I am shooting a documentary film for someone, and got back from the days shoot to make copies of the footage. When I put the data card in the computer, all that comes up on the card is a file called "USBC"

I tried putting the card back in the camera to see if it could read any of footage but it says "no image". I know it's on there because I played back the takes while we were shooting to review them. So can anyone help me get the footage off the card, or figure out what the problem is? According to the computer there is 17 GB of data on the card. So it is reading something on there, but it cannot actually read any video?

Thanks for any advice. I really appreciate it.

You may have to transfer the files onto your hard drive, so that your programs to read them,.

You may need software to transfer your video to a computer.

Ryan be precise - when you put it in the computer, and view it using file manager, does it reveal anything at all. Any folder structure? Usually your camera will automatically create the directories and folders it needs, and these are always visible. A totally blank empty card is worrisome. One thing to test is to put a file from your computer ONTO the card and see if the camera reads it. You could have removed the card during a write action, and this will have killed it, however it's very unlikely. If there are hidden files on the card, assuming you have configured windows to do it, it should be possible to see these hidden files. You need too explain in a bit more detail. Have you tried other cards to see if they behave differently? Stick in another to the camera record a short clip, then look at that in the computer explorer to compare. Then report back.

You may need to try a data recovery program. There are some free ones that might do the job.

You may have to transfer the files onto your hard drive, so that your programs to read them,.

You may need software to transfer your video to a computer.

Oh okay thanks, do you know what software is good for that? When I google it, a lot comes up and I am not sure if there is a specific one I should choose?

Ryan be precise - when you put it in the computer, and view it using file manager, does it reveal anything at all. Any folder structure? Usually your camera will automatically create the directories and folders it needs, and these are always visible. A totally blank empty card is worrisome. One thing to test is to put a file from your computer ONTO the card and see if the camera reads it. You could have removed the card during a write action, and this will have killed it, however it's very unlikely. If there are hidden files on the card, assuming you have configured windows to do it, it should be possible to see these hidden files. You need too explain in a bit more detail. Have you tried other cards to see if they behave differently? Stick in another to the camera record a short clip, then look at that in the computer explorer to compare. Then report back.

When this card worked before, whenever I would plug into the computer, two folders would come up. One would say 100CANON and the other would say 101CANON. The video was always in the 101CANON, every time before. Now when I plug it in, the 101CANON folder is missing, and that's where all the video would be in. There is also another thing on there, which says USBC, which I have never seen before and this is new.

So according to my computer, there is nothing on the card, accept for this new USBC file which just shows up as a white rectangle. There is also a white rectangle file just called C. That's it. I haven't seen that before either.

I tried putting a file onto the card from the computer, to see if the card will read it, and yes the card will read it. Also, it says there there is 17GB on the card, which sounds about right in terms of the footage we shot. So that means that there is something on there, doesn't it, if it says there is 17GB on there?

I tried another card and it works fine. It's just this one we shot on that seems to have a problem. I don't think that there was any write action being performed when the card became 'corrupted', because I wasn't writing anything to or from the card. The card worked fine during the shoot, and we replayed the video over in the camera, to check to see if our footage was good.

I then took the camera with the card in it, home, and I put the card into my computer. It was then that all of a sudden no footage was on the card, and that the usual 101CANON folder was missing and there are now two new files, USBC, and C instead.

However, it still says there is 17GB on the card though strangely. I tried plugging into a different computer from someone I know to see if it is the same, and everything still comes up the same. Does this help at all?

Run chkdsk on the drive.

Okay thanks. I tried that and it says access denied, and that I do not have privileges though.

You have to run it as admin.

https://askleo.com/chkdsk_what_is_it_and_how_do_i_run_it/

Okay thank you very much.

So it says that it found errors on the disk and says I can attempt to repair them if I type in /F. But I am reluctant to do this as I fear that may make the problem even worse, if any changes to the disk are made?

It also says that there is an unrecoverable error as well though. And it asks if I want to convert a folder to a file.

I don't think using the chkdsk fix function will hurt anything, but I do suspect it's going to take more than that to recover the files. Most likely it can be done with third party software.

