Corrupted files

I have never had a single corrupt file in 9 years and then I changed these things:

A new internal Samsung Evo 850 SSD (which otherwise works flawless) in Macbook Pro.
A new external SSD (which seems to work flawlessly)
A new 64 gig CF memory card (which also seems to work fine)
Updated to Lightroom CC.

I have now had the worst Corrupted file problem of all time today. 594 photos of 2200 were corrupted.
Previously I was getting maybe 1-2 or so corrupted with these new changes, and while yes that as a red flag I had so many new variables I didn't know where to start to isolate the issue. It was mainly happening with the 5D2 but just happened with my 1D4 in a bad way.

I just ordered new memory cards and a new reader.
I called both the Hard drive companies and they will replace for free.
I will start using the dual slots on the 1D4 religiously and now need to replace the 5D2 with the 5D3 for that reason.

Question is, what is the cause for all these corrupted problems? The pictures were all fine in the camera, then when i put it in the reader to download and they were shown corrupted, I put the card back into the camera and the 1D4 said "file unreadable?" to all of the files that were at that point corrupted. It is nerve racking because I don't know what is causing the issue and it is getting expensive and inconvenient to replace and send in everything connected.

If anyone has any thoughts I would love to know.

Thanks.

mikeassk wrote in post #17813294
The pictures were all fine in the camera, then when i put it in the reader to download and they were shown corrupted, I put the card back into the camera and the 1D4 said "file unreadable?" to all of the files that were at that point corrupted. .

Well, based solely on exactly what you have described. The photo are / were on your card.
Uploaded using a card reader, and then THE CARD was placed back in your camera, the camera ALSO stated the files were corrupted.
You state this has happened on more than one camera? So it therefore cannot be both camera's fault.

These facts narrow down the fault to 1 of 2 things.

1 The card has some error and is faulty.
2 The card reader has some error and is fault.

From what you have described, it CANNOT be your Mac or SSD causing issues,
because the photos written by the camera to the card are ALSO corrupted.
This has nothing to do with writing to your SSD and then trying the view (read) them on your Mac.
Is that correct?

It sounds like you may have already eliminated the problem
The card and reader.

PS: If the EXACT same issue occurred on more than one card that was used by that same reader.
***YOU HAVE FOUND YOUR CORRUPTION CAUSE***

Perhaps a power issue fried the photo files on the card?
It would be best NOT to trust any of those cards or reader permanently.

Pretty much what InfiniteDivide said.

CF card is the most likely culprit. You have to go down the list of possible causes and cross them off one by one, usually cheapest to most expensive. The new card and reader should do most of that, I'd be surprised if you had issues after that.

^ Agreed, but if it were me I would request replacement cards and NOT use them for caution that the reader damaged them.
I have not had any issues with my Sandisk SD cards, though I progressively change them for larger sizes each year.
Not sure what cards you are using up Sandisk come with a great warranty so long as they are bought from a Authorized source.
(Adorama, B&H, Amazon directly)

I had two 8gigs, then one 16gig. Sold those and bought two 32gigs and two 64gigs, Just sold the two 32gigs and bought two 128gigs.
Now I can store files as well as photos on all.

Unrelated, but PS: If you want to use them as storage AND in the camera.

1 Place SD card in PC / MAC, format to EXFAT
2 Place in camera and format in camera (creates flagged DCIM and MISC folders)
3 Place back in PC ? MAC and create a new folder (any name) ***Put everything (media docs etc inside this folder ONLY)
4 DO NOT PLACE files on the root, this will cause the camera (my 6D) to not read the card!

I have 70+gigs of media on my 128gig card and have room for over 2,000 more raw files.

*** NEVER FORMAT YOUR CARD IN YOUR CAMERA NOW*** You will lose everything by formatting it. Including your media.

Based on what you've said I'm not convinced that a bad card is the only option. Cards are pretty much never corrupted by a computer just by reading, but I suspect we don't have all the facts. I had corruption issues that turned out to be bad RAM, even though one memory test said it was fine. I can pretty much say for sure both your SSDs aren't faulty, and that replacing them is likely a waste of time and a red herring - you may be more confident, but the problem will probably remain.

