Story of Confusing SD Card Data Loss on new Sony a6000 Camera

[robert kennedy]

The problem:
I can only see, by my calculation, half of the pictures my Mom took on a recent trip from her SD card.

When I look at the card’s info:

Capacity = 15.92.
Available = 10.34
Based on this we can calculate …
Used = 5.58

What I find on disk:

(image below)
DCIM
--- 100MSDCF contains 918 images.
--- 101MSDCF contains 0 images.
MP_ROOT
(neither folder contain anything)
PRIVATE
--- AVCHD is 246.1MB
--- SONY is 0 bytes

Conclusions from this:
5.58MB = 5,580 bytes
5,580 bytes / 918 images = approx 6.07MB per image.
And this number is about right after reviewing the sizes of the actual images I can see on the card.

Reasons for hope / thinking that the other 900 images may be on there:
The images in 100MSDCF start at DSC00979.JPG
What happened to DSC00001.JPG - DSC00978.JPG? If the card had been reformatted, wouldn’t they have gone back to DSC00001.JPG?

The background:
My Mom gets this awesome, new Sony a6000 camera for a trip to Italy.

We buy a 16GB SanDisk SD card for it.

She starts taking pics at home for a few days before leaving for Italy. All is good.

Then she takes off for Rome and begins taking pics galore. She is in Italy for 11 days, returns to NYC and we start to review pictures.

Additional info:
The only think my Mom can remember is taking the SD card out at one point in Florence, which is about where she lost a lot of the pictures.

 

[KmH]

wouldn’t they have gone back to DSC00001.JPG?

AVCHD is a video format.
5.58 MB = 5,580,000 bytes

The camera has a selection of file numbering options, which is noted on page 32 of the online Sony a6000 user manual (File Number).

I suggest using a memory recovery application on the card.

When the memory card was first put in the camera was the card formatted in the camera?
Were the photos made before the trip uploaded from the card to storage before the trip? If so, after the download, was the card again formatted in the camera?

 

[robert kennedy]

Thanks Keith. I actually did use a few different memory recovery apps but they seemed to just "recover" duplicates of the images already on the card. The original 900 or so images taken at the beginning of the trip were not found.

Yes, when the card was first put it I believe it was formatted by the camera and then picture taking began. I am not sure if, when the card was remove and reinserted it was reformatted again by the camera. But I have a feeling it was not and, if the images are missing for good, they were removed some other way because if it had been completely reformatted, as mentioned, I think the numbering system would have gone back to taking the next picture that actually was found as DSC00001.JPG instead of DCS00980.jpg like it was.