Help needed - My pictures have gone!!!

[Damo]

I've just returned from a weeks diving in the Maldives. I have a Canon Powershot A640, which I was using with no problems throughout the week, that's until the last dive.

I had the camera in underwater mode, I took a picture, then when I looked at the screen I noticed that it was scrolling uncontrollably through lots of settings/modes etc. I instantly thought that perhaps one of the buttons on the housing had jammed and was resting on the camera button, I then turned it off.

When I turned the camera back on to view the pictures I'd taken during the dive, I discovered that the images had gone. It's really bizarre, the camera is telling me that the memory card is full, but no images to select.

I tried to hook the camera up to another guests laptop to see if the images could be found, but with no success. I tried the card in their card reader, again with no success. They were able to see though that the card had nearly 500mb of the 2gb stored, but for some reason it wasn't accessible.I presume that the card is corrupt.

On my return I've tried two recovery programmes, but they are unable to locate anything. I've been in touch with Canon who say it is nothing to do with the camera, it's the card.I'm hoping that someone out there maybe able to explain what has happened and offer a solution to the problem. I've lost 200+ pics, some of the best I've ever taken and am completely gutted!!!

Please help!!!

[Damo]

Just spoke to Sandisk and It turns out I've got a counterfeit card. This was bought off an Internet company not ebay, but that's another issue.

Will I be able to recover the images still???

[lloydwatkin]

What recovery programs have you used? I have access to easy recovery pro. Would be willing to have a go for you, or 'lend' you my version

Lloyd

[Stephen]

Ive had expensive "blue-chip" cards fail. You appear to have tried the obvious things and my guess is that you just have to write it off to experience. You can get compact devices which enable you to download after each dive or so and perhaps these are worth investing in.

[Mike Ward]

Sounds like your camera is OK? You say you've tried a card reader but have you tried the card in another camera? Prob not any use but worth a go.

You also say you've tried a number of recovery programs? From memory, some work if the camera with card is attached to your computer and some if the card is connected via a reader - have you tried both sorts?

Finally, there are specialists out there who'll recover images, if you want to pay.

FWIW, if software is able to see that the card holds data you should be able to recover it, the question is how much you're willing to pay.

[StuartC]

A friend of mine purchased a Sandisk card via eBay which turned out to be fake too. 4Gb compact flash - loads of fakes around and a google will show you what to look for in terms of printed serial numbers and the labels on the cards.

Sandisk do their own data recovery software - I have a copy if you've not tried this.

I also purchased something called Handy Recovery for about 20 quid - I'd been using my iPod to backup photos after each dive and it rebooted whilst copying to the PC and completely corrupted all the folders. This software enabled me to recover all of the lost photos, even though windows was struggling to read the folder names and sizes etc.

The trial software lets you do the scan and analysis and restore 1 file per 24 hours to see if it's worth paying for.

Handy Recovery - Undelete and Recover Files. Partition Recovery. NTFS/NTFS5, FAT12/16/32.

definitely recommend trying this.

I used this to recover some jpg files from a hard drive that had been quick-formatted and re-partitioned. It's got all the files, but something is missing from the jpg file header, so they won't actually open. I'm still looking for something that could rebuild these files so that I can retrieve the images.

However, it worked fine for the corrupted folders off the ipod drive and has also worked for SD memory cards, so give it a go.

[Pen Simon]

Further to the PM I have just sent you, just to alert anyone else with a similar problem....

NEVER - EVER try to write new data to a disc you are having problems with that you want to try to recover something from.

You will ruin all hope of getting data off as it will just write over what you have in there!!

[Okeanos]

Not that this will help, but, I prefer to take 3 cards with me. I switch cards on every dive, so the 1st, 4th, 7th etc. dives will be on one card and so on. That way if I lose a card I only lose 1/3 of my photos. Not ideal, but better than losing all of them, especially on a long holiday.

[Damo]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I've not used the card since, It won't let me away as It says the cards full.

As soon as I realised I couldn't view the images I put the card back in its case in the hope that the pics could be retrieved on my return to the UK.

I've tried recovery pro and another programme which I found on a site, both came up with nothing. It's as though the information is there but the tag has gone so the computer & camera won't pick it up.

I've enquired with a couple of specialist companies who vary in price between £25 - £50. They seem quite sure that they can recover the pictures. Do you think I'm best going down that road???

[Pen Simon]

Yes

For £25 - £50 is it worth spending more of your time on it getting nowhere?

If they specialise in that field, I would say that was cheap!