try and get them back. In the mean time, Tell her not to take any more pictures to that card.

Edit: I've never had that problem.

May be more than one image directory on the card and by switching it on goes to the default...?

In the past, almost every time I have seen this it was user error. Meaning that they inadvertently switched the card and the card with the images is somewhere else, hence the "missing" files.

Gregg.Siam wrote in post #16240122
In the past, almost every time I have seen this it was user error. Meaning that they inadvertently switched the card and the card with the images is somewhere else, hence the "missing" files.

+1. I have done this. More than once.

Also good advice not to shoot with the "blank" card. There is recovery software available that can help. I think the best is "Recuva". Google it. Works well, free. You can't beat that combination.

It doesn't help your friend, but this is one reason I never use the delete image function on a camera - I don't trust it or myself!
As others have said, stop using the card and get hold of some image recovery software and hopefully get some images back.

**UPDATE**

They were able to recover a majority of the images using recovery software. However, some of the images are partially grayed out, and some have ghosted images as well. I'm not sure what might be going on. I don't believe any files/folders appeared when "Hidden" was turned on.

I advised them, for the price, it would be wise to purchase a high quality SD Card.

Buchinger wrote in post #16242833
**UPDATE**

They were able to recover a majority of the images using recovery software. However, some of the images are partially grayed out, and some have ghosted images as well. I'm not sure what might be going on. I don't believe any files/folders appeared when "Hidden" was turned on.

I advised them, for the price, it would be wise to purchase a high quality SD Card.

good that some images were recoverable. I've never had a problem with the generic memory cards