If you've stumbled upon this post whilst looking for the old TV series "Thunderbirds", then please go here: :o)
If however you have (or are) wondering how to retrieve images from a memory card, then here is what I do. Please note that this is not an in-depth technical article. It is simply what I would do (and have done in the past) when I wanted to retrieve images from a damaged card.
First and most importantly, DO NOT shoot any more pictures on the card. If you do then you may lose some of the data that you are trying to rescue because the camera may overwrite them.
Second Check to see if your card came with recovery software. Some of the high end card manufacturers such as Lexar, SanDisk and Kingston offer their own data recovery software.
If you don't have one of the cards mentioned or have deleted the recovery software, you will find that there are plenty of free programmes floating around the web to recover deleted data from storage devices. I use PCInspector. With PCInspector, you can specify which type of files you want the programme to search for. They also have a recovery service for physically damaged memory devices whether they're sticks, card or drives.
Another programme that I'm hearing good things about is Recuva. With this programme, you can check out thumbnails of recoverable images before recovering them.
One thing to remember is that any recovery software will scan the ENTIRE card for deleted data. This means that images which were made months, even years ago can be found and the process will take a long time. Especially with a large capacity card.
To remedy this, one thing that I do is to format AND wipe my cards before a job.
Using Fileshredder, you can wipe the free space on almost all types of storage devices and this means that when you do a rescue job, the programme only finds those most recent files.
Well that's what I would do in the event of data loss. You may have a better method or know of other software. I'd welcome your suggestions and comments.
All the best for 2012.
Second Check to see if your card came with recovery software. Some of the high end card manufacturers such as Lexar, SanDisk and Kingston offer their own data recovery software.
If you don't have one of the cards mentioned or have deleted the recovery software, you will find that there are plenty of free programmes floating around the web to recover deleted data from storage devices. I use PCInspector. With PCInspector, you can specify which type of files you want the programme to search for. They also have a recovery service for physically damaged memory devices whether they're sticks, card or drives.
Another programme that I'm hearing good things about is Recuva. With this programme, you can check out thumbnails of recoverable images before recovering them.
One thing to remember is that any recovery software will scan the ENTIRE card for deleted data. This means that images which were made months, even years ago can be found and the process will take a long time. Especially with a large capacity card.
An 8Gb card can take
several hours to scan
To remedy this, one thing that I do is to format AND wipe my cards before a job.
Using Fileshredder, you can wipe the free space on almost all types of storage devices and this means that when you do a rescue job, the programme only finds those most recent files.
Well that's what I would do in the event of data loss. You may have a better method or know of other software. I'd welcome your suggestions and comments.
All the best for 2012.
