Corrupted images caused by transfer?

Hi Everyone,

I shot a wedding a couple of weeks ago using what I believe to be genuine 32b SanDisk Extreme 60mb/s cards. I'd previously bought a generic card reader to read at USB 3.0 to try and increase the speed of my workflow when uploading them to my SSD hard drive (again SanDisk 240gb Extreme). When I started uploading from the first card I noticed in Bridge that the odd image was corrupt in the preview thumbnails and when opening up in PS. I cancelled the operation and the task wasn't too far in. I then switched to my old USB 2.0 card reader which I'd never had any problems with and started the long process of uploading to the SSD I keep images on to edit from. All the images from the first card uploaded fine when reverting back to the old reader. All was well I thought.

However several cards into my uploading process I was very fortunate not to have a complete disaster and lose all the images from that part of the day as a total of 16 shots from around 1000 were corrupt (ie boxes across images with banding of various colours, I can post images if necessary). The corrupt images didn't follow each other although they did in a couple of cases. When uploading from remaining cards all was fine again and the upload went ok.

I tried a bit of problem solving and made a note of all the file numbers and tried to copy over again but with no success. I have also tried to copy onto another SSD drive and HDD again with no success. I don't believe the card had a particularly hard life and in total has probably had 10 formats or so completed on it and 10,000 images written to it max.

All shots in RAW
All cards were formatted in camera before shooting wedding.
No cards were filled up completely.
All images were allowed to write before removing cards.
Images appear fine in camera preview.
I've never attempted to upload images from camera itself. (5Dmkii)
The problem card was not used with the 3.0 reader.

Does anybody have any ideas what could have happened. Was it just coincidence that the USB3.0 card reader started uploading corrupt images from the first card before the problem was solved by uploading with my USB2.0 reader I'd previously had no problems with? I'm currently waiting for a reputable 3.0 reader as I realise that's the weakest part of my setup however I'm skeptical these images can be recovered but I'm just very thankful it was just 16 images as opposed to all 1000.

Any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated.

What exactly is the generic USB 3.0 card reader and prior to its use did you check for potential driver updates?

Just for safety reasons, since you say all images are fine in camera preview, I would try to do a direct from camera upload and see if the images are OK.

Hi John, it's just a generic card reader with no brand, I'll have a look for drivers but it's probably pretty doubtful that there are any I imagine. I'll try uploading directly from the camera once I've reminded myself how to do this. I was always under the impression that the previews were rendered differently some how so whilst appearing fine the files may not be. I'll do a direct from camera and report back.

Thanks

i bent a pin on my old reader and rather than just uploading from the camera i went and bought a cheap one at the office supply store. About 50 percent of the images uploaded were corrupt. Took it back and uploaded from camera and things worked fine.

i did a lot of looking around and this was the cheapest, simple, reliable reader i could find. Plenty of good reviews.

http://www.bhphotovide​o.com …g&is=REG&m=Y&A=​details&Q=

haydnbuzz wrote in post #17691373
I'll try uploading directly from the camera once I've reminded myself how to do this. I was always under the impression that the previews were rendered differently some how so whilst appearing fine the files may not be. I'll do a direct from camera and report back.

On my Win 7 Pro machine all I need to do is connect the camera to the PC, then turn the camera on. The first time I got a message about a driver installation, and from that time on I get a screen specific to Canon with an option to import images.

I can also open Windows Explorer and dril down to Computer\Canon EOS 60D\SD\DCIM\100CANON and all images, both RAW and JPG's are listed. The usual Windows actions (drag, drop, copy, paste) work fine.

Download to a different computer, using a different cable direct to the camera. That will give you additional information to diagnose the issue.

haydnbuzz wrote in post #17691157
Does anybody have any ideas what could have happened.

I have had a simmilar issue once.
Using an El-Cheapo All-in-one card reader I had two corrupt files out of approx. 500.
I bought a SanDisk CF and SD card reader and never had corrupt files anymore.
In my case it was the quality of the cardreader/USB cable combination.

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for your suggestions, I have just tried transferring directly from the camera to my main compuer as I don't have access to my laptop at this moment in time. The images are still corrupt. Again they appear OK in camera and preview in Windows 7 but the problem remains. Does it sound like a card that going bad? I just can't work out why the initial card on cancelling the operation then uploaded fine on the old reader. I suppose it just could be coincidence of a faulty new reader and a card going bad at the same time. I will be investing in a decent reader and the one suggested looks ideal.

Bad card is most likely, but camera can also cause the problem. The RAW files have an embedded jpeg which can be extracted, suggest you Google for appropriate software - exiftools may do it.

Once you have FULLY resolved this situation you can use this card testing software, with a branded card reader (Transcend/Sandisk) and a new cable. I also suggest running both memtest x86 and hci memtest on your computer, each one overnight, to test for memory errors. They work differently, for me HCI worked better than memtest but for other problems the reverse can be true. Note that HCI requires several instances running simultaneously to test all RAM. I don't really think it's bad RAM because it's happened on two computers, but it doesn't hurt.

Wow that's great advice thanks Tim. I'm going to try and isolate where the problem is exactly though I certainly hope it's not the camera. I did shoot following cards after the problem card and all turned out fine so fingers crossed. I will run some memory tests on the RAM once I've reminded myself how to complete these.

I didn't realise RAW files had an embedded jpeg in them which can be extracted. I will see if I can recover them although I consider myself very lucky indeed in that only 16 went bad.

Thanks again!

Embedded jpeg is probably your best bet. It probably is the card - test them all after you test your RAM. The test erases the contents, full format the card after a test. You only need to do a couple of passes, cards do wear out - albeit very slowly, after thousands of writes.