Bit of a worry this one…

Just dropped my CF card (sandisk extreme 4, 4 gig..) into the reader to upload some images and nothing shows up on the computer (nothing even shows in Finder)

Tried the card reader in different ports on the laptop, no avail…
Change CF card and lo, that shows up on the system….

I've then inserted the 'dodgy' card into the camera and it shows 'folder contains no images' = PANIC!!
However, there must be info on there as 'frames remaining count' is on 111, the empty card would show 192…..
Tried a few shots on the card, no problems, they show up fine on the camera (as they did yesterday…)

Any suggestions whilst I dig out the 'data recovery' disk…….

It was a very bad move to take some more shots on the duff card 🙁 You should attempt the recovery first.

I would agree with Simon. DO yesterday's shots appear in-camera? If so attach camera via mini-USB – sloweer transfer but they'll be there. if not, then recovery disk and hope today's shots haven;t overwritten much. I've a Sandisk recovery disk at home if you need one.

Oh, and bin that card

PhotoRec is very good if you can see the disk.

<off chance>
You don't happen to have linux box around? If so what does dmesg show? Followed by a prompt "dd if=/dev/sd(foo) of=card.img" to make sure you are playing with a COPY of what is on the card, then leave the card alone until _after_ you have recovered wht you need.
</off chance>

There are a few downloads available on t'interweb that may help you, or if the images are very valuable, companies that specialise in resurrecting them. At a cost of course.

My brother had a similar problem after shooting at a wedding (Canon SLR – not sure what model) and downloaded some software then made a promise (no idea who to, I assume some kind of god, but he doesn't actually BELIEVE in a god, so this is a bit vague). Anyway – he promised not to drink beer for a month if it worked. And it did.

So maybe the answer is to stop drinking.

Does this help?

It should be possible to recover a card even if it doesn't show as a drive – they can still be opened as a raw device unless actually physically damaged

google "recuva" and try that – it's free.

the "folder contains no images" warning suggests to me that the camera has perhaps created a new folder & is not looking in that folder.
For example…..I take some pics on my camera. Then take mem card out & put into D60. You can't view the images taken on the D80 as the D60 creates a folder on the card to store it's photos to.
Not sure why that would happen if you used the same camera though, although I think you can set different cameras to create new folders every day etc.

Did the card not come with it's own recovery software? I think my Extreme III did, so I'd have thought the IV should.

Cheers all….

to confirm – photos do not appear in camera (Nikon D300)
(they did appear in the camera yesterday)
The card has not been formatted – at least, not by me and as above though, the 'images remaining counter is at 111 where the empty card would show 192, thus leading me to believe some data is still there….

So, i'm confused – the card is evidently 'working' – as shown by putting it back in the camera and shooting a couple of images but, images on there (i'm living in hope here) are evidently not recognised, by the camera or computer (MAC and PC via CF reader….

Value of the shots – a personal shoot and I did last week and a client shoot (60 or so pre-wedding shots I did yesterday, fortunately the wedding clients are also friends, 200 yards up the road so a reshoot is 'not a biggie', though I'm certainly not happy about putting doubts in their mind…….)

What is a concern is the rest of my schedule this week – 2 more 'small' shoots and two big weddings…. I really don't need the worry of data loss hanging over my head….

MF – 😀

update 2. just shot more images on a different disk…

all showed fine on the back of the camera.
Loaded CF card into reader, plugged into MAC, that showed OK. Went to view the files and it shows something i'm not at all used to – I normally get a file reference DCIM – it's not showing…..

Open Lightroom and ask it to import the piccies and it won't recognise anything on the card either…

Remove card (following correct procedures), insert it back into the camera and, lo and behold 'Folder contains no images'…..

Next stop, call to Nikon… (though I don't think its the camera…..)

have you more than one camera? I remember somthing on Seb rogers's blog about swapping cards between nikon cameras causing problems

Have you recently updated the software you used to load images from the card reader?

