Lost Photos on EMTEC SDHC (1) 16GB Class 10 85MB/s Card

[Geoff79]

Hi all,

Not sure this is the right place for this one but if not, happy for it to be moved somewhere more appropriate.

I would like to say I've come to accept the outcome to this, but that's not the correct term. I guess you could say I understand that there is probably no happy ending to this story, but just thought I'd run it by the forum here to see if anyone has any outlandish tips... or even if someone can let me know what on earth went wrong.

So hopefully I have enough details, but trying to keep it kind of brief too; we went away to Hill End for the weekend. I had the above memory card (EMTEC SDHC (1) 16GB Class 10 85MB/s Card) in my Canon 70D. I have used it for the last few weeks without any issues at all. On Saturday I used it normally and extensively and only noticed maybe about 2 hours into the trip, the photos started taking really long to process in camera. Meaning, the camera would start "cutting me off" when I got to 14 photos, which the camera was still trying to process. But it wouldn't allow me to take any more photos, until the number dropped. As soon as it was showing 13 to go, I could take another photo. Until I got to 14 to go, where it would jam up again. Shutter just wouldn't work.

So this was extremely frustrating, but I dealt with what was happening. It got worse as the day progressed and there were two times I just go too frustrated and sometimes as I do, kind of reacted without really thinking, or knowing the consequences. The only way to stop the camera from jamming up was to remove the battery and click it back in and start again. Anyway, I did this two times and only after the second time did I realise none of the last 28 photos I'd just taken had been written to the memory card. They were all gone. That was really disappointing but I can deal with that. They were mostly photos of the kids playing... of which I took about 800 others. ;) In the end, I took 14 more photos and retired the camera into the house where is sat there just processing the photos for probably an hour or so while I reluctantly just used my Iphone. Then last night I took a few astral shots (30sec shutter speeds, which meant there was no build up of photos) and it was a really slow process, but went "okay." All my shots are safe.

Sorry for the build up, but that's how it started. Where it got ugly was that I got up around 6:30am this morning after a -5'C night and the place was covered in frost. It was stunning, with the sun peeking out onto the tree line in the background. It was stunning scenery and I popped off a bunch of photos I was really happy with. Something of note, is that I even reviewed a couple of them on the camera's screen. When it was processing the photos the day before, I couldn't review or see any photos I'd taken. Camera was basically just jammed up until the 14 photos were processed. But this morning, I saw with my own eyes the photos I'd taken. Not all, but a couple, at least.

Anyway, I got to the magic number of 14 again and the shutter jammed up again and I couldn't take any more photos. So, just like the day before, I turned the camera off and it just showed as it was loading/processing the 14 photos. Where it differed this time, is I turned it back on (as I did many times the day before) but it came up with an Error message. I think Err 8, from memory? That was different. So I turned it back off and it just looked to be processing the 14 photos again. In sheer frustration I retired the camera and just hoped it'd save the photos I'd taken. Again I went out with the Iphone while my DSLR sat inside. :(

Anyway, long story short, we packed up, went to Mudgee and plain and simply, I needed the camera again. Absolutely nothing had changed on it - still showing it was processing 14 photos when it was off, the Error message when I turned it on. This was about 3-4 hours later, so I just hoped the photos were okay but I knew nothing was going to change, so I ejected the battery and put t back in, pressed the review button and the last shots on there were from the night before. All the photos I'd taken that morning are all gone. For the record, I put in another memory card and shot perfectly and issue free for the rest of the day - no slow processing or anything - just 100% normal. Don't ask me why I didn't just change the memory card last night because I am kicking myself about this... very annoyed at myself for taking the risk. I just didn't think I'd actually lose any more photos now that I knew "the trick."

Anyway, the point of this thread is to see if anyone out there knows and kind of obscure or tricky technique... or if it is even a remote possibility, that the photos I took this morning were somehow actually saved somehow? And if so, if there's any way I could retrieve them? I know it's unlikely, but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

And also, anyone got any suggestions on what happened? Like I said, I've used the memory card solidly without issue over the past month or so. No issues whatsoever. In fact, my wife recalls me saying how quick it was processing photos (for the record, it is a brand new card and this is all part of it's first usage). The only possible thing I can think of is what I alluded to before. It was -5'C overnight, and yesterday afternoon was probably around 10'C outside. But it seems ridiculous to me that the cold weather would affect it. I'm sure I'd have shot sunrises in Winter before with temps around 10'C (granted, with a different memory card). But is that's what's happened here? That's all that's been at all different to the last few weeks. Everything else, all the same. Also, for the record, when it was slowing up yesterday I switched from RAW to JPEG because I thought that might quicken it up. Nope, no difference at all. It was processing the JPEGs every single bit as slow as the RAW files.