You need to approach this systematically, otherwise you might replaced drives, memory card reader, etc, and still have corrupt issues. You need to do tests that eliminate all but one variable. eg:
1) Take photos on one card, view the image on the camera (just the thumbnails really). Download the same photos to two computers using the same memory card reader, process, see if any corrupt. Put the card back in the camera after being downloaded by each computer.
2) As #1, but use different card readers and cables.
3) As #1, but with use different drives to store the images.

etc

Until you can reproduce consistently you don't know what the problem is. You need to do it systematically. Just in case, run two different RAM testing pieces of software - in my case Memtest x86 didn't find the problem but HCI Memtest did. I don't know what software to use on a mac. If you can boot Windows then you can try those, but you need to run them both overnight. HCI needs to run multiple instances because it runs in windows and each process can only address 2GB of RAM.

Wow thanks, I forgot to mention I also upgraded my ram from 2 4gb sticks to 2 8gb sticks.

Great one more variable.

Definitely test your RAM first, using something like this says. Use several tests, and let it run for a good amount of time - it took 12 hours before the first signs of trouble with my memory test on my PC.

If you have the old RAM still test the new RAM first, see if it errors, then put the old RAM back in and see if it works better.

DesolateMirror wrote in post #17813503
CF card is the most likely culprit. You have to go down the list of possible causes and cross them off one by one, usually cheapest to most expensive. The new card and reader should do most of that, I'd be surprised if you had issues after that.

tim wrote in post #17813589
Based on what you've said I'm not convinced that a bad card is the only option.

Take a peak at the card reader pins with a bright light as well.

For some time now I get garbage on my memory card. Besides the pictures I get all kinds of files that cannot be deleted or viewed. In order to get rid of them I have to format the card. I wanted to attach a sample but you do not accept .doc files. I don't know where they are coming from. I have a Canon Powershot SX110 IS. Could they be coming from the USB memory card adapter that is connected to the computer? Thank you

HenryB39 wrote in post #17823706
I wanted to attach a sample but you do not accept .doc files.

Assuming you are using Windows when you have the list of files on screen hit the PrintScrn button. Depending on your hardware you might have to actually hit two keys. For instance on my Dell laptop the PrintScrn is in blue and I have to also hit the Fn (also in blue) key. This puts an image of the screen into the clipboard.

Open Windows paint and then do a paste. Save the file in one of the image formats. PNG is the default in Windows 7 and that will work. Then add the image to your thread.

Let us know as well what version of Windows or ios you are using.

HenryB39 wrote in post #17823706
For some time now I get garbage on my memory card. Besides the pictures I get all kinds of files that cannot be deleted or viewed. In order to get rid of them I have to format the card. I wanted to attach a sample but you do not accept .doc files. I don't know where they are coming from. I have a Canon Powershot SX110 IS. Could they be coming from the USB memory card adapter that is connected to the computer? Thank you

Run this memory card testing software.

Unfortunately, after printing the screen I pasted it on a word document and re-formatted the memory card. So, it's not on the card anymore. I tried to copy the document on the response box and I wasn't able to do it. I will copy this next time when this happens again directly here. Thanks for the response.

PS: Windows 7

What will this accomplish? Right now the memory card is blank (I formatted it since it was the only way to get rid of the garbage). Thanks

Henry, your camera adds system files to your memory card that are not image files. I believe the default (in Windows) settings is to hide most of these files but if you have the "Show hidden files, folders, and drives" setting checked you will see these files.

You can remove these files but the next time you use your camera, it will just add them right back to the card. It sounds to me like these are what you are seeing. The easiest way to "get rid of them"* is to check the other option in the View Folders option (Windows 10.)
In File Explorer Click the "View" Tab, then click Options, In the box that opens called Folder Options, click the "View" tab click "Don't show hidden files, folders, or drives."

*P.S. They are still there, you just won't see them anymore.

I took a picture of the screen with the files I mentioned and I tried again to attach it here unsuccessfully. If you can give me your e-mail address I can send it as an attachment. These are really garbage files and are pretty big. Thanks

PS I think I managed to attach it. Let me know if you can see it. Thanks a lot.