SD card went bad in the camera

[kruegerk54]

I use a Canon 70D camera and was talking pictures today. After a couple hours the camera could not read the SD card any longer. It suggested to format the card. I tried putting the card in 3 other computers first but none of them could read it. Two of the three could tell I put a card in. But neither the computer nor the camera can reformat the card.

Does anyone have suggestions how I can get today's pictures off the card? If I can do that then I'll just toss the card.

[Manfred M]

Try this free download from the Lexar website.

http://www.lexar.com/products/lexar-...?category=2459

I had a card get screwed up by a cheap reader and had to use this software to salvage most of the images last week. It works on all cars, not just Lexar ones.

[kruegerk54]

Thanks for this tip. I tried the program and one other but both programs say they cannot initialize the card. It seems to really be beyond repair unless someone else has some other idea.

[Rob Ekins]

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

Has never failed for me... Good luck

[Manfred M]

Thanks for this tip. I tried the program and one other but both programs say they cannot initialize the card. It seems to really be beyond repair unless someone else has some other idea.

I suspect you are right. This error message tells me that there is a physical problem with the card. so the software cannot even access the data.

I had this issue with a card in the past an the recommendation that I received was to stick to cards from either Lexar or SanDisk, bought from a reliable source. Both of these card manufacturers make their own cards and do protect their brand by producing high quality products.

[Harrie]

The most obvious reason, is an electrical. When the card lost power, while writing data, the card can be a mess. It should be possible to correct these errors with a format, or one of the utilities mentioned earlier.
Another possibility could be mechanical like some dirt or oxidation on one or more contacts. All contacts should be clean and shiny. But you only are allowed to clean these contacts with a dry cloth. Never use anything sharp. None of the contacts may have a bent or a dent. But is nothing of this is wrong, perhaps one of the chips really died and it will be impossible to access the data you once stored. The only thing remaining, is try to get a new card. Check the warranty paper that came with the card. Sometimes you get a life time warranty and if no mechanical defects are visible, just claim a new card.

[Rob Ekins]

I would not format it if you want to try recovery. I would also not format it and use it again. Once a card loses my confidence it is time for it to leave

[rpcrowe]

Karl... I have never had a card go bad once it was working. Of course, I primarily use CF cards which can survive just about anything. I had a rescue puppy chew on a CF card that card was still workable enough that I was able to rescue the images but, then decided to ditch the card. I have had two Kingston CF cards which were bad from the start. I stopped buying that brand but, still use the Kingston cards that I own.

I now occasionally use SD cards for my Canon SX50 HS and my Fuji XP60 underwater camera. However, I don't use these cards anywhere near as much as I use my CF cards.

[george013]

I would not format it if you want to try recovery. I would also not format it and use it again. Once a card loses my confidence it is time for it to leave

If you gave up trying to recover it, you could format it and try to recover again. Maybe the format will give you access to the card, and to the data. Quick formatting leaves the data unchanged on the card, it only places a mark in the filename in the FAT. If it did succeed, throw the card away.
George

[Kris V]

If you gave up trying to recover it, you could format it and try to recover again. Maybe the format will give you access to the card, and to the data. Quick formatting leaves the data unchanged on the card, it only places a mark in the filename in the FAT. If it did succeed, throw the card away.
George

Will this work on a Flash drive as well?

[Manfred M]

Will this work on a Flash drive as well?

Yes, but I'm with Rob Eakins on this one. Once a I get a read error on a device, I am extremely suspicious of it and there is only one time (where the issue was likely cased by an external hardware issue) that I did not replace the memory card / flash drive / hard drive. Data is too valuable to risk loosing it on a faulty device. Storage devices, once they fail once don't "heal" themselves (although operating systems can bypass bad parts of memory) and are likely to fail again.

[Kris V]

Manfred, here's the problem.
I put the flash drive in, it takes forever to show the file listing.
I need to recover 3 files and one folder, the rest are duplicates, so no great loss there.
When I try to access one of the files, I end up in hour glass land, and finally the message "Drive L is not responding"
So, can I take a chance on formatting and then try to recover?
I have recovery software.

