Welcome to the Travel Forums

Why join TravelBlog?

Membership is Free and Easy
Your travel questions answered in minutes!
Become part of the friendliest online travel community.

Join Now! Join TravelBlog* today and meet thousands of friendly travelers. Don't wait! Join today and make your adventures even more enjoyable.

* Blogging is not required to participate in the forums

How to rescue photos from a formatted or damaged memory card.

It's happened to most of us; accidentally formatted a memory card, inexplicably corrupted - either way - this is what to do and what you need, to recover your photos for free.

15 years ago, June 12th 2008 No: 1 Msg: #38295 Delete Edit

Ali
Ali Watters

B Posts: 5,200

Firstly - don't panic.

If you accidentally format a memory card there is hope - in fact you should be able to recover all the photos on the card. If the card becomes corrupted - there is also a strong probability that most of of the photos will be intact and recoverable - here is a step by step list of things to do, and the equipment and software you need.

1 - stop taking photos - take the memory card out of the camera and put it in a safe place.

2 - equipment you need - you need a card reader, a computer (faster the better), about the same amount of space as the card (eg. 4gb for a 4gb card)

3 - software you need - for a simple format or delete from the card - the fastest repair will be with;

Free Undelete

Free Undelete - will go through the file allocation table - and mark deleted files as recovered - quick and simple - if it gets your files back great - that's it.

For a corrupted or complex format (where you perhaps continue taking photos! - arghh done that!) - try; both are free for photo recovery though you can pay to upgrade.

Recuva

Scans the file table for files, but doesn't seem to do any analysis - great for quick recovery from deletions.

ZAR Recovery

It takes several hours to scan the contents of a large card - depending on the speed etc - it analyzes the disk looking for header information that matches image formats - and reconstructs the images from this. Try this one if the previous software does not work.

4 - that's it - store your photos carefully

I hope that helps someone sometime...

My story is - I went to Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia - got up for sunrise, took lots of photos, later in the day - at the Train Graveyard running out time for sunset - I absent-mindedly formatted the card with the photos from the early part of the day - instead of the final backup card - I didn't realise until I got back to the hostel and found the wrong card in the camera. I'd continued taking 100 or so photos.

I managed to recover about 50%!o(MISSING)f the days photos - but sadly my blog will be missing some of the best shots taken with the best early light.
[edited: 13:07 - Ali - added extra software]

Additional non-free software

The following software is not free to recover your photos, but will show you all the images that it will recover. It used to be free for a single use.

Non Free Software - $24.95 license required for photos Art Plus - Digital Photo Recovery -- give the others a go first.

Please note lots of vendors are trying to promote their software on this discussion. Try the follow software first - if you have any other free alternatives please post.

Free Undelete

Recuva

ZAR Recovery

[Edited: 2013 Jan 28 05:39 - Ali:1 ]

Reply to this

14 years ago, July 10th 2009 No: 2 Msg: #79132 Delete Edit

armadillo1
leoseo

N Posts: 1

If you have problems with your memory card in 80%!o(MISSING)f all cases the controller of your card is damaged and no software or card reader can help. You must separate the memory chip and dump the raw data to recover your data, look here: CF xD SD memory card/stick photo recovery
Reply to this

14 years ago, July 25th 2009 No: 3 Msg: #80882 Delete Edit

DanP
Dan P

N Posts: 5

I can second Ali's advice, I lost about 300 pictures recently thru card corruption, so it can happen!! Reply to this

14 years ago, September 1st 2009 No: 4 Msg: #84869 Delete Edit

anonymous
non-member comment

u Posts: 0

Ali, thankyou so much for those tips, i was able to use recuva to recover lost files from 2 different memory cards which had been corrupted.

and then inspired to do some surgery on a 3rd memory card whos case had been broken. which was succesful!
(by way of cracking open one of the other cards and transferring the case over)

windows wouldnt open it but good old recuva came to the rescue again and got me back 700 fotos and around 20 videos from my first month of travel in south america 2008.

and to add to the bonus, of course it was able to bring up some old fotos i had manually deleted too.

ahh... somtimes things just work out!

:-) Reply to this

14 years ago, September 1st 2009 No: 5 Msg: #84871 Delete Edit

matty1
matt

B Posts: 171

huh .. that was me but the website says it was "anonymous"..

anyway thanks again ali! Reply to this

14 years ago, September 1st 2009 No: 6 Msg: #84970 Delete Edit

NickTheTrick
Nick Thomas

B Posts: 26

I'm pleased to hear you've had success getting back your photos.

