How I did it- rescuing a corrupted xD card

AlanSmithee

Standard Member
Joined
Jul 3, 2006
Messages
67
Reaction score
0
Points
40
Normally I wouldn't bother trying to rescue images frmo a corrupted memory card, but on this occasion it was the photos of my first born's birth, so imagine my horror when I stuck my Olympus xD-Picture Card into the card reader and got an error message! I put the card back in the camera and the message there was 'Card needs formatting'.

A quick search on the Internet threw up several software packages which claimed they were able to recover data from a corrupted memory card that claims it needs formatting. The first two (generic) programs I tried didn't work (they didn't recognise the card) but the third program ("F-Recovery for xD-Picture", which as the name suggest is specifically for xD-Picture) found and recovered about 95% of the photos. Like most programs of its type, you can run it in an evaluation mode whereby it will tell you if it can find any images for rescuing before you spend out on the product (which is about £35).

The site that put me on to F-Recovery (and others) was
http://www.ultimateslr.com/memory-card-recovery.php

... and F-Recovery is at:
http://www.filerecoverytools.com/
 
Very useful post:thumbsup:
Its good to know all is not lost ( pun intended:cool: ) when those dreaded messages come up
The Sandisk Extreme III cards come with recovery software ,Rescue Pro™ : Ive never needed it so i cant say how well it performs
 
PC Inspector Smart Recovery works really well and is free. I have used it to recover image files from xD, SD and CF cards and it has recovered most of the files each time.

PC Inspector Smart Recovery

They also do a utility to recover data from formatted/deleted hard disks on FAT and NTFS. It's called PC Inspector File Recovery, also from the above link.

:smashin:
 
PC Inspector Smart Recovery works really well and is free. I have used it to recover image files from xD, SD and CF cards and it has recovered most of the files each time.

PC Inspector Smart Recovery

They also do a utility to recover data from formatted/deleted hard disks on FAT and NTFS. It's called PC Inspector File Recovery, also from the above link.

:smashin:

which one to you download for windows xp media HTTP or FTP ??
 
Any of them : they are the same file just different sources for download

Some browsers prefer one over the other
I downloaded from ftp

It is good
I used it to recover over 170 images from a friends corrupt CF card a few weeks ago
 
You may try Olympus xD card data recovery software, see this guide that helped me before: xD Card data recovery

It's easy to follow and works well for me.
 
Last edited:
Useful thread thanks. Will bookmark this just in case.
 
Hi guys,

Well I have spent the weekend taking photos of a car I have been detailing and I have come home tonight to find that my SD card is showing an error. I have tried all of the above recovery programs and more besides - none of them have worked! The card initially allowed me to view the photos on the camera, however this has now also been corrupted. Any ideas guys or are all my photographs lost?

Any help appreciated, cheers.
 
what error messages are you getting when you load the SD on the PC reader ?
 
what error messages are you getting when you load the SD on the PC reader ?
When I put the card into the reader it says it needs formatting. When I run the recovery program (of which I have tried several) it says there are no files on the disk. Gutted to say the least mate. It's not the cost of replacing it, which is a few quid these days, it's the loss of the pictures.
 
I may have access to better recovery options that these free tools - or some less "user friendly" free tools - more than happy to have a go at recovering for you if you want.

Jim
 
I may have access to better recovery options that these free tools - or some less "user friendly" free tools - more than happy to have a go at recovering for you if you want.

Jim

Jim, thanks very much for the offer mate. A friend of mine is trying to recover it tonight for me and to be honest if he can't do it I think it's a lost cause. I think a new card is a must and I will try a different brand of card this time. Thanks again for the offer mate.

Regards, Craig.
 
No worries - I'd suggest that do a raw block level copy of the card first to an image file and then play around at recovering the disk structure from the image file.....

If he has no luck - the offer still stands - you never know..... ;)
 
No worries - I'd suggest that do a raw block level copy of the card first to an image file and then play around at recovering the disk structure from the image file.....

If he has no luck - the offer still stands - you never know..... ;)

Thanks for that Jim. At the end of the day they're pictures of a car and they can be taken again I suppose, if they had been of a family occasion it would have been different. Cheers mate.
 
No problemo :)
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom