Corrupted Files - maybe

[pbelarge]

I was in NYC yesterday. I took about 200 images.

I downloaded them last night on LR3.
I saw all of the images on my Grid view. I then started to view them in Loupe view. As each loaded, at the end of the load, they were either entirely corrupted or at least 1/2 corrupted. Once they changed to corrupted, they stayed corrupted.


I had not deleted the images from my CF card, so I inserted the card back in my camera.
I can view the images on my camera and they do not appear corrupted. Has anyone else experienced this? If so, what would be your advice.

* I can take the photos of the architecture again, so I am not too upset. I did photograph a street event and people walking around the city...those I may never get back. They were really my first attempt at urban/people fotos...

 

[Derrel]

Computer's hard disk is probably fragmented, and the software is having difficulty correctly parsing (re-assembling) the files...if they show up clean on the memory card while it is in the camera, then the files are good, right? (right!) So, the problem is the computer's hard drive most likely...

Try inserting the memory card to the reader, and then directly opening a file that still resides ON THE CARD...if it comes up clean, then you will know for certain that the problem is with the computer's hard disk, and how the files are being parsed.

I have had this problem myself a few times...

 

[pbelarge]

Derrel
This may come as a surprise, but I am pretty anal about keeping my computers maintained. Also, I had this computer designed and built specifically for photo/photo editing. I do not use it for any other purpose. All of my images are stored on exterior hard drives, my current hard drive only has approximately 20% used capacity.

All my other computing is performed on other computers (2 of them).


I will try your idea though, as you are usually correct. :mrgreen::thumbup:

 

[pbelarge]

I just went to my maintenance schedule, and the computer defraged the night before I posted my images.
It defrags every 5 days

 

[MohaimenK]

+1 with Darrell
Happened to me before. Also, get a better defragger. There's a free one called DeFragler who also make CCleaner both are much haves especially since they're free.

And why not just move file from the card reader directly to the external hd?

 

[Derrel]

Well, it's good to hear that you're maintaining the hard drive or drives well, but with big files, and lots of them, it's always possible that a few bad sectors on the drive could be causing problems with parsing the files...and even possible that the defragmenting caused the problem by moving sections of the file around to different sectors on the drive.

Again, if the files show up clean on the memory card while it is in the computer, then the files ARE GOOD, we know that much. If you can connect a card reader and open the file from the memory card and it opens up clean, then the file is good, and the cable and connections are all good too.

I wonder--is the cable connecting the memory card reader 100% good,with a perfect connection?

This sounds like a nice mystery P!! I can't wait to hear how you get to the bottom of it!

 

[supraman215]

I think it's the memory card. Check them on the camera again. Could also be the software. There could be a problem with your computer hard disk though I think it unlikely. If there is a problem with your computer hard disk it has nothing to do with fragmented files and defragging will not fix that. There could be bad sectors of your hard drive that contain portions of the file. All files are fragmented on all hard drives. All defragging does is improve HD performance. The TOC of your hard drive tells the computer where, physically, to find all fragments of each file. Defragging just rearragnes these segments so they are all in the same physical place making seek times quicker. Defragging will not impact a corrupted file. Run a check disk program, to look for bad sectors. But I'd be more inclined to think it's a software or memory card problem.

 

[pbelarge]

The way I download the CF card, is directly to my external harddrive. Then I go to LR3 and import from the drive.

Of late, I have not been deleting the images from the card upon download, as my camera can format an 8gig card in seconds.

My exterior hard drive cannot open the raw images, so I cannot view them at this time from the exterior hard drive. Should I install a raw reader on the external drives? Is it necessary?

I have just by chance saved these particular images on my card without formatting yet, that is why I still have them. and yes, I can still view all of the images on my camera, even after downloading to the computer/drive.

 

[pbelarge]

Supra
I just did a chkdsk and there were 0 bad sectors.

I am going to work on some other resolves and see what I come up with.

 

[supraman215]

Well it's good you don't need a new HD sounds like. But I would be highly suspect of the card at this point. If the pic looks good on the camera then it was probably a fluke in the transfer.

 

[Gaerek]

I had a bad memory card a couple years ago, and it acted almost exactly like this. I shot over 600 images on a vacation in Hawaii, and most of them acted like this. My recommendation is to look for photo recovery software, and run your memory card through that. Then, toss the card and get a new one. That was my solution to my problem.

Although, first I might just try transfering again, just to see if it happens again. Easier to save $30 on the recovery software.

 

[MrBarney]

I'm assuming that we're talking about RAW files here? Doesn't Canon RAW include, along with the metadata, a JPG thumbnail? It's possible that's ok, but the RAW data segment isn't.

Looking on the positive side, doesn't LR have a cache of the converted RAW file (I think it converts to DNG) which it uses for display and preview? Is it possible that some of those cached images weren't converted properly (perhaps ACR fell over) and that is what you are seeing?

I must admit to having seen a half grey image before when they were corrupted, but it was JPG from a P&S camera.

How do the images look in Canon DPP?

 

[pbelarge]

One can shoot to get both raw and jpeg with a canon, but I was shooting in raw.

I used a different card reader and was able to capture all of the images but 2. So, 211 images out of 213 - I am happy.

The original card reader is unrecognizable now. :lmao:


Thanks for all the words of wisdom, I really appreciate your help!!!

 

[MrBarney]

Good news

I didn't really mean were you shooting, raw+jpeg. I was suggesting that the raw file itself has a smaller copy of the image embedded within it, and might explain why you were able to see the whole image in some instances - when that "preview" JPG thumbnail was being used.

It appears that it does - cool!

(section 2.1)
Inside the Canon RAW format version 2, understanding .CR2 file format and files produced by Canon EOS Digital Camera