Corrupt image files

I'm trying to help my brother with a corrupt image files problem. The big problem is we live in different states so there is considerable lag with email/texting and then finding time to work on the problem or test theories.

He shoots with a Canon 1Dx and a multitude of CF cards. He has a Mac computer (no idea of specs) with Lexar USB3 card reader. He uses Lightroom 6.

He has been getting corrupt images inside Lightroom. Corruption of the sort of green pink purple blank rectangles or bandings. Cards preview fine in camera.

He got a card to me to test. I copied files to my hdd and opened in Bridge CS6 on my Win7 PC and I find no corruption. This card gave him corrupt files on his Mac.

I say his camera and cards are good.

What direction do I steer this investigation?

Try a different card reader. 2, try plugging his camera directly to the computer. And third, try using the card reader, and then the camera to a different computer. Just to try to narrow down the culprit.

garnerfoto wrote in post #18016972
I'm trying to help my brother with a corrupt image files problem. The big problem is we live in different states so there is considerable lag with email/texting and then finding time to work on the problem or test theories.

He shoots with a Canon 1Dx and a multitude of CF cards. He has a Mac computer (no idea of specs) with Lexar USB3 card reader. He uses Lightroom 6.

He has been getting corrupt images inside Lightroom. Corruption of the sort of green pink purple blank rectangles or bandings. Cards preview fine in camera.

He got a card to me to test. I copied files to my hdd and opened in Bridge CS6 on my Win7 PC and I find no corruption. This card gave him corrupt files on his Mac.

I say his camera and cards are good.

What direction do I steer this investigation?

Heya,

The card reader itself sounds like the culprit. Or, low ball odds, but maybe the USB port he's using on his mac. Something as simple as that. He should get a new card reader and use a different USB port, and test his "corrupt" files from a card. Another low ball odds, maybe his hard drive itself is quietly corrupting all over and he's only noticing it via fresh content that he's actively using--not likely, but it's something. Overall though, really, it's either the cards themselves or the card reader. If the cards are reading fine, that doesn't mean they're fine, it just means certain tolerances were in check when it was working good for you. The card reader is likely it though. I'd look for bent pins inside it. Or just replace it, they're inexpensive anyways.

Very best,

1. Just FYI the fact that an image previews OK in camera doesn't prove it isn't corrupt. The preview is a jpeg file within the RAW data and it is entirely possible for this to be OK but for some part of the RAW data to have been corrupted when it was written to the card (after the camera produced the preview). That isn't the case here as you have checked the images from the card on your system and found it to be OK.
2. The culprit is almost certainly either the card reader, computers USB or a failing hard drive. The easiest place to start will be with the card reader by using a different one.

Could be:
1. Bad RAM (highest probability)
2. Bad motherboard, CPU, hard drive, cable, etc (quite possibly)
3. Bad card reader

He'll need to run diagnostics. I don't know much about macs but I know they have memory testing built in. I found that you should run several memory testing programs, for a minimum of 12 hours each, as sometimes one will find a problem that others won't - this happened to me. If he can run windows HCI Memtest is excellent. After that a battery of computer tests. If in doubt take it to Apple.

I just had what I would describe as the same problem. The photos looked fine on the camera, they looked fine using FastStone Image Viewer, but the .cr2 previews in Explorer had huge blocks of color, or missing chunks. In Lightroom they looked even worse, somehow. I'd say it affected 1 of 5 photos out of 500 on the card. This was the first time I had used this card that I bought used so I was nervous that was the problem. I ended up connecting my 7D directly to the computer with mini-usb and the files look fine. Looks like it must be my card reader, although more testing is needed to confirm this.

Best regards,

Jason

Test your ram, test your memory card. Do them individually. HCI you will need many instances, read the documentation. Run both overnight.

If it's bad ram, motherboard, CPU or hard drive, you'll see problems all over, not just with images. Bad card is a possibility but from reading through this, it sounds more like a bad reader or cable.

After some further testing, here are my results:

PixelFlash USB 3.0 CF Card Reader An older version of this one

1 - With my old SanDisk Extreme Pro 32GB (90MB/s, UDMA 7)

a) There are no issues viewing the images in camera or on my computer using the card reader.

2 - With my new-to-me-but-previously-used Lexar Professional 1066x 64GB (UDMA 7)

a) The images look fine in camera

b) The images are fine when transferred directly from camera to computer using mini-usb

c) When transferred to my PC using the card reader:

- They look fine viewing in FastStone Image Viewer

- Roughly 25-30% of the images when viewing thumbnails in Explorer, importing to LightRoom, or opening in ACR have large blocks of color, black, or white as seen below:

jkdwings wrote in post #18025022
PixelFlash USB 3.0 CF Card Reader An older version of this one

OP, have you had any luck diagnosing your problem?

Best Regards,

Jason

The OP hasn't added info since his initial post.

As to jkdwings and the PixelFlash card reader, I would make sure you have the optimum firmware. Review the information at http://pixelflashtech.​com/pages/support.

I have had similar issues. I did full diagnostics on my laptop and have narrowed my issues down to the card reader or the usb cable/port. My problem is that it's intermittent and may happen once per batch or not at all for a month or more. I automatically do backups when importing into lightroom and the backups are not corrupted just the raw files in LR.

Good luck figuring the issue...

I appreciate all the replies from everybody. I have forwarded it all to my brother and now I await his test results.

Hey, thanks John! I would not have thought of updating the firmware on a card reader if you hadn't suggested that. It seems to be working without issue now!