# SD card over 400 photos disappeared



## Runeks (Aug 10, 2008)

Hi

Yesterday I filled my DaneElec 1GB sd card with photos (about 400) when i took the card from the camera (Casio Exilim Z75) and inserted into the memory card reader in my computer, the card appeared be empty.

I've tried a lot of recovery programs (GetDataBack, PC Inspector File recovery, Zero Assumption Digital Image Recovery, File Scavenger 3.2 and more) None off theme can find my photos.

When I view properties in File Explorer, it show that the card has a capacity of 1GB og 0 MB used.

I tried to take a single photo today and deleted this. All off the above program can find this photo, this seems ever more odd.

Does anyone have an idea to how i can get my photos back??

Thanks
Runeks


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## colinsp (Sep 5, 2007)

I think that if ZAR can't find anything you have lost them. For me ZAR has always worked when others have failed.


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## xgerryx (May 16, 2003)

Is this a brand new card or a card you have been using successfully in the past ?


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## Runeks (Aug 10, 2008)

I've used the card over a year, without any problems


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## Ziggy1 (Jun 18, 2002)

and you didn't actually accidently "Erase ALL" on the camera...did you do any manual Deletes of individual images? Did you Format the card, you should do it first time, but never after.

have you tried the card in any other readers or just connecting with it in the camera?

What is your OS

So many people post losing their images by plugging their card into a reader, I'm afraid to do it myself...I usually connect the camera.


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## Runeks (Aug 10, 2008)

Hi Ziggy

I wish I just had deleted or formatted the card. But no delete or format, I only have one card reader in my laptop and I have also tried connecting the camera to the laptop via USB, but that didn't help either.

I didn't format the card the first time, it worked and i thought is was fine.

The OS is Win XP

A friend of mine told me that in some rare situations, the card drop the data when it's removed from the camera, (You have also heard that i can see). In the future there will be no removing the card from the camera.

I very worried that the photos are lost forever


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## avisitor (Jul 13, 2008)

Is it possible you took those shots while the lock switch was engaged on the SD card so they were never written? I know that's unlikely, but maybe? I've never heard of the card loosing data when removed from the camera/reader, however, I suppose it can happen.


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## rifter (Aug 15, 2008)

I know sometimes if you have one of those cheap card readers they can cause havoc and delete files all the time. Go out spend a few dollars and get a good card reader from a Reputable electronics provider.


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## mrss (Jun 13, 2007)

I've had an SD and a CF card go bad, both times when I was away from home on a trip, with plans to use them. So I won't use big 4G cards, preferring to decentralize my pics on smaller ones, which I then lose, ha ha.

I echo the comment about ZAR. It did work where PC Inspector couldn't find anything.

In my case however, the first time I tried it, ZAR didn't find anything on my SD card other than a test photo I had taken and deleted. I gave up, reformatted the card, and started to re-use it. But on a whim, I tried ZAR later and it recovered all the earlier photos, aside from a few that had been overwritten. Go figure. 

So maybe as a last resort, format that card. Maybe it will rebuild the file structure so that ZAR can search it better. Note that some cameras, like Canons, have a low level format option. Don't do that. A regular fomat should be safe. In fact, I've formatted my SD cards as a test and the recovery programs always found the pics.


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## Runeks (Aug 10, 2008)

Hi mrss

Did you format your SD card with windows or with the camera?


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## mrss (Jun 13, 2007)

I formatted the card in my camera.

ZAR has that run time control panel on the right side of its console. Perhaps that had more to do with the recovery than a refomat, as I did fiddle with it the second tiome I ran it. I don't recall what I changed though, but I bet I used the "bad sector" choices in their help link, which is available in the tool, but here's the link URL.

http://www.z-a-recovery.com/man-runtime-control.htm

Interesting. I just ran ZAR on a USB thumb memory device to refresh my thoughts for this post. The stick has a password program on it so Windows can't read it if I lose it . It was locked. Hmm, ZAR read it anyway.


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