Recently I took a series of pictures on my old Vivitar vivi cam camera. They were successful but I haven't saved them to disk yet.
Yesterday I wanted to take a picture of the only sunflower in our garden and grabbed the Vivi cam because I didn't want to miss the hoverfly on the flower.
An error message I've never seen came up - 'format error' - and I don't know what to do. Of course I could format the card but then I'd lose those other pictures.
Can anyone advise, please?
Mary (I changed the card and got the hoverfly so it's not the camera)
Firstly save the images from the card to your PC ( if you can)....If not then you'll only be able to get them by using software like Photo Rescue ( which is excellent but costs a few quid) .It has saved my bacon ( and "lost" images) a few times .There is a free version but I'm not sure if it is a fully working version ..
formatting link
are also free versions of recovery software like
formatting link
apparently has a free tool.
but not all work properly and some have a watermark over the images recovered unless you pay for the full version . Once you have done that format the card . You could try using someone elses camera to see what happens .
Once you've recovered whatever files you can, and formatted the card, I'd check it to see if its still ok before reuse. These flash cards do have limited life. It also might just be a bit of dirt on the contacts, it may be fine once is back in.
Frequent backing up is the only way to hang on to your files.
The instructions may look a bit scary as it's a "DOS" type program not a graphical interface but, as it says, it only ever reads from the card and writes recovered files elsewhere, so can't make things worse than they are already.
If it has a hardware switch to prevent data writes operate it to the "write protect" position. This should prevent any data loss by the card or other things unexpected or incorrectly.
Then see if you can read it in the camera, it might just be a bit of muck on contact, check them on the card and when putting it back in the camera seat it a few times to clean the camera contacts. If the camera still refuses to read the card can you stick it in a reader in your PC? Can that read it, if not there are many bits of software out there that can recover faulty discs.
They don't actually stop things writing to the card. They aren't even switches and the card doesn't know which position its in. They rely on the reader looking at the position and the software taking any notice.
I have done that - now :-) Horses nd doors come to mind ...
That doesn't work.
I've tried reading it with the card reader, it shows it as having no files in the folder - yet the folder is there. I've tried saving the folder's contents in various ways but nothing happens.
I'll be trying the suggested software but not tonight now, too late. It's downloaded and rarin' to go :-)
Even so better than leaving it write enabled. Even if it is the reader that does the write inhibit it'll be in the readers firmware and I would expect all normal writes to the card to be blocked. It may be possible to write a special program to override it but that is a different kettle of fish.
Hmm - even without the 'correct' software I'd have thought that Windows Explorer would have shown if any files were there, even if it couldn't decipher them.
Do you know what the file extensions from your camera are called?
Can you alter the picture file output in the camera, such as .jpg or .raw or whatever?
If it's .jpg then virtually any photo software should be quite capable of dealing with it.
Depends what has happened to the card. I'm not exactly how they work but there will be some form of "file allocation table" if that gets corupted then it's quite likely that no filenames will show but the data of those files still exists on the media. The rescue programs copy the device block by block and these days are quite clever at recognising the data construction within files and putting the blocks back together in the right order. Some manual intervention maybe still be required, a lot depends on how fragmented the files are on the device.
If teh directory entrys are buggered, teh data will be there, but not show up as a file.
I dont think thats the point.
Oh. Mary..one pice of advice that I got from a site when trying to get to grips with my new camera was to
(a) re format the cards every time you clear them on download.
(b) Never ever disconnect teh crads until a few seconds after switching thngs off..flah memory is a bitch to write to, and takes considerable time to update the actual card..
(c) dont expect a flash card will last forever: there area limited number of read/write cycles that they will do.
I suspect you are suffering from (b). The boring technical detail is teh flah ram by and large can be written in small blocks, but has to be eraed in huge chunks before you can write it in the first place. So you may have erased the directory entry, and then pulled the card before it got rewritten. The actual file DATA will be there mostly, but you have lost the directory..
A good file recovery program MAY be able to stitch that lot back together..but be prepared for disappointment.
Unfortunately that's not the case, the 'hardware' switch on an SD card is just a flag that operates a switch in the card slot. Even if this is in the write protect position it won't stop data being corrupted or going corrupt if the flash card or reader is at fault.
Not necessarily. There are files explorer will not show even if show all files is enabled. Booting a Linux live CD and browsing from that can often show them.
Assuming W2000 or XP try opening WE and going to C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\
Delete all the cookies. Then add on the end of the address \content.IE5
Yeah, wait until all the blinken lights have stopped blinken. Before even thinking about removing or disturbing the card. Batteries going flat a crucial moment have also know to corrupt a card.
Yesterday I couldn't find the reference in another place to software that has been used to good effect by others. Today a similar query has been asked in the other place and there is free(*) recovery software on the SanDisk site somewhere.
(*) I can't actually find it, I can find Rescue Pro 3.2 and Rescue Pro Delux 4.0 but they are US$40.00 though there is some mention of a "special price" for SanDisk customers and some hoops to jump through.
I can vouch for Photo Rescue .I've had it for years and it has saved my bacon a few times . I'm wondering if Mary has succeeeded in her quest .No word yet .!!
But it will stop a normally working reader attempting to write data to the card, almost certainly over stuff that could otherwise be recovered. It's not perfect but it is another level of protection to the data you want back, so why not use it?
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