Generally speaking corruption in a memory card (or accidental formatting) will destroy only the mapping tables which map host addresses to physical positions within the NAND memory.

In an SD card the mapping tables are very simple: a block mapping scheme is used. Data for large files is maintained in the order its written within blocks. Faster cards will employ a binary layer which allows much faster writing, but necessarily more complex mapping. In other words there's more chance for things to go wrong.

At all times the most up-to-date mappings must be stored in NAND memory (non-volatile) except the last few writes which can be reconstructed by looking at header data within the data if required. This is because when the power goes off the volatile 'working' memory is lost.

So basically problems can occur when you get an uncontrolled shutdown in the card. In controlled shutdown the card has plenty of time to store its state within non-volatile memory. But if the power is lost suddenly then if you just happened to be writing something to NAND at that time then potentially you've lost that data. If that's a photo then it's probably not a big deal, but if it just happened to have been writing an address table, or worse still a master index of the address table then you will 'lose' some or all the data in the card. As Ali said, the data is still there, but the address table to find is unreadable. Fortunately most cards will embed header data within the actual data and it should be reconstructable (just don't try to use the card normally though as you may end up overwriting something).

So prevention: don't try to eek the last bit out of your camera batteries, don't pull the card out of the camera or a computer without 'ejecting' it first.

Also it's probably worth replacing your cards every few years. As they fill up they perform slower (there's no way to actually remove old data from them currently, though this will change with new cards for Windows 7) and wear out faster (more write amplification). As blocks wear out the card will perform even slower and wear out even faster! If it wears out completely, in the best case you'll be left with a read only card. In the worst you'll have lost everything.

Hope that adds some reason to the above posts.
Nick
Reply to this

14 years ago, December 31st 2009 No: 7 Msg: #98006 Delete Edit

deleted_140297
deleted_140297

d Posts: 36

It seems that you have done some specific course on Photography.Good work keep it up . Reply to this

14 years ago, January 30th 2010 No: 8 Msg: #101792 Delete Edit

texaswillie
Bill A. Belt

B Posts: 111

NickTheTrick----you have a great post----right on target. May I add----not all photos can be recovered from a "damaged" memory cards each and every time. Sometimes you may unfortunately be able to recover only 75% to 90% or in some cases none at all. Many cameras today will accept very large memeory cards. I found that to be a negative. Having 2000 or 4000 pictures on a single card just slows every process from taking more pictures, to reading photos. A card only has so much life in it. I don't know what that is for your particular card. It will eventually just wear out as you continue to take it in and out of the camera or reader.It also gets dirty and scratched, thus presenting a risk that you will have issues reading the card. I have learned that if I should go to a smaller capacity memory card then after I get it about 50% full I remove it and insert a new card. While I always tranfer my photos to my computer I retain the original card in my filing system. I also back up the PC photos to an external hard drive that has nothing on it but photos. Currently I am approaching 90000 photos. Reply to this

14 years ago, February 1st 2010 No: 9 Msg: #101937 Delete Edit

Ali
Ali Watters

B Posts: 5,200

I agree with you Bill - 16GB cards are a pain - I go with 4GB (DSLR) - ties in nicely with backups to DVD - but big enough so as to get 150 shots in Raw - if you're using a point and shoot a 1GB card might be a better bet.

Though I do fill the card - not quite sure why you don't fill the card - just to be safe?

You file the original card? - does this not get a little expensive?

The exception to this is with my underwater camera - to minimize opening and closing the housing - I have the largest card I can afford. Reply to this

14 years ago, February 1st 2010 No: 10 Msg: #102014 Delete Edit

texaswillie
Bill A. Belt

B Posts: 111

Ali----I always watch the sale prices on SD cards (I have about a dozen new ones on me desk) and purchase them. I always try to avoid purchasing memory cards when I am traveling. I have a notebook which I file memory cards in along with a summary of what is on the card. This is back up as all pictures have been transferred to two external hard drives I have on my PC. When traveling I normally use my Nikon D-80 plus I carry two Sony Cyber Shot cameras and I have a spy pen that I keep in my shirt pocket. The quality of the spy pen is terrible so I don't use it much. Only in places where I have to check my camera in such as museum.

