[markinbelfast]

Can some one please dig me out of a big hole here..I've just spent the day visiting the concentration camps in Poland and took loads of pics with my TZ7...they looked amazing on the screen.Suddenly I got the dreaded "MEMORY CARD ERROR PLEASE CHECK THE CARD". I took the card out ignoring the do you want to format suggestion..The next card I put in did the exact same thing...I'm starting to panic thinking that the pics are gone forever.Can anyone recommend a way to try to recover the prints...Please.

[yorkshirecath]

I have used this a few times and always with great results:

Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File Recovery - Home

Hope it helps x

[Stinja]

Originally Posted by markinbelfast

The next card I put in did the exact same thing...

Is it the port on your camera? I'd buy a cheap card, format it elsewhere, try that one. Also try reading your cards on a computer and see if it can see anything.

Also try software which can read the actual blocks on the unit (not just file information) eg something like this: How To Recover Files From Corrupted/Scratched CD/DVD | Technize - Be Techdated

[OrbitalPete]

There's no reason the card should be unreadable as far as I can see. If multiple cards are failing it sounds like the camera is at fault, not the card.

Go to Fleabay and get yourself a cheap external card reader. You should be able to read the card fine. if not, you can use some of the card recovery software to get most if not all of the images back.

Then it's just an issue of getting the camera serviced...

[markinbelfast]

Yorkshirecath-I downloaded the programme Recuva as you said-I'm getting the message "unable to read boot sector' at the bottom of the dialog window.

Stinja-bought a cheap card and it seems to be working fine-just as the two cards that failed at the worst time ever seemed to be working at one time.

OrbitalPete-it does seem strange that two cards would fail within seconds of each other..this is makig me think that something in the camera corrupted both cards.-why hasnt it done it with the other card yet?

[OrbitalPete]

OK, the boot sector is the first few kb of the drive that basically instructs the camera or computer how to read the drive. It also allows access to the file allocation table which tells the camera where on the drive each image is stored.

This sometimes happens with cameras when they're writing to a full card, or simply have developed a problem in their drivers. it basically means teh camera has written around the card and probably over-written some data to where the boot sector is.

Give PhotoRescue Home Page - PhotoRescue Wizard, PhotoRescue Expert, PhotoRescue Advanced a go.