Anyway, can anyone make anything of this? I desperately miss the photos I took this morning (I still see them in my mind). Main thing I can't understand is how I reviewed a couple of the photos on the camera screen this morning, but I lost every single photo from the morning. :(

E-hug on offer again, if someone could somehow suggest a way to retrieve the photos.

- - - Updated - - -

To pre-empt a possible question, I'm back at home now in "normal temps" though to be honest it's allegedly about 10'C now and I just put that cursed memory card in the camera and rattled off a flurry of photos. It took the magic number of 14 again and then the shutter jammed up. I've turned it off and it comes up with the same message - "Recording... Remaining Images: 14"

This time it is slowly counting down, though, and there's no Error message when I turn it back on. So it doesn't appear to be a temperature thing, which I kind of figured anyway. I'm just so curious about why it froze today when it was handling the most valuable photos I took with this condition.

[arthurking83]

.... I'm just so curious about why it froze today when it was handling the most valuable photos I took with this condition.

I'm assuming(dunno for sure, just a theory) that it's slowing down to try make sense of the cards space available.
Bad blocks or sectors that the camera sort of can't deal with, and it's taking its time trying too.

Card is almost certainly throwout now .. you'd never trust such a card again.
The initial description of the 14 photos scenario sounds like buffer issues, in that the camera is struggling to offload the data in the buffer(almost obviously 14 images) into the cards space quickly due to the cards bad data store.

So obviously the camera has internal memory, and removable memory. images always go from sensor to internal(buffer) to card.
Removing power to camera is the best way to destroy the data being transferred from buffer to card.
If the camera has truly locked up tho, sometimes it's the only answer.

So there may be a chance that there is still image data on the card, maybe the last 14 images are definitely bung considering you had to remove the battery again.
But if you had data on there, and the last action seems to have removed access to them, they may still be there, and it's only the file allocation table(index of where all data is stored) on the card that's been corrupted.

Not knowing what software you have, I'll recommend that the two software(freebies) that I've used to recover corrupted data of any storage medium(cards/SSD/HDD/etc) is Piriform's Recuvva and or EaseUS Undelete(both Win PC!).

If you do try this or any other recovery software, and you succeed(or not) in getting your images back the next step is to 'recycle' the EMTEC SD card! ;)
From the description you put forth hopefully it's a simple matter for the software to find the image data.

Also note, if you place the card in the PC and the PC want to format the card(most likely) obviously don't!
There's also a high probability that the card wont be recognised by the computer too tho.

ps. I'm assuming(without any due cause) that you're running PCs and not Macs :confused013 FWIW tho, a Linux type system usually deals with dead/dying storage better than Windows can.
I used to have a spare PC that I had a a dual boot, but it was wasted space so instead I then made up a small Linux bootable USB drive, and boot my everyday PC into a Linux environment and deal with some stubborn cards from there.

[ricktas]

I agree with him^..hehe.

The images might be on the card.. or at least some of them.. or possibly none of them. I would try something like SanDisk Rescue Pro.. if you can get hold of a copy of it. It might just be able to recover something off the card.

All the best with it.

[Geoff79]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

Arthur, I'm actually a recently converted Mac user. ;) do those two programs you suggest work with, or have an equivalent for Macs?

If not, I do have some really old decrepit PCs I can possibly try to once again work with. Thanks heaps for the explanation and tips!!

Thanks also, Rick. That SandDisk Rescue Pro sounds like it costs money. ;) is this the case? Sounds very interesting, though.

If I can try free options first I'll definitely do that because it isn't a mass of images missing, and I'm still worried there is a huge chance they just plain and simply won't be there anyway. But any free methods, I will try hungrily.

Thanks again, guys. I won't get to try anything until tonight, but I'll look into these options and let you know if I have any success.

And yeah, Arthur, no way I'll use the card again. Well, possibly in a smaller less important camera, but definitely not with the slr again.


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[Tannin]

These are classic symptoms of a dying storage device. The 14 shots were (as they always are with any camera) written to the small, high-speed internal storage buffer on the camera. The camera then sends them out, one by one, to the SD card until it has cleared the buffer and is ready for another 14 shots. Slow writing happens when the device is throwing lots of errors and has to try and try again maybe 1000 times before it succeeds. It is quite noticeable on mechanical storage devices (DVDs, magnetic hard drives) where write times are measured in milliseconds (1000ths of a second). If it is noticeable to the human eye on a solid-state storage device like a flash card where write times are measured in nanoseconds (millionths of a second), then the device is really, really sick.

