Screwed Jpegs from my Sony DSC-S85

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

I've got bunch of jpegs that got screwed. Here is sequence of events:
1) I had some photos on my camera
2) I copied those photos via card reader and deleted them from card (instead
my usual procedure - use camera USB cable). MS explorer left Thumbs.db
garbage file on memory stick...
3) Next day I took some more photos. Somwhere in the middle of taking this
new bunch of pics my camera displayed error message I never saw befor: "file
format error". I switched camera off and on and message disappered. Pics
looked ok, so I continued shooting...
4) When I came home and copied new bunch of pics on my pc I discovered that
most of pics are screwed.

So now I have 140 pics in total, 17 of them are ok, 45 of them can be viewed
only about 10% of picture (some top lines) and the rest according to any
image viewer I tried is uknown file format.

Those that are partially visable have small size - so I assume that
information is physically lost. Those that are "unknown format" have approx.
same size as good ones - so I hope that data are still there.

Anyone have any thoughts/suggestions/soft that can help to resurect my pics?

Thanks
Kvad

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

ASsuming your OS is Win XP, is it possible you unplugged the card from
the reader ***before*** using the remove hardware tool built into XP?
(Or while it was still moving data from the card to the computer?) If so
that is a bad thing!

Simply unplugging the reader from the computer, or the card from the
reader without using the remove hardware tool may sometimes cause
'wierdness'. The remove hardware tool can be found in the right hand
portion of the XP tray (at the bottom of your screen, to the left of
where your clock is displayed). Get in the habit of using it before
unplugging CF cards or readers because you are playing with fire otherwise.

I agree with the other poster that you may have some success with a file
recovery program. It would have helped if you did this before doing
anything else with the card, but give it a try anyway. I use Lexar
Professional CF cards and they supplied their recovery program with the
card as part of the deal. I have never had to use it in an emergency
situation, but I did try it out once as an experiment and it found all
the image files on the card that I had deleted intentionally beforehand.

At any rate the data that you do recover (if any) may be corrupt --
especially if the card got 'scrambled' via improper removal. If the
files you recover are still corrupt, and the photos are really important
(I hope not), set the card aside immediately and find a recovery service
that can handle the task. They *might* be able to save your butt.

Before you use the card again for important photos, I would test the
heck out of it before depending on it to correctly save image files.

Once you are sure you have recovered what you can from the card, I would
give the card a format using your camera (NOT your computer) and then
shoot a bunch of test photos. Then upload them to your computer using
the usb card reader to see if all is working OK.

I always use a usb card reader. It is so much faster than using the
camera to computer usb cable.

Good luck,

Steve



Kvad wrote:

> I've got bunch of jpegs that got screwed. Here is sequence of events:
> 1) I had some photos on my camera
> 2) I copied those photos via card reader and deleted them from card (instead
> my usual procedure - use camera USB cable). MS explorer left Thumbs.db
> garbage file on memory stick...
> 3) Next day I took some more photos. Somwhere in the middle of taking this
> new bunch of pics my camera displayed error message I never saw befor: "file
> format error". I switched camera off and on and message disappered. Pics
> looked ok, so I continued shooting...
> 4) When I came home and copied new bunch of pics on my pc I discovered that
> most of pics are screwed.
>
> So now I have 140 pics in total, 17 of them are ok, 45 of them can be viewed
> only about 10% of picture (some top lines) and the rest according to any
> image viewer I tried is uknown file format.
>
> Those that are partially visable have small size - so I assume that
> information is physically lost. Those that are "unknown format" have approx.
> same size as good ones - so I hope that data are still there.
>
> Anyone have any thoughts/suggestions/soft that can help to resurect my pics?
>
> Thanks
> Kvad
>
>