Results 1 to 4 of 4

Thread: Corrupted SD Card - Issues with file recovery

  1. #1
    Administrator
    admin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Victoria
    Age
    56
    Posts
    31,150
    Thanks
    2,238
    Thanked 13,731 Times in 5,823 Posts
    Rep Power
    4552
    Reputation
    165805

    Default Corrupted SD Card - Issues with file recovery

    Just wondering if anyone has any ideas on this one.
    Friends have a Canon SLR camera and have got slack with dealing with photos and have nearly 1000 on a 16 gig card that have been on there for about 2.5 years. The card has corrupted.

    The card is a Verbatim Micro SD, it is a class 10 card. Looking at it in Windows, all the file structure is normal though I do note there are some Android system file folders so it has definitely been in an android device as well at some stage.
    Now when I get to the actual Canon folder where the images are, the first image is good, the second has half missing. Then we go to the scenario in the picture below :





    It actually loads most and you can see the actual photo as in image 6062, but as it slowly does its loading the images quickly turn to multiple different colored blocks, such as in 6054 - 6058. Also about 25% of them stay like 6059......I presume these ones are cactus as they show properties such as like what is on the right hand side for IMG_5834 ( basically nothing) where the colored block ones (that flashed a brief image like 6061-6062) have a full properties section which shows all Properties such as camera make and model, time, date, camera settings etc etc.

    I have managed to find about 80 complete working photos which I have copied out. I am playing around with a couple of file recovery programs in trial mode (they show what they can recover after a scan and you then have the option to purchase). Basically they are seeing and recovering them, but are recovering in the same dodgy state. It may also be worth nothing that like 6062, when they flash the picture on there are bars at the top and bottom, not major but they are on all of them that flash a picture.

    In a nutshell........any ideas ? Or has anyone seen anything similar before ? I have had success with a totally corrupted card that had a file system that was all gibberish, it took me a day but I recovered them all. This one is a different kettle of fish , easy to recover, but they recover in the same crap state. I am thinking if they flash an image they have to be recoverable, even if it means slight cropping of the top and bottom where the black bars are (6062)

    Cheers
    Admin



Look Here ->
  • #2
    Premium Member
    wotnot's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2019
    Location
    Scenic Rim, SE Qld
    Posts
    3,236
    Thanks
    1,462
    Thanked 2,934 Times in 1,510 Posts
    Rep Power
    1334
    Reputation
    58690

    Default

    Yes, seen it before ~ going by your post, I'd hunch at the same causality. First up, this;



    No EXIF data ; file header missing or corrupted/overwritten ; filename/size/creation date has come from FAT. That doesn't bode well.

    Last time I saw this kind of thing, the scenario was -- user allowed sd card in camera to fill up ; user was deleting old images taken to free up space on sd card to take more images (sd cards don't like this) ; sd card became corrupted as a result, and -camera- could not access old images/files ; user pulls (corrupt) sd card from camera, and inserts card in an android device, hopeful to be able to save/view files ; user makes mistake when inserting card in android, of allowing androidOS to 'prepare sd card for use with android' -- this is not formatting the card, just androidOS creating it's native support directories/files onto the existing media format/filesystem ; due to the fact the sd card and/or filesystem was corrupt from the get go (coming out of the camera), the write operations instigated by androidOS, end up overwriting existing (parts) of files in result.

    The banding top/bottom of images, is because the image file no longer has resolution data embedded in the image file, but the -raw- image data is still intact, and the host OS displays that data it it's 'native' scaled fashion -- this is again related to missing EXIF information in the image file, to wit the pixel x/y dimension data. On top of all this, different camera manufacturers use their own proprietary formats to lay this data out, and in essence moving a sd card from one brand/type of camera to another, can also cause corruption.

    You can get all the fine details about this from &

    HTH

  • The Following User Says Thank You to wotnot For This Useful Post:

    VroomVroom (26-08-20)

  • #3
    Administrator
    admin's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2008
    Location
    Victoria
    Age
    56
    Posts
    31,150
    Thanks
    2,238
    Thanked 13,731 Times in 5,823 Posts
    Rep Power
    4552
    Reputation
    165805

    Default

    Cheers mate, I will have a read of that link. Strangely at the moment I am having some success recovering some photos in a strange manner.

    I have found that when I open an image to view (Windows) and then scroll forward, that some images that are showing screwed up as thumbnails are actually displaying properly in Windows photo viewer. I can then quickly "save as" and grab a copy while its displaying properly and my copy is good. But then you can go back to the image on the card a second time, and its screwed.

    This only applies to some photos that show an image, it is pot luck. No idea why, but I will go backwards and forwards and save what I can that way though its a tedious task. If after having a read I cant do much better, I will recommend to them to send it to professionals for recovery as they may be able to get the lot back. Its got 2 substantial life events on it, so they will probably be prepared to spend the money.

    Cheers

  • #4
    Premium Member
    wotnot's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2019
    Location
    Scenic Rim, SE Qld
    Posts
    3,236
    Thanks
    1,462
    Thanked 2,934 Times in 1,510 Posts
    Rep Power
    1334
    Reputation
    58690

    Default

    Best guess is the thumbnail creation process is borking things ; same old same old -- read only, don't write to the card (the androidOS write likely screwed up thing up worse) ; any write operation can cause that in situations like this.

    Yeah, grab what you can, I usually grab a raw image of the media, and mount that to recover/work on -- it avoids relying on the hardware (sd car controller/nand) staying 'good' ...which might be ready to flip a pancake at any moment =)

    Of course, replace card -- you likely may not be able to trust it anymore.

  • Bookmarks

    Posting Permissions

    • You may not post new threads
    • You may not post replies
    • You may not post attachments
    • You may not edit your posts
    •