Okay yes, I ran the chkdsk now and it said that it was not able to locate anything to recover. Do you know any third party software that is good?

I tried one so far, but the software was not able to see the video on the cards, and that's the problem. The computer cannot read it and neither can the recovery software.

Oh okay thanks, do you know what software is good for that? When I google it, a lot comes up and I am not sure if there is a specific one I should choose?

What kind of card is it? Have you told us that and I missed it? When I had an issue with a Sandisk SD, the recovery software that came with it, did the trick. Not saying it will necessarily work in your case as I imagine the software I used doesn't work always either.

Oh okay yes, it is a sandisk card that can 32 GB. And it's an SDHC card, class 10. It didn't come with software though, when I bought it. Just a card on it's own.

I suppose I could just get the others together and get the two locations again to reshoot the scenes, but this is my last datacard and will need to re-use it if I choose to reshoot the scenes. So since it has 17GB of footage on it says, but it cannot be read, should I just reformat it and start over, thus erasing the footage, if we reshoot? Or is this footage still worthy of trying to salvage, if it cannot be recognized?

How old is this data card?

What is the cost of getting all these people together?

Can you retrieve the data using recovery software?

It is worth reusing a card that seems to have an unknown issue, rather than replacing it?

Note that in film making terms the card is petty cash, it's so cheap some people don't reuse these after filming, but store their rushes on them as a back up.

If you were recording to tape, as we used to, many people tried to save money by reusing them, only to discover they were worn out! Solid state media is no different. Everyone with a Mac gets told when they remove media not finished with with a dire doom warning, Windows users don't. Cards are for me brand new for important stuff, and as my cameras have two slots, for critical work, I'll use two.

If there is a chance they can be recovered, I'd try that first. Surely the cost of BUYING some recovery software is worth trying, after all, it will happen again. I'd spend money now rather than have to reshoot which within in your small community is a reputation killer, even though it's not your fault.

Of course, the result could still be bad, but common sense says you should try. Data loss is hardly uncommon so download some and try to fix it!

When I put the data card in the computer, all that comes up on the card is a file called "USBC"

I posted a reply to your inquiry on another forum. I wouldn't be doing anything with the card until you read the following:

"Work-around for a certain type of data corruption that appears to happen frequently using certain USB card readers (internal and external). Symptoms are the sudden loss of files and or partitions etc. Usually in combination with FAT. Remaining files and/or folders may get names such as "USBC◘╧è◘" or "USBC..". Possibly related to ADATA NH92 adaptors though that is not certain! After researching the issue online it seems a lot of people think this is a virus. I see mention of the "USBC virus" and "USBC malware", yet it's not. It's a hardware / firmware failure that happened while data was being written to the SD card. IsoBuster is now able to detect and compensate for such issues on the fly so that files and folders can still be found and extracted."

https://www.isobuster.com/news/isobuster_4.6_release_notes

Failing that have a look at trying out:

https://www.easeus.com/landing/data-recovery-wizard.htm?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIzJqIs4fC6gIVlX8rCh1sRQRTEAAYASAAEgKvSPD_BwE

It's a very capable piece of recovery software. EaseUS has saved my bacon a couple of times. I know others it has done the same for.

Chris Young

How many forums is Ryan asking the same questions?

I currently know of two.

Oh okay. Well thanks a lot everyone for the help. I tried PhotoRec and that helped recover all the footage and it looks like it's all there. So thanks! And thanks for all the extra help!

As for re-using cards, I got use to it as long as I reformatted the cards each time I was done, but is that a bad idea? Sorry if I asked the same question, it's just that I only had the location for a couple of more days, and I was desperate to see if I could retrieve what we shot first. Sorry if I got desperate, just tried to get as much info on this problem as I could. But thanks everyone for the info!

Reusing is common practice, however, I wouldn't reuse a card that has an issue for important work, use it for something else if you really want to. It's a very cheap card, so not worth the risk compared to the other costs..

Oh okay. But if I reformat the card will it still have problems? I thought it was my card reader and not the car itself, cause the card itself was working fine in the camera, until I put it in the card reader. So I just thought it was that.