1) always copy shots off the camera ASAP. Ideally burn to CD/DVD too.
2) if a card ever gives trouble, do a warranty claim if new or otherwise demote to other less critical usage

I really don't need the worry of data loss hanging over my head

get a new card

er 3) don't use a MAC 🙁

If you're very worried about data loss, take a film back with you too….

Cheers again all – Just been on with the Nikon tech guys – long story short, we have just proved its the card reader corrupting the data – I have actually lost at least half the shots I had, the others have all randomly converted to unix files…. so, sadly SFB, this would have happened yesterday, if not today…….
From here on in I think I may start downloading using the USB lead supplied with the camera.

Zokes – i plan on gaffa taping my old D50 body to the D300…… think it will work? 😆

So, next Q – how do I open the Unix files to see what's left – I'm getting thumbnail images in Finder but can't see how to open them fully in the likes of Photoshop which does not recognise them?

Ref files being 'unix' – I assume it's just changed the file extensions somehow? Can you just rename the extension to .jpg or whatever they were originally?

What brand/make was the card reader? I've always used readers and never had an issue at all.

I did a similar thing, and Sandisk Recovery system software sorted it out (mac). It comes with every Extreme CF card, but should also be able to download a copy from internet (torrents?)

Only ever had one problem like this (knock on wood) and PhotoRescue fixed it.

I've have moved away from the large CF cards e.g. 4Gb down to several 1 and 2Gb cards. Regularly swap and it reduces the potential data loss by sharing the eggs around several baskets 🙂

Paul

cp – twas a Jesspos one….

had thought about the 'renaming' thing but as I'm struggling to copy the folder to the desktop, i may be on a hiding to nothing?

Am keeping the images in the card for now and will come back to them – I'll give our friends they heads up that there may be an issue but, for now, I need to get on with prep for the rest of the week….

JxL – yep, got the disk but, as software is not even recognizing the card I'm struggling ….

I'd second the "lots of small cards" approach, a 2gb card will fit several hundred photos, far more than the 36 exposures you used to get on a single film!

I suspect cp's rename suggestion will work if you can get the images onto the Mac.

Does the card not show up in Finder/recovery software if you leave it in the D300 and connect the camera to the Mac, instead of using the card reader?

PhotoRescue seconded – recovered all my files off a card I formatted by mistake. I recall it has a trial mode that shows you what you'll be able recover if you licence it.

finnegan – leaving the card in camera and connecting that to the mac is how i am currently able to see the files.
I'm struggling with the copying though – try to copy the folder to the desktop and it tells me certain images are duplicates and stops the copying…
can't access the duplicates to delete them so I'm in a bit of a quandary – only thing I can think now is to open the folder as detailed above and copy and paste the unix files one at a time, duplicate the new folder (for security) and run the original through File Wrangler to change the extension to .jpg ….

Time for a coffee whilst I ponder……

Sounds like the card reader has royally messed up the directory structure on your card – good luck!

I think its time to stap away and call it a learning curve –

files copied to a new folder and given a new name and extension….
No worky in photoshop 'unexpected end-of-file' – whatever that means.

Not giving up I drop them into Lightroom, JOY – they import….. 😀

PAIN 😯 – as thought, rough guess, over half the files are missing, 25% of those copied (only a small sample batch) have the same 'unexpected end-of-file' error as PS, another 25% have colour banding issues and yes, you guessed it, those that remain are the ones that would be deleted…..

Last attempt will be with recovery software….

I think i need another coffee….. 🙄

I've not tried it but this seems to have some positive comments;
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/27683/testdisk

I have tried this, and it's very good, but the price is a little higher;
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/10259

Holy cow!

Sounds like a real chore.

I know it's of no help, but I also subscribe to the "many small cards, over 1 large card" school of memory.
It is a bit choresome, but does spread the risk a bit.

I thought that a card reader was just a device to connect a card to a USB slot – kinda like an adaptor. Obviously for it to have done all this damage, it must be a bit more!

