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SD Card failure - need files, any suggestions? Windows wants to format

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Hon1nbo

Tue May 05 2009, 10:58PM

Registered Member #902 Joined: Sun Jul 15 2007, 08:17PM
Location: North Texas
Posts: 1040

so, I have been using a 16GB SDHC Memory Card from A-Data with my Casio EX-FH20 High Speed camera, and today I was getting footage of our school's pitcher to send off to colleges... and when I pulled out the camera after getting home, it read "card error".. when I plugged the card into my computer, it read as an unformatted disk... after looking at the cost of a new one, as my mom asked how much since the topic came up, I read the reviews on Newegg.com and saw many people have had a similar issue, along with other issues which I had thought were just the camera (such as sudden jumps in recorded footage, slow rates, sudden failure requiring formatting, and all withing a time frame that is comparable to mine)...
so, I want to be able to get the footage off of the card (he was pitching really well that day, and I am being paid for the stuff... so if I can get it back, i will)
any suggestions as to what I can use that is effective? I can run under Windows XP, Vista, Linux (Ubuntu, Backtrack, but will use another), and possible, but highly undesirable since they are the school computers, OSX...
any suggestions are asked for

p.s. I tried recuva.com's free program as suggested in the Newegg Comments, but it could not scan it... and when selecting it in the program Windows gave me the "needs to be formatted" error...

Bjørn

Wed May 06 2009, 12:36AM

Registered Member #27 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 02:20AM
Location: Hyperborea
Posts: 2058

What is the manufacturer of the card?

You can try the linux dd command to dump the card content to a file, if that works you have all the data even if some program messes up the card even more.

If the card is so messed up that no program is able to access it you can try a "quick format", it will not wipe the data in the files, only set up an empty file system. In that case you should try dd or some other dump program first.

Hon1nbo

Wed May 06 2009, 12:54AM

Registered Member #902 Joined: Sun Jul 15 2007, 08:17PM
Location: North Texas
Posts: 1040

BjÃ¸rn wrote ...

What is the manufacturer of the card?

You can try the linux dd command to dump the card content to a file, if that works you have all the data even if some program messes up the card even more.

If the card is so messed up that no program is able to access it you can try a "quick format", it will not wipe the data in the files, only set up an empty file system. In that case you should try dd or some other dump program first.

as mentioned in the first post, the card is from "A-Data"
I will try to dump it in the next few minutes...

Bjørn

Wed May 06 2009, 01:57AM

Registered Member #27 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 02:20AM
Location: Hyperborea
Posts: 2058

I have not heard about A-Data so it must have slipped my mind.

I always use SanDisk, some years ago I collected information from some shops that sell memory cards and SanDisk/Lexar was a lot more reliable than most other brands.

Hon1nbo

Wed May 06 2009, 02:23AM

Registered Member #902 Joined: Sun Jul 15 2007, 08:17PM
Location: North Texas
Posts: 1040

I found this $40 program cardrecovery.com/
it lets you scan the card and everything, even open the files to make sure they are good, then pay the $40 for the program to copy the files to a safe place... so far it is working, but I have in the thousands of files on the card, so I still have a while before the program gets to the important stuff at the end... my camera shoots at High Speed, and I take lots of stuff for players... both for memories, form tracking, and colleges... it piles up

but I noticed that all of my previous troubles, which I thought were the camera's, are apparently common with this model SDHC card... while the card is still good, I am going to get another to use as my Primary.

Conundrum

Tue Jun 23 2009, 06:39AM

Registered Member #96 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:37PM
Location: CI, Earth
Posts: 4061

photorec :)

pm me, i will try and help. so far i am up to 3 repaired cards, including one with an entire holiday's worth of pictures on.

Hon1nbo

Tue Jun 23 2009, 03:51PM

Registered Member #902 Joined: Sun Jul 15 2007, 08:17PM
Location: North Texas
Posts: 1040

Conundrum wrote ...

photorec :)

pm me, i will try and help. so far i am up to 3 repaired cards, including one with an entire holiday's worth of pictures on.

I've since taken care of this... I used CardRecovery just fine, and I got my footage back... but it was mixed with old/deleted/other files.

apparently the card I was using was problematic in the same way for a lot of people with the same time frame.

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