CF recovery

[pdV6]

I seem to have lost a bunch of shots on a CF card - took a few last week, some more on Saturday and then more again on Sunday. Went to review them yesterday and only Sunday's pics are there

Camera's an Ixus 400 and it didn't give any warning or error messages that I'm aware of.

Hoping for the moment that its not a case of "little fingers" managing to press the right combination of buttons to delete the lot, is there a utility I can download that will snoop around the card and see if there's anything recoverable?

Cheers

[beano500]

There is something called "Image Rescue" that comes with Lexar Cards. I've got a version loaded on this PC and I think somebody like Simpo will be along in a minute - I believe he's got a copy, too. That's probably your best bet.

[simpo two]

Ah, I see my scouts have bee preparing the ground... yes, I have that programme and can mail it to you if you send me your e-mail address.

[pdV6]

YHM

[simpo two]

Going as I type. It's 6.5Mb so I hope your mailbox is up to it?

[pdV6]

Ah. Not sure what the limits are these days (I no longer have control of the mail server!), but it should be ok...

[pdV6]

Received. Cheers!

[tog]

Lost or accidentally deleted images are usually recoverable by one of the various image rescue apps out there, with the vital caveat that you stop using the card as soon as you realise what has happened. If you don't there is a good chance new pictures will be written over the original data, and then they will not be recoverable by anyone. This also applies to cards that have been acidentally formatted too.

[pdV6]

Got the software up & running - only problem is that it wants the card in a reader rather than direct USB to the camera! Fair enough I suppose. I used to have one kicking around but beggared if I can find it now. Never mind, new ones are pennies so I'll just have to invest in one.

[pdV6]

Hooray! Successfully recovered a load of pics from the card.
It seems I hadn't transferred anything from the camera --> PC since the beginning of October

Luckily, barring 1 or 2 knackered files, they were all still accessible (90-odd pics!)

Thanks for the help & advice guys.

[simpo two]

Well done. Is the inference that if you leave your images too long in a CF card, they corrupt?

[pdV6]

Well, I guess its possible, but from looking at the knackered files it "recovered", I'm suspecting a FAT issue of some sort - the broken images had oddities like the left half of the image shifted to the right of the frame and vice versa. I've re-formatted the card now and will be keeping a close eye on it from now on. Its a cheapo Jessops branded card, so if it continues to be a problem I'll just junk it and fork out for a 'better' one.

[406tm]

pdV6 said:

Luckily, barring 1 or 2 knackered files, they were all still accessible (90-odd pics!) Thanks for the help & advice guys.

Only 90, think your self lucky you dont have a DSLR or it would ne nearer 500