Nice "talking" with you. Good luck on all your photos. Reply to this

14 years ago, February 22nd 2010 No: 11 Msg: #104538 Delete Edit

antony09
antony

N Posts: 1

This tool can help you to recover your files from damaged media.
http://www.softorbits.com/flash-drive-recovery
Reply to this

14 years ago, March 30th 2010 No: 12 Msg: #107602 Delete Edit

friendyomi
friendyomi

N Posts: 2

It has been a pleasure reading. Thank you for describing impressions and details so carefully. I look forward to hearing your thoughts after you have had some time to digest and reflect on everything you have seen and heard. Thank you!

Reply to this

14 years ago, April 20th 2010 No: 13 Msg: #109211 Delete Edit

li1988
liana hakim

N Posts: 1

I have a mac computer and I am unable to download any of these softwares as i dont have windows.. i took about 200 photos and for some reason my computer is saying i don't have any and so is my camera.. I'm DESPERATE for help.. thanks! Reply to this

14 years ago, April 20th 2010 No: 14 Msg: #109214 Delete Edit

matty1
matt

B Posts: 171

first thing that comes to mind is to try and see if a windows PC can at least see the photos, then copy them onto a CD, when my windows computer was not able to see the photos a mac was able to see them. Reply to this

14 years ago, April 21st 2010 No: 15 Msg: #109233 Delete Edit

Ali
Ali Watters

B Posts: 5,200

Liana - I don't know of any recovery software for Macs - but I'd suggest following the steps in the first post - with the addition of getting access to a Windows PC.

Step 1 is the most important - don't take any more photos - or use the card for anything - all the other steps can be completed later when you have friends around. Good luck! Reply to this

14 years ago, April 23rd 2010 No: 16 Msg: #109459 Delete Edit

winslet
katewinslet

N Posts: 1

If if you are having problems with your memory card then in 80%!o(MISSING)f the case there is the issue of memory card corruption. The main reason behind this corruption is virus attack, pulling out of memory card while the camera was on, taking photos when the cameras battery is very low, turning off the camera when the read write process was till on etc. All these issues leads to memory card corruption problems. When this issue occurs you must stop taking the photos and try to recover firts the lost photos. YOu can do it by using a good memory card recovery software program. From online you will find numerous.

Reply to this

13 years ago, January 31st 2011 No: 17 Msg: #127807 Delete Edit

jasonhenry383
Jason Henry

N Posts: 1

The tips provided are really helpful and worth following. However, there are times when these tips are not of much use, especially in some special scenarios In such cases a Windows or a Mac Photo recovery utility is the best option, depending on the operating system being used. Reply to this

13 years ago, February 16th 2011 No: 18 Msg: #129211 Delete Edit

BobMaria
Bob Maria

N Posts: 1

Don't be so worried about ur pictures. There are some gud photo recovery software available on internet. But first of all please stop using d card anymore to increase d chances of recovering files. Then you need rely on professional photo recovery tool. Download any one of the software from the following sites http://www.memorycardrecovery.org and follow the following steps:
1. Install the software on ur computer.
2. Connect the memory card to computer.
3. select the drive(usually G or H for memory card) , click Start. Now the scanning process will start to search the deleted files. After a while you will then get a list of recoverable files.
4. Press Recover to perform full recovery.

Reply to this

13 years ago, April 13th 2011 No: 19 Msg: #133660 Delete Edit

maggiena
molicasolis smith

N Posts: 1

Card Data Recovery is professional photo recovery software to recover deleted, lost, corrupted or formatted photos, videos, and auido files from various memory cards, such as, memory cards, memory sticks, USB devices, digital cameras, hard drives, and zip drives.

http://www.card-data-recovery.com

Reply to this

13 years ago, April 18th 2011 No: 20 Msg: #134074 Delete Edit

gracewhite
Grace Smith

N Posts: 3

Hii!!!!!

If you have formatted the memory card and want to restore the lost photos then you should make sure that you don’t access the memory card. Since accessing the memory card will not be helpful to do complete recovery of the deleted photos.

Those who have not kept the backup of photos before formatting can recover the photos in simple steps by performing data recovery camera. This application makes use of advanced algorithms in order to complete scanning process safely and generates preview of all the recoverable photos. You can choose selective photos or all the photos and restore them back.
Reply to this