Corrupted SD Card

[Taky Cheung]

I was backing up .mov files recorded with T3i from the last wedding to computer. All of a sudden, one of the memory card showing need format before use while copying. There were about 30 files in there and I got about half of them out before that happened.

I'm panicking right now. I tried Recuva, RescuePRO, BadCopy Pro. The latter 2 can recover the .MOV files but the files are not playable. I also load the SD card back to the camera but it reports access problem with the card.

Can anybody help?

[Tom Hardwick]

You don't say what card it was, but many of us here were caught out by the 16gb SDHC cards made by Transcend. They recovered my files from the corrupt card after many months.

[Taky Cheung]

It is the Sandisc Extreme 16GB Class 6 card.

Do you mean I can contact Sandisc and have them try to recover the files?

thanks

[Tom Hardwick]

Certainly worth a go. They'll know if a rogue batch got through.

[Chris Medico]

Something that can reduce the likelihood of this happening is to set the write protect tab on the card before putting it in the computer. Especially important with MACs. Your cards will thank you.

[Taky Cheung]

Originally Posted by Tom Hardwick

Certainly worth a go. They'll know if a rogue batch got through.

Called Sandisk. They refered me to LC-Tech which is the maker of RescuePro software. Tech support told me the standard version won't recover HD version. The deluxe version will do. It costs $69. I tried the demo but it still won't show me the videos. They also offer to mail in the memory card for them to recover. It's $250 for 16GB data.

[Taky Cheung]

I got my files back! From the missing file number sequence, I think I have them all back. It was a good lesson.

I tried the following programs

Recuva - doesn't work because the SD card won't mount as a drive.
RescuePro Standard - it rescues 22 .MOV files but none of the files is playable.
RescuePro Deluxe - it rescues all the .MOV files but encrypted. Only the full version can view with decryption. But I am not able to see if it really can restores the files to a playable form. Can't commit to pay $69 yet.
Active@ File Recovery - Restores 25 .MOV files. Still none of them is playable.
BadCopy Pro - Restores 31 .MOV files. But still, none of the file is playable.

After talking to LC-Tech the company who made RescuePro and Sandisk referred to, either pay for RescuePro Deluxe (non-refundable), or mail them the SD card to rescue for $225.

Later on, it gets me thinking the problem now is not the corrupted disk but the corrupted .MOV files. Googling "repair DSLR mov", I found "HD Video Repair Utility" by Grau Gbr. It can preview all the files I restored from the above programs. The demo version only restore half the video.

Grau GbR Hardware & Software Solutions - HD Video Repair Utility

Ver 1.5 was a freeware (donateware). But I can't find any download links except from MegaUpload.com which you know.. they were being taken down since yesterday. Then someone suggested a workaround by duplicating the length of the .mov file to fool the program to restore half, but actually the entire video. Brilliant! It works. Now I have all my video restored. =)

[James Donnelly]

Originally Posted by Taky Cheung

Now I have all my video restored. =)

Brilliant news Taky. Thanks for sharing your findings.

Apart from that, the one thing I take from this thread is the suggestion to put the cards in read-only mode before transferring - I will be doing this every time now. Not that this would have necessarily saved you the dramas - it's just a good idea.

[Jim Schuchmann]

@Taky "Then someone suggested a workaround by duplicating the length of the .mov file to fool the program to restore half, but actually the entire video."

Please explain how you duplicated the length of the mov file.

[Tariq Peter]

Originally Posted by Taky Cheung

I got my files back! From the missing file number sequence, I think I have them all back. It was a good lesson.

I tried the following programs

Recuva - doesn't work because the SD card won't mount as a drive.
RescuePro Standard - it rescues 22 .MOV files but none of the files is playable.
RescuePro Deluxe - it rescues all the .MOV files but encrypted. Only the full version can view with decryption. But I am not able to see if it really can restores the files to a playable form. Can't commit to pay $69 yet.
Active@ File Recovery - Restores 25 .MOV files. Still none of them is playable.
BadCopy Pro - Restores 31 .MOV files. But still, none of the file is playable.

After talking to LC-Tech the company who made RescuePro and Sandisk referred to, either pay for RescuePro Deluxe (non-refundable), or mail them the SD card to rescue for $225.

Later on, it gets me thinking the problem now is not the corrupted disk but the corrupted .MOV files. Googling "repair DSLR mov", I found "HD Video Repair Utility" by Grau Gbr. It can preview all the files I restored from the above programs. The demo version only restore half the video.

Grau GbR Hardware & Software Solutions - HD Video Repair Utility

Ver 1.5 was a freeware (donateware). But I can't find any download links except from MegaUpload.com which you know.. they were being taken down since yesterday. Then someone suggested a workaround by duplicating the length of the .mov file to fool the program to restore half, but actually the entire video. Brilliant! It works. Now I have all my video restored. =)

Really happy for you! What a scary place you must have been in!

[John C. Chu]

Thanks for sharing! Please explain the procedure on what you did again?

[Benoit Joossen]

Originally Posted by Jim Schuchmann

@Taky "Then someone suggested a workaround by duplicating the length of the .mov file to fool the program to restore half, but actually the entire video."

Please explain how you duplicated the length of the mov file.

Hello, Jim

I'm the founder of aeroquartet.com, the competitor of Grau GbR.
We are working very hard to repair your corrupt videos. I don't know A. Grau personally, but I imagine that he's also a honest and hard-working guy.

I think that we don't deserve that information about how to fool our software and services be published on this forum or in any other place.

Regards,
Benoît Joossen

[Jim Schuchmann]

Mr. Joossen,

I find it puzzling that you have addressed me instead of the original poster concerning this matter. I did not ask for someone to "fool" a piece of software. I did not state what my intentions where in this matter, however you chose to imply that I had a less than "honest and hard-working" reasons for asking. I resent the implication and would appreciate an apology.

Jim

[John C. Chu]

Sorry--- I didn't understand the original post. The software only recovers half of the file in demo mode. Got ya! Nice to know in case I ever need to recover the video files.

[Taky Cheung]

Version 1.5 is a freeware. Just have to search harder and be able to locate some download links.