[xpatUSA]

So, can I take a chance on formatting and then try to recover?

Before you do that, are you familiar with "command line" work which is very similar to the old Microsoft DOS commands?

For example, DCraw is used by some folks for raw file work.

Recently, I was unable to delete a file in Windows Explorer but a quick DEL in the Command Window got rid of it.

If you're interested, I could post some exact instructions with screen shots - I'm thinking of the COPY command, provided that your files show up using the DIR command (lists files and folders). At least, we could try the DIR command and see what's there . . .

I assume you're using Windows, not a Mac?

[xpatUSA]

. . . I could post some exact instructions with screen shots - I'm thinking of the COPY command, provided that your files show up using the DIR command (lists files and folders).

Here's an example (without exact instructions and preceding screenshots for now) which I just did:



The yellow arrows point to the four commands needed to find the image files and copy them to the hard drive on my computer. The asterisk in the last command means "all files with a .RW2 extension". I could have equally copied them one at a time but my fingers get bored doing that.

[loosecanon]

If you can see the files listed but they will not copy to another driive it is likely that one or more are faulty files. When windows finds a file it cannot copy it tends to stop the whole copy process.
The solution I have found is to try to copy small batches or even single files rather than the directory or all of them.
Recently I have had to work on some 8 year old DVD's and found a few files had developed faults and were now unreadable - hence transferring to duplexed hard drives - ie two drives each with a copy.

[xpatUSA]

If you can see the files listed but they will not copy to another driive it is likely that one or more are faulty files. When windows finds a file it cannot copy it tends to stop the whole copy process.

Yes, not sure if you're responding to me but, if you are, the Command Window doesn't use Windows Explorer and by and large does what you tell it to with minimal error checking. Can be very useful at times . . .

[Kris V]

Here's an example (without exact instructions and preceding screenshots for now) which I just did:



The yellow arrows point to the four commands needed to find the image files and copy them to the hard drive on my computer. The asterisk in the last command means "all files with a .RW2 extension". I could have equally copied them one at a time but my fingers get bored doing that.

Thanks for the screenshots.
I used to be pretty familiar with DOS commands, but as they say...."use it or loose it".
Haven't had a need for it for a while, and never even thought about trying it....
Thanks for putting me back on track. I will give it a try.

[george013]

Manfred, here's the problem.
I put the flash drive in, it takes forever to show the file listing.
I need to recover 3 files and one folder, the rest are duplicates, so no great loss there.
When I try to access one of the files, I end up in hour glass land, and finally the message "Drive L is not responding"
So, can I take a chance on formatting and then try to recover?
I have recovery software.

I assume you're using usb. Last year I had to buy a new pc. It became another as where I went for, a Medion with Win 8.1. My usb-device didn't work properly on the usb 3 connection of the pc. I lost 1 drive. On the other connections it worked well. I stopped finding out why. Google on "win8.1 usb3". I don't know if it is in your case too.

George

[Kris V]

I assume you're using usb. Last year I had to buy a new pc. It became another as where I went for, a Medion with Win 8.1. My usb-device didn't work properly on the usb 3 connection of the pc. I lost 1 drive. On the other connections it worked well. I stopped finding out why. Google on "win8.1 usb3". I don't know if it is in your case too.

George

It's on older 8GB HP USB 2 flash drive. My laptop has 3 USB 2 ports and One USB 3.
I can use my other flash drives in either one of them. It's just the HP that gives me problems, even on my HP laptop.
I use my external HD (usb2) in the usb3 port with no problem.

[Manfred M]

It's on older 8GB HP USB 2 flash drive. My laptop has 3 USB 2 ports and One USB 3.
I can use my other flash drives in either one of them. It's just the HP that gives me problems, even on my HP laptop.
I use my external HD (usb2) in the usb3 port with no problem.

If you reformat it and it still gives you problems, it's time to throw it out and replace it. Flash memory has a finite life and then starts to die, older units tended to have shorter lives than more recent ones. I've thrown out a number of them over the years for that reason.