Photorec no worky – well, it found 4 files (i'm guessing the others are not technically 'lost', as they are 'there' to varying degrees….

'Many small cards' – shooting a wedding (full day, preparations 'til 1st dance) I shoot on 3 x 4 gig cards…. 'spread the risk a bit, without stopping every 2 mins…'…..

2gb card will fit several hundred photos

Really? On the 5D I was using the other day I managed 33 in RAW on a borrowed 1 gig card. Kind of defeats the point of digital when you can manage less shots than film!

From here on in I think I may start downloading using the USB lead supplied with the camera.

I always do this anyway to cut down wear and tear on the CF pins – I'm sure they are the least reliable part of both camera and card (in terms of cycles before failure)

I've have moved away from the large CF cards e.g. 4Gb down to several 1 and 2Gb cards. Regularly swap and it reduces the potential data loss by sharing the eggs around several baskets

I go the other way and use one high quality 8GB card which rarely needs to be swapped (with my tiddly D300). I would say card swapping was far more likely to induce hardware faults!

I always do this anyway to cut down wear and tear on the CF pins – I'm sure they are the least reliable part of both camera and card (in terms of cycles before failure)

I always don't do that, to reduce the risk of pulling the camera onto the floor by snagging the cable 🙁

The big card vs small card debate never ends – many small cards = higher risk of a dud card but lower loss. For me the sweet spot is about 4-8 Gig which is big enough to shoot lots of pics but small enough that it's away from the "bleeding edge" of CF card technology. And I now always buy SanDisk – the only error I ever had was on one of my two non-SanDisk cards.

I always don't do that, to reduce the risk of pulling the camera onto the floor by snagging the cable

or you could just not route the cable where people or objects pass…
I place my camera next to the hub!

or you could just not route the cable where people or objects pass…

if I were organised, I could do that 🙁 As it is, I'm not, so I try to compensate for that. I had the same idea about the CF pins, BTW, but a near-miss with a camera-dragged-to-the-floor situation changed my mind.

4gb were my favourites – normally good for about 250 shots at a time in RAW on my D300.
However, invested in an 8gb Sandisk IV the other week in lieu of having a shoot from 8 am to midnight at an Asian wedding, figured i'd be sure I had plenty of capacity – >20gb worth in the kit bag now. :-).
In the end I only used the 8gb card, coming about 6 shots short of filling it… just glad I did not lose that one….. 😯 – those shots are long since backed up and processed…
For teh future though, probabaly stick with the 4GB's…..

Now, if only they did a body with 2 card slots which recorded alternate images on alternate cards (hopefully that makes gramatical sense..) – that would be a great idea…. spread the shoot over two cards, minimal loss of continuity if you ever 'lose' a card…and no editing issues as Lightroom sorts by Capture time, amongst other things….
<wakes up with his head in the cornflakes>

Im sure some of the older DSLRs had dual slots & you could set them to record to them in different manners – fill one then the next, fill alternately, save images to both cards.

I guess as flash memory has got larger, the perceived need for 2 slots has diminished. I still think it would be a good idea though – 2 cards, instant back-up.

Why do higher end DSLRs have CF rather than SD? Is it faster? It seems to me that CF is more prone to potential mechanical failure as you are inserting pins into holes, rather than SD where the contact is made by sprung fingers on contact patches.

Nikon D3 comes with dual slots, enabling you to shot 1 image to both cards if you want as back up. Or shot raw to one and jpeg to the other.
Only ever had problems with CF cards when they weren't SanDisk( though I did pick up some dubious 'Sandisk' proving if it's too cheap then it's probably not the real thing..Doh!)
Cards of choice, 4Gb & 8Gb extreme 3. Fast enough and reliable.
I have sent a card off to a software recovery company in the past to retrieve info off a dud card. It was expensive and a lesson well learnt….

The top end canons have two slots for different formats I think

Chris
Have you tried Graphic Convertor to recover the shots? May be worth a quick trial.