It is possible but unlikely that some of your last 14 shots have been written to the card but are not visible because of the camera having difficulty updating the indexing information on the card which makes the pictures available, in which case they might be recoverable with the right software. Any sane software person, however, would update the index after every write, not do 14 writes and then then update the index entries all at once. In short, it seems most unlikely that there is anything there to recover. In your shoes, I would not spend any money as the chances of success seem poor, but by all means spend a little time on it just in case.

Do not use that card again for anything. It is kaput, useless, gone to God. Throw it away before you get it mixed up with working ones. Or give it as a present to someone you don't like. :)

[Geoff79]

Thanks for the info and tips, Tony. I wonder why this particular card failed me. As noted, its brand new. Amazingly too, I generally buy all my SD cards from Asia, on eBay, for cheap prices. Never one single time have I ever had a single issue. This one, however, was bought in store in Australia by my wife for work. Wasn't required so they told her it was all hers. But it's probably the highest quality card, on paper, I've ever used. [emoji53][emoji848]


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[Plays With Light]

You've been given some sage advice above, Geoff, sounds like your card is on its last legs, but it did make me wonder if you have accidentally set the inbuilt noise reduction on? That always slows down the process exponentially too.

[torro]

Do you format the card after transferring ,saving photos as a regular routine? Formatting of card is best done in camera. Reformat card and do a series of photos, if problem remains, card of no use.

[Geoff79]

You've been given some sage advice above, Geoff, sounds like your card is on its last legs, but it did make me wonder if you have accidentally set the inbuilt noise reduction on? That always slows down the process exponentially too.

Off the top of my head, I think it may be on. Not sure to be honest, but I don't think I altered that over the weekend. [emoji6] I'll check it out.


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[Geoff79]

Do you format the card after transferring ,saving photos as a regular routine? Formatting of card is best done in camera. Reformat card and do a series of photos, if problem remains, card of no use.

Yeah, I do format and reuse cards when I'm sure everything is backed up. I definitely won't use this one again in my SLR but I may just put it in my powershot, which I use about once a year. And not for important photos. [emoji6]


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[Plays With Light]

Off the top of my head, I think it may be on. Not sure to be honest, but I don't think I altered that over the weekend. [emoji6] I'll check it out.


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If it is turned on, you may want to turn it off, Geoff, and do your noise reduction in post processing. You'll get better results that way as it gives you more options to control in that regard instead of a one-size-fits-all approach being taken to every images NR.

I'd try turning it off, and then firing off a series of images to verify that it's not actually the inbuilt NR creating a bottleneck for you.

[Geoff79]

Looks like it's a lost cause. All those programs needed funds to actually recover the files, but thankfully EaseUS previewed all the saved images before you could buy and recover them.

For the record, for anyone keeping tabs (and if you are and you were watching me tonight when I put my dressing gown on, did I look handsome as I did it? I know it's a bit questionable, but by George this thing keeps me warm) the EaseUS scan did not recover anything at all from the approx 28 photos I took on the Saturday - I guess I took the battery out too quick.

Of the photos I took on the Sunday - the ones I was really, really hoping to recover - it actually recovered 19 files. Obviously seeing this my excitement got the best of me and I planned a gleeful dance I would perform in my mind. But then I clicked on the image preview option, and what I see here before me is 19 black rectangles. So it has acknowledged there were files to be recovered, but unfortunately they are just blank, black files. A bit heartbreaking as I thought that at least the photos I got to preview on the screen may have made it... but it appears not. :(

The Sandisk Cardrescue also displays a lot of blank images (though not in order so it's harder to work out) and the last program wasn't available for Macs. If anyone knows a completely, 100% free program that I can use for a Mac... just to make 100% sure before I just bin the card, that would be most appreciated. :)

Thanks again for the input above.

[arthurking83]

..... If anyone knows a completely, 100% free program that I can use for a Mac... just to make 100% sure before I just bin the card, that would be most appreciated. :)

Thanks again for the input above.

Another option is to not use Mac at all, and use a live booted CD/USB thumbdrive.
Back in the day you had things like BartPE bootable disk, and recently I've used a couple of Linux distributions.

I had this one micro SD card that was totally corrupted, and no device would recognise it except this one Live Linux method.

Main thing is that something recognised some of the files, so there could be a chance that they can be recovered.