Unless someone does an analysis of the card and your corrupt data, it may be difficult to pin down the cause. The card reader only reads what's on the card, unless other cards are having issues in the card reader it's likely to be something to do with the card or the data on the card.

You can reformat and record new video media on the card and test for errors. It's possible that you may still get errors if there's an issue within the card itself.

However, in the greater scheme of things, why are you so worried about keeping a SD card?

I was going to suggest the same program. Looks like you got the files back but didn't learn your lesson and want to keep using the same card. smh

so he's filming documentary. I remember years ago myself and other suggested to that... oh well

He's been advised by experienced users on the other forum to dump this card. Anyone else would dump the card after the data has been extracted.

However, I suspect, there will be some going around in circles over this card.

I fail to see how one moment we are talking about having the budget for hires, for actors, for locations, for professional crew and other costs being fundable, then we are all talking about cards costing less than a McDonalds!!!

If I recovered the files from the duff card, the first thing I'd do once I'd got them was throw it away to stop it being used again!

This is just daft. Some of us here are getting a bit ancient - I find it impossible to believe a young person is penny pinching enough to not keep buying cards. Amazon delivered a couple today. 32Gb £7.50 each. I'm totally happy with this cost, but they're disposable things.

Fellows, I try not to ask for much, but please assume the good faith of others and avoid calling any person's character into question around here.

I had to withdraw from public view a few posts in this thread which were clearly unrelated to the OP's topic of SD card data recovery.

Many thanks to those who continue to respond to the OP with useful advice. That is after all the whole intention of DV Info Net. The OP is indeed genuine and I hope all of the replies he gets are genuinely helpful.

Much appreciated,

Oh yeah for sure, I don't have to use the card again, that's no problem :) I just thought it was an issue of turning off the camera to soon before the camera was finished writing to the card, and not a problem with the card itself.

You're probably right Ryan, although normally the camera won't cycle off if it's writing - but I CAN wreck the files on my JVCs if I eject them when they're writing.

For what it's worth, I have had duff SD cards brand new from time to time - so I always record a few seconds of video and play it back on every new card before using them. Just in case.

For what it's worth, I have had duff SD cards brand new from time to time - so I always record a few seconds of video and play it back on every new card before using them. Just in case.

Not only can name brand cards have a problem as manufacturing isn't perfect, but the counterfeit cards can also have problems. Trying to find a genuine card at a good price is difficult. Just like with manufacturing, products are made to within a certain percentage of failure, buying something, like a genuine card, will have a certain percentage of failure. In Vegas, sometimes the house wins.

Oh okay. The card is a sandisk card.

You missed John's point, Ryan - he is saying that the brand doesn't really matter. Test them to make sure they work. If they work fine - then they'll probably stay fine.

One thing to test is to put a file from your computer ONTO the card and see if the camera reads it.

I certainly would not do that. As soon as you start recording new data on the card, you risk over-writing a "missing" file that you want. And if you over-write even a few bytes in the middle of a desired file, you greatly reduce the chance of successfully recovering the entire file. Every data-recovery software that I've used gives this same warning. You don't even want to recover the files back onto the same card. You want to recover them to some other drive altogether.

Likewise if you put the card back in your camera, do *not* try recording a new file.

Don't record anything whatsoever until you've figured out what's going on.

The first thing I'd do (aside from looking for directory structure when your computer is reading the card) would be to put the card back in the camera, and see whether the camera can read anything at all.

I am reluctant to do this as I fear that may make the problem even worse, if any changes to the disk are made?

Absolutely right! I have had chkdsk turn an entire disk into thousands of tiny little file fragments. They were audio. And each fragment played okay for the few seconds of its length. But there was no way to figure out the correct sequence and reassemble them again. I will never again run chkdsk /f.

I don't have to use the card again, that's no problem :) I just thought it was an issue of turning off the camera to soon before the camera was finished writing to the card, and not a problem with the card itself.

The point is, Ryan, that you ought to try to be logical about this.

You do not know why you had this problem.

Therefore it MIGHT be that the card is failing.

Do you want to risk losing another day's worth of shoots? Maybe stuff that cannot easily be redone? Just to save a few dollars?

