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Where Did My Photo Shoot Data Go?

photolandscape

By photolandscape
in Digital Forum

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photolandscape

photolandscape

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I just spent the afternoon photographing a large anti-war demonstration in Portland, Oregon. Foolishly, I only took one SanDisk Ultra III 2GB SD card and relied on it to take about 135 photos with my M8, as I usually do. The card has always worked fine.

 

For the first time ever, with the camera on and having taken about 80 shots, when I tried to take another (not in rapid succession), the camera went comatose. I shut if off, removed and reinserted the battery, which was probably 50% fully charged, and went back to my business. Not sure what happened or why? The camera went back to operating and recording just fine.

 

My card got filled, and sure enough, I hadn't brought a backup. So, I pressed play, and decided to delete 3 shots--not the entire disk, but I manually deleted 3 different single shots that were no big loss, took 3 more shots and called it a day.

 

Now I go to unload the disk, and the counter on the camera says I have 1 shot left. If I press play, the LCD says there are no valid images to play. If I remove the SD card and attempt to upload it into my computer, a Wolverine 80GB drive, or an Epson P-2000, I get a message saying there are no files to download.

 

Needless to say my reaction is one of shock and unhappiness. I've shot about 700 photos with the M8, sent it back to Solms for some rangefinder work, but haven't uploaded 1.092 yet. The results had been excellent. But if this is an inherent problem--losing the day's catch--that could more than send me packing up my M8 and glass. Can't afford something that can't keep my data long enough to get it uploaded into Lightroom and Photoshop.

 

Is there any chance the data could still be there? Any thing I can try to restore my faith in the M8? :confused:

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hankg

hankg

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Try plugging the camera into the computer via the UBS port (after you load the Leica capture software).

 

C1 crashed on me once while reading the card and locked up my Mac. After rebooting neither my Mac or PC recognized the card. I plugged the camera in and used the capture software to fire a shot. The Computer then recognized the files on the card and I was able to copy them. Then I reformatted the card in the camera and havent had a problem since. My problem wasn't an M8 problem (I copy files rather then using C1 to import now) but it might work for you.

 

Good Luck.

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egibaud

egibaud

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I almost bought these card, but as it was not supported and some people reported problems, I did not buy them

 

Have you tried rescue pro software to see if it can read the card?

 

Eric

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gravastar

gravastar

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Assuming somehow the file directory entries have been deleted you should be able to recover the images by using a program such as Photorescue PhotoRescue - data-recovery solution for digital photography Erasing a file does not delete the file data, it just marks the space used by the file as being available to write new information.

 

What's important to recovering all the files is that no more data was written to the card after the original files were erased. Even then you may be able to recover most of them. In most circumstances even formating a card does not erase the data.

 

Bob.

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robsteve

robsteve

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Steve:

 

I have read about problems with the Extreme III cards on the M8 more than once on this forum. You may want to downgrade to the Ultra II cards.

 

As for the empty card, try using photo rescue on it. Download the demo and it will tell you if it can recover any images. You will have to buy the program to get the images though.

 

Another option is the Sandisk disk recovery utility. Didn't the extreme III cards come with this utility on a mini cd?

 

PhotoRescue 3.0 main page

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photolandscape

photolandscape

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Thank you Hank and Robsteve. I downloaded the PhotoRescue software, and lo and behold, it looks like it may work. I say may because the registration key they sent me is about 300 characters long, and is supposed to fit in a space that would hold about 40 characters. Looks like their tech support people are going to have to explain that in the a.m. But I can see thumbnails of the images at least, so I know the data is there. It looks like it may only save the jpgs and not the DNG's, but we shall see.

 

Anyway, a mighty big thanks for saving the day with your suggestions. Much appreciated.

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jlancasterd

jlancasterd

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Thank you Hank and Robsteve. I downloaded the PhotoRescue software, and lo and behold, it looks like it may work. I say may because the registration key they sent me is about 300 characters long, and is supposed to fit in a space that would hold about 40 characters. Looks like their tech support people are going to have to explain that in the a.m. But I can see thumbnails of the images at least, so I know the data is there. It looks like it may only save the jpgs and not the DNG's, but we shall see.

 

Anyway, a mighty big thanks for saving the day with your suggestions. Much appreciated.

 

Steve

 

Having just bought 5 Extreme III 2GB cards for use with my DMR I have 5 separate Rescue mini-discs (software version 3.2) each with a separate registration key. I could airmail you a disk if you are still having problems. I'll also send you a private message.

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jlancasterd

jlancasterd

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Steve:

 

I have read about problems with the Extreme III cards on the M8 more than once on this forum. You may want to downgrade to the Ultra II cards.

 

As for the empty card, try using photo rescue on it. Download the demo and it will tell you if it can recover any images. You will have to buy the program to get the images though.

 

Another option is the Sandisk disk recovery utility. Didn't the extreme III cards come with this utility on a mini cd?

 

PhotoRescue 3.0 main page

 

Does anyone have a list of the cards that are approved for use with the M8 - or can provide a link to the Leica list that actually works? I've tried accessing the list on the Leica website but keep on getting a message that it can't be accessed.

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gravastar

gravastar

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Does anyone have a list of the cards that are approved for use with the M8 - or can provide a link to the Leica list that actually works? I've tried accessing the list on the Leica website but keep on getting a message that it can't be accessed.

 

http://www.leica-camera-user.com/digital-forum/15295-sd-cards-m8.html

 

 

Bob.

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  • 3 weeks later...
RichardJ

RichardJ

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Steve, I'm glad you managed to recover your data.

 

The exact same thing happened to me yesterday; about 80 shots into a 2GB Lexar Pro and I lost the lot according to Play function on the M8. My card reader also failed to recognise any data on the card. Fortunately Rescue PRO recovered all of the files including the RAW data; very lucky.

 

I've done an extensive search here on this forum and also over on RFF and the thing I want to know is why and how did this happen? If it's a quirk then fine, it's one I'm prepared to accept for this first rate camera but I want to be sure it's not a user error (did I press Play during transfer thus damaging all the info? did I not format the card properly? etc etc.). Maybe, it's a damaged card but it still works fine in my RD1.

 

Any help or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

 

Regards

 

Richard

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photolandscape

photolandscape

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Richard, glad to hear Rescue Pro came to your rescue. In these situations, it is about the most invaluable tool in a digital photographer's arsenal. Imagine being someplace like the Taj Mahal or Machu Picchu and photographing all day only to find out that your shots weren't accessible. Rescue Pro really is great.

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RichardJ

RichardJ

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Steve, Thanks for the reply. I agree RescuePRO proves to be the ultimate Band Aid; most of my photogrpaphy takes place in Asia, I suppose my question in this thread in my last post is this; if one owns an M8 is RescuePRO the first thing one chucks in the kit bag or have I done something to corrupt the SD card. AGAIN, any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. PLEASE.

Richard

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