CompactFlash JPG Data Recovery software??

[photobug]

Apparently, I finally did it. Somehow hosed up a CF card so that almost
a hundred photos are on it, the camera can display them, but WinXP
can't see the files. It reports available space (low) on the device
correctly, the top directories are present, but the JPG files appear
to be missing in action (on the PC -- the *camera* still sees them).

I know there was a data(image)-recovery software package that some
magazine article gushed over, saying that it was a "must-have" item
in case this came up. Does anyone know which one that would be,
and where to get it?

...I downloaded a demo version of one called mediaRECOVER. It
seems to be able to find most of the photos -- but (1) it did
NOT recover the file names, (2) at least one photo it got
wrong (produced a montage of 3 photos), (3) I can't tell if it
can recover the file modification times or not, and (4) it won't
save the ones it found unless I pony up $30 for the full version.
I'd rather have the "right" software before laying down the
greenbacks.

I do know that, before using this CF card again, I'm going to
reformat it in the camera. But I have to recoved these JPGs
first.

Any help / pointers / voices of experience appreciated ...

[wxwax]

No experience... mercifully.

I have the Lexar photo recovery software, which came bundled with the 1GB CF card. I can try attaching that in an e-mail, if you'd like. Dunno if that would work.

A magazine I picked up today called Photolife recommends a software called PhotoRescue made by Data rescue, a belgian company. It costs $29. They give extensive directions for how to use it, including recommending the Expert level.

Here's the link to their website. (http://www.datarescue.com/photorescue/)

[jimf]

A magazine I picked up today called Photolife recommends a software called PhotoRescue made by Data rescue, a belgian company. It costs $29. They give extensive directions for how to use it, including recommending the Expert level.

Let me second the recommendation. The software works and works well; it has saved photos from a SM card that freaked out on me and froma CF card that I accidentally reformatted and from a CF card I corrupted by swapping cards and then "ejecting" the wrong card (whoops).

It's not perfect, sometimes it can't recover image names and sometimes you get an image that is composed of parts of others, but overall it works extremely well. It is well worth $29.

[photobug]

... http://www.datarescue.com/photorescue ...

Let me second the recommendation. The software ... overall works extremely well. It is well worth $29.

Thanks, wxwax and jimf -- I plan to download PhotoRescue tonight (or as soon as I finish my 1040, anyway ;-) ). Will keep my fingers crossed that it can rescue me from this one.

Also, now I'll remember to reformat my CF card in my camera before any important photographic event. That should eliminate a lot of potential problems.

[pathfinder]

No experience... mercifully.

I have the Lexar photo recovery software, which came bundled with the 1GB CF card. I can try attaching that in an e-mail, if you'd like. Dunno if that would work.

A magazine I picked up today called Photolife recommends a software called PhotoRescue made by Data rescue, a belgian company. It costs $29. They give extensive directions for how to use it, including recommending the Expert level.

Here's the link to their website. (http://www.datarescue.com/photorescue/)
I can second wxwax's recommendation - I used PhotoRescue last night to salvage pictures on a Lexar 96Mb CF chip that seems to have gone south - it does not recover the file names - it renames them V1111, v11112 or something like that. But it did find and let me save the files to new media. $29 is a real bargain in the digital photography area

[photobug]

I downloaded PhotoRescue last night and it did NOTICEABLY better than the other one I had tried (MediaRecover). PhotoRescue even recover the original filenames of 95% of the files! A quick scan through the thumbnails didn't reveal ANY artifacts, whereas MediaRecover had a few JPGs that appeared as weird composites of two or three JPGs (apparently couldn't chain the data blocks together as well as PhotoRescue does).

Now I just have to unlock the "full" version so I can actually save those 100 JPG files. (Visa rejected my attempted charge last night, probably either because I was bleary-eyed and mis-typed the cc#, or because the vendor is in Belgium and Visa decided that charge was out of my normal purchase patterns ... Guess I'll try AmEx today ;-) )

So based on what I saw last night, it looks like PhotoRescue is going to be a clear WINNER. (thanks again for the pointer to it!)

[wxwax]

:thumb That's good news, so far. I hope it all works out and you can rescue the files in their entirety.

[zlatan24]

You can try foto recovery (http://www.oemailrecovery.com/photo_recovery.html). Flash Recovery Toolbox do something backup corrupted images from SD card, CF card, Digital camera and another.

[colourbox]

While I have not used PhotoRescue yet, the experiences described in this article (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/aa-07-worked.shtml) have definitely put PhotoRescue on my to-buy list.
(Scroll down to the heading "Bad cards and accidental erasures")

[photobug]

While I have not used PhotoRescue yet, the experiences described in this article (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/essays/aa-07-worked.shtml) have definitely put PhotoRescue on my to-buy list. How odd for a thread I posted to 3 years ago to pop up again ...

I've used PhotoRescue about 3 times over the intervening years, and each time it recovered every single file from my CF card. It may not always be able to reconstruct the original filenames (and never seems to reconstruct the original file-modification timestamps), but has been 100% reliable in reassembling the data, which is the most important thing.

I just got a notice that a new version of PhotoRescue is now out, and plan to update my copy.

= Dave

[pathfinder]

Sandisk now offers RescuePro with many of their compact flash chips.

Lexar media uses/sells Image Rescue I believe.

I have used Rescue Pro recently, and it does work.

[Anthony]

I have used ImageRecall with some success in the past. They have some new versions available at... http://www.imagerecall.com/ for the typical £25.00 - $50 cost of this sort of software.

Anthony.

[Art Scott]

I have used Image Resue that came with my Lexar 2gb CF...it works great, I have not had a prob with images of mixed data...so far...(fingers crossed) all images have been perfect...both raw ands jpg alike...it comes on the Pro versions of Lexars cards and mack version is included...the version I have contains IMage Resue for Mack OS X

[UP N MTNS]

A magazine I picked up today called Photolife recommends a software called PhotoRescue made by Data rescue, a belgian company. It costs $29. They give extensive directions for how to use it, including recommending the Expert level.

Here's the link to their website. (http://www.datarescue.com/photorescue/)

I lost a bunch of images on my CF card(HoodMan 4gb) it was my fault and thanks to the advice of a very helpful D-grinner :bow ziggy53 he pointed me to this thread......

I downloaded the above software and got all my lost images back:thumb

[photobug]

I lost a bunch of images on my CF card(HoodMan 4gb) it was my fault and thanks to the advice of a very helpful D-grinner :bow ziggy53 he pointed me to this thread......
I downloaded the above software [PhotoRescue (http://www.datarescue.com/photorescue/)] and got all my lost images back:thumbTwo quick comments:

I've only had two times that I needed to recover photos from CF cards, and PhotoRescue did a great job each time.

Yes, Ziggy53 has been extraordinarily helpful to me in the past, too. Great guy.