CS4 Issue with Recovered Files

[iflynething]

I had to recover some files off a memory card from my D300. I recovered alot and they are all viewable in Windows Photo Gallery (the thunbnails) and are normal RAW (NEF) size, but when I try to pull them in ACR, it won't read them and one even looks like a corrupt file.

Do I have any options to get these pictures back and readable. I really need to convert them to JPEG, but ACR will not open them, InfranView wont either and I do not have any other programs that will work.

Any help would be appreciated.

~Michael~

 

[Dwig]

You don't provide much information so anything is a guess. Without knowing how and when the corruption was noticed, what use the card had between the corruption and the recovery attempt, and what you've done with the file since absolutely no one can do anything but guess.

You should be attempting to open copies of the files from your hard drive and not the original "recovered" files on the card. If not, copy the files to a folder on your hard drive using your OS's copy functions; DO NOT ATTEMPT to use ANY file management application (Lightroom, Bridge, ...) for this. Once copied, see if the files still seems to be the correct size.

Your description makes it seem that the recovery failed. It has resorted the filename and directory entry, but the file itself is truncated or parts have been overwritten by another file. This happens when you attempt to recover a file that was deleted and new files had been written after the deletion. The new files can trample across parts of the old file. The recovery can't restore the data that was destroyed. All it can do is restore the directory information and can sometimes relink the separate blocks of file data.

If any of the blocks have been associated with another newer file while the file was in its deleted state the recovered file will be severly damaged. The overwriting also prevents the recovery software from following the link thread to any blocks after the overwritten block, leaving the recovered file truncated and corrupt.

 

[iflynething]

I actually noticed the format right after doing it, put the card away and did not use it at all until I was able to recover.

I probably would not be able to do another recover now since I have already done one and have been shooting with this card since then. They were recovered using SanDisks recover software (I do not have anything else) and then copied to a folder in my pictures folder. I was able to open some of the recovered files is the thing, just not all of them - that is what puzzles me.

Why am I able to open and edit some files which were recovered, but not all of them?

~Michael~

 

[Dwig]

If the card had been reformatted in the camera more than just a high level format was performed. Digital cameras recreate a folder structure complete with several sub-folders after they perform the format. Each folder, along with its directory structure, actually lives as a small data file and can be written on any available block on the card. If it happens to land on a block that had been part of one of the image files that one image file won't be successfully recovered.

 

[iflynething]

Even though I have them recovered, could I try it again? I was thinking I could since I was able to recover many many more pictures that I thought and it was formatted again and again

~Michael~