This is not even a gamble ... there is one and only one logical and safe answer. Trash that card and get a new one!

(And please, for your own good, do not do what you've done in the past ... say you're going to do something, and then go ahead and do the opposite. For your own good, throw that card in the trash right now, and come back here and post saying "OK, guys, I just threw that card in the trash." If you do that, I guarantee that we will all stand up and cheer!)

Greg - concur, but I was commenting to what he said about getting new cards. I ALWAYS test every new card before using it. If one has a problem - then it gets put in a special place to try recovery, and THEN, it's in the bin - too risky for the price.

I suspect for his own protection someone looks after his finances and makes his purchases. As well intended our advice is and as frustrating it might be as professionals, most of our advice and efforts are in vain.

but I was commenting to what he said about getting new cards. I ALWAYS test every new card before using it.

Paul, sorry. I think the quote came from post #3 and I had not seen any mention of new cards.

I do agree with you, test every new card (mic, cable, recorder, camera, etc.) before using it to capture important content. Unless this is just a hobby, and nobody except you will be pissed if you get home and find you don't have what you set out to capture.

And, BTW, I found testing still doesn't always solve the problem. I think back to my experience with MiniDiscs. I bought a Sony, brought it home, tried it, had problems. Took it back, got a Sharp, tried it, it seemed OK. Tried a few blank discs, they seemed OK. Drove five hours to make my first actual recording, which fortunately was for my own personal hobby use. Played back the recording at the venue; it sounded fine. On the way home (someone else was driving) I played a bit in the car; it sounded fine. Got home the next day, patched minidisc output into my USB sound card, pressed play, got an 'unrecoverable error' message. I got a can of air and blew out the machine in case it had some dust or hairs, I gently wiped the disc, I tried again, 'unrecoverable error.' I tried a few more test recordings, on a different batch and brand of disc ... the errors kept popping up intermittently. I knew I was too stubborn to quit using the machine, and knew it would really burn me some day, so I gave it one final adjustment ... with a 16-oz. claw hammer. That is how you solve an intermittent problem ... you make it permanent!

That is how you solve an intermittent problem ... you make it permanent!

This is genius. If you came up with it YOU'RE a genius. If you're didn't, you could still be genius, I don't know. But either way you're pretty cool.

Ha! I suspect I'm not the only person who's arrived at that conclusion.

I could tell you some funny stories about the years when I owned a stereo repair shop. (Yes, the statue of limitations has expired.) I applied that policy for only a few specific products. Even then, the customers got back working equipment. I should have named the shop "Happy Endings" but people might have thought it was a massage parlor.

It's 2020. No reason it couldn't be both.

"Service while you wait in our customer lounge ... we offer complimentary K cups."

Ryan,

Not only can name brand cards have a problem as manufacturing isn't perfect, but the counterfeit cards can also have problems. Trying to find a genuine card at a good price is difficult. Just like with manufacturing, products are made to within a certain percentage of failure, buying something, like a genuine card, will have a certain percentage of failure. In Vegas, sometimes the house wins.

Oh okay. The card is a sandisk card.

Just want to clarify ... just because the card LOOKS like a Sandisk card (or whatever brand one wants), doesn't mean it IS one. Counterfeiters will take a cheap manufactured item/card and put whatever label they want on it then pawn it off to unsuspecting buyers as the real thing.

While a genuine item doesn't guarantee 100% perfection, the counterfeit one that typically looks like the real thing will almost be guaranteed to be lesser quality.

Unfortunately, the counterfeit item that fails can result in a consumer rant in a public space about how bad the item is, all the while without the knowledge that their item was actually counterfeit. The sad part is the counterfeit cheaply made item is typically imported into North America and then sold at a good profit, all to the detriment of the good company that did all the R&D, good manufacturing with quality control, and advertising for their product. This is akin to economic warfare.

Sometimes there are web pages that describe how to determine the real thing as opposed to the counterfeit. However, as the counterfeiters get found out, they tend to up their game and fix the flaw. The game of Cat & mouse comes to mind.

Sennheiser, Shure, AKG, B&W filters, headphone companies, are all targets of counterfeiters. Oh, and also Sandisk.

