nightmare scenario, all files gone

Denis OKeefe · April 17th, 2010, 05:00 PM

The short story - shot 16 gigs of b roll, reviewed the first few and the last in the camera, saw all the clips - all was fine.
Put the card in a reader, saw 16 or so gigs of data, set and started transfer and went downstairs for coffee.
Came back. 1.5 gigs copied, transfer complete, everything else vanished.
Had more coffee. Thought.
I trust CF cards - headers get lost sometimes but the files have always been there for me, just a matter of finding them. So I tried the usual things. No joy.
Thought some more, tried a few more, more no joy. Cursed a bit.
Tried "PHOTORESCUE" demo which saved some stills for me a while back. It saw the 16 gigs that I knew were there (somewhere). $29 and 20 minutes later the files were back on a hard drive, 22 minutes later they were on two.
No great lesson on how to avoid troubles - some days trouble will just seek you out. S*** happens.
When it does Photorescue may save you time messing with other free or really expensive solutions. I just wish I thought of it first, if there is a next time I will.

Jonathan Bufkin · April 26th, 2010, 06:57 PM

Does it work for .mov files?

Glen Elliott · April 26th, 2010, 09:33 PM

Wow- thanks for the heads up about that program. I too had a bad experience but was, unfortunately, more than a scare. I was never able to recover the files- the card ended up being toast. It was a brand new Sandisk 16gig too- first time using it ever.

Moral of the story for me: test all new cards before using them on a shoot!

Denis OKeefe · April 27th, 2010, 08:32 AM

Jonathan, It did recover all the mov files. I tried two other programs but they didn't see anything on the card, the Photorescue processed for 20 minutes or so and recovered all of them. It did generate a new name and number for each, ie "recovered 01" etc.
But it worked as advertised and saved me from having to shoot it all again.

Jonathan Bufkin · April 27th, 2010, 09:22 AM

Awesome! I will file that back for a rainy day. Thanks.

Jonathan Gentry · April 28th, 2010, 05:06 PM

Is this a promotion for tape based capture? Can you image if this happened on a wedding shoot or some other one shot deal?

Christopher Lovenguth · April 29th, 2010, 10:49 AM

Luckily when it comes to most (obviously not all) CF problems like this, it's just about losing or corrupting the file list(whatever that is called) on the card and a program can go through and find the files and just add a new name to each one. For some reason I've heard this tends to be a little more successful to recovery consistently on MACs then PCs only because of the way OSX deals with files.

A good thing for everyone to know is this will work 9-10 times if you accidentally format your card in-camera before downloading to a computer since all your camera is doing is erasing the file list(again I forget the technical name for this) and not the actual files. This is why you should always have a laptop on-set and CF rescue program already on it (what if you don't have internet access).

Photorescue seems to be the best at finding digital media files (not a plug for program just personal experience trying more then one program in the past and what I've heard from others) but I always have success with Lexar's Image Rescue 3 as well. Haven't tried version 4 yet. I feel one should always have more then one recovery program anyways. Spending $60ish dollars total on two programs that might save a project is more then worth it.

April 17th, 2010, 05:00 PM	#1
Denis OKeefe Major Player Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Wayne, PA Posts: 207	nightmare scenario, all files gone - recovered! The short story - shot 16 gigs of b roll, reviewed the first few and the last in the camera, saw all the clips - all was fine. Put the card in a reader, saw 16 or so gigs of data, set and started transfer and went downstairs for coffee. Came back. 1.5 gigs copied, transfer complete, everything else vanished. Had more coffee. Thought. I trust CF cards - headers get lost sometimes but the files have always been there for me, just a matter of finding them. So I tried the usual things. No joy. Thought some more, tried a few more, more no joy. Cursed a bit. Tried "PHOTORESCUE" demo which saved some stills for me a while back. It saw the 16 gigs that I knew were there (somewhere). $29 and 20 minutes later the files were back on a hard drive, 22 minutes later they were on two. No great lesson on how to avoid troubles - some days trouble will just seek you out. S*** happens. When it does Photorescue may save you time messing with other free or really expensive solutions. I just wish I thought of it first, if there is a next time I will.

April 26th, 2010, 06:57 PM	#2
Jonathan Bufkin Major Player Join Date: May 2006 Location: Nashville, TN Posts: 253	Does it work for .mov files? __________________ Jon Bufkin focalpointcinematic.com

April 26th, 2010, 09:33 PM	#3
Glen Elliott Wrangler Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: Philadelphia, PA Posts: 2,898	Wow- thanks for the heads up about that program. I too had a bad experience but was, unfortunately, more than a scare. I was never able to recover the files- the card ended up being toast. It was a brand new Sandisk 16gig too- first time using it ever. Moral of the story for me: test all new cards before using them on a shoot! __________________ Glen Elliott Cord 3 Films

April 27th, 2010, 09:22 AM	#5
Jonathan Bufkin Major Player Join Date: May 2006 Location: Nashville, TN Posts: 253	Awesome! I will file that back for a rainy day. Thanks. __________________ Jon Bufkin focalpointcinematic.com

April 27th, 2010, 08:32 AM	#4
Denis OKeefe Major Player Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Wayne, PA Posts: 207	Jonathan, It did recover all the mov files. I tried two other programs but they didn't see anything on the card, the Photorescue processed for 20 minutes or so and recovered all of them. It did generate a new name and number for each, ie "recovered 01" etc. But it worked as advertised and saved me from having to shoot it all again.

April 28th, 2010, 05:06 PM	#6
Jonathan Gentry Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2004 Posts: 183	Is this a promotion for tape based capture? Can you image if this happened on a wedding shoot or some other one shot deal?

April 29th, 2010, 10:49 AM	#7
Christopher Lovenguth Regular Crew Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Brooklyn, NY Posts: 85	Luckily when it comes to most (obviously not all) CF problems like this, it's just about losing or corrupting the file list(whatever that is called) on the card and a program can go through and find the files and just add a new name to each one. For some reason I've heard this tends to be a little more successful to recovery consistently on MACs then PCs only because of the way OSX deals with files. A good thing for everyone to know is this will work 9-10 times if you accidentally format your card in-camera before downloading to a computer since all your camera is doing is erasing the file list(again I forget the technical name for this) and not the actual files. This is why you should always have a laptop on-set and CF rescue program already on it (what if you don't have internet access). Photorescue seems to be the best at finding digital media files (not a plug for program just personal experience trying more then one program in the past and what I've heard from others) but I always have success with Lexar's Image Rescue 3 as well. Haven't tried version 4 yet. I feel one should always have more then one recovery program anyways. Spending $60ish dollars total on two programs that might save a project is more then worth it.