I had never heard about counterfeit cards! Hopefully that’s easily avoidable depending on where you buy from (e.g. B&H vs ebay)? Otherwise, yikes. The fake mics I personally had issues with and after TWO from two different ebay sellers I gave up and got a full price real one (shure sm58, a very popular target) from Guitar Center.

I've gotten fake USB flash drives. I don't even recall whether they were branded. The issue was that the actual capacity of the drive was significantly lower than advertised. It was very sneaky. If you plugged in the drive and used "my computer" it would report, for example, 32GB. But after you put files on it, they would not all be there. And a diagnostic program would show the *actual* size of the drive, which was maybe 8GB. I read an explanation once, but I can't recall the details now. Suffice it to say it somehow tricked "my computer" or "Windows explorer" into thinking it had much more capacity than it actually had. So until you tried to put a significant amount of data on it, you'd never know.

Kind of like the pet food poisoned with melamine, or the toothpaste poisoned with anti-freeze, or the children's toys painted with lead paint.

Ah but from where did you purchase yon drives?

Josh ... you're a trusting sole! Ouch!

Got a deal for ya. Just type "counterfeit SD cards" in your favorite search browser and see what comes up.

Like Greg, got fed up with counterfeit mics last fall and just went and bought a new pair of AKG C414s, paid with a credit card, then immediately verified the serial numbers with the importer that they were good, and registered them. Saving all the paperwork and packaging documentation in the event I, or my estate, (thinking long term here), ever want to sell them.

Recently bought some more filters but opted this time to go with Breakthrough Photography for the CPL, skylight, and a 2x ND. Got them direct and one nice thing is they have serial numbers engraved on the ring for registration purposes. They also keep a history on each filter. Their threads go very well with B+W, but with the B+W UV, it doesn't have a serial number. I found that B+W is another popular counterfeited brand but had checked beforehand with the company and the retailer was on their list.

A number of years ago the Government was confiscating yachts and planes that carried any contraband like what typically comes out of South America, even if there was only a small item, or if the crew had something. It made a lot of news. So why doesn't the Government do that with the container (or maybe the whole container ship!!!) that carries counterfeit stuff into an American port? If it works for the narcos it should work for the counterfeiters.

In the past several years I've become very careful about buying some of these kit items.

Early on I tried saving money buying cards on Amazon and Ebay. But quickly stopped once I found out how rampant counterfeits are. I stick to legit retailers like B&H. Otherwise you can get double burned buying an inferior counterfeit while paying close to full retail.

Interestingly even legit cards there is a large variation in speed compared what they advertise. Most of the time it doesn’t matter because non raw cameras write speeds are significantly slower leaving a large margin. At the end of the day all that matters is they’re reliable. My cameras have dual cards so it’s not as important. Since I work paid gigs I’d never hesitate to toss a suspect card after one error.

I bought the bogus flash drives (before I knew better) via eBay, from China (hence my previous comments about pet food, toothpaste, and childrens' toys).

WEll, just liked that KFC popcorn chicken commercial from 25 years ago said to do, I learned something fun and new today. That is all crazy. I will use ebay only for buying unimportant things like used FS7s.

I still buy "toys" through eBay, usually from the lowest price seller ... things like Arduino boards and peripherals, project boxes, etc. I just bought a lid for a skillet. I buy paracord for use like tying up mike cables, extension cords, etc. I would never use eBay paracord for rock climbing!

I just bought a lot of canned food and ramen noodles from Amazon ... not from an "Amazon seller" but from Amazon itself. (just stocking up for when the plague gets really bad and supermarkets are even less safe).

FWIW mailorder crap is nothing new. Back in 1989 I bought a good-name SLR zoom lens from Wall Street Photo, based on their ad in a big national photo magazine. When it arrived the focus scale was out of calibration and it just would not focus at all in some ranges. They forced me to drive to NYC and confront them in person before they'd give me a refund. So Wall Street Photo (if they are even in business today) will always be high up on my $#!+ list.

Out of curiosity, how many of you would trust buying from Amazon itself (or its subsidiary, Woot)? Or buying from a seemingly real dealer (Pitbull Audio comes to mind) via an order placed on eBay?