Help - Photos are Half-Squished/Ruined

[jnnchen]

I was looking over some pictures I took over the summer and realized that some pictures have become ruined - it looks like the rest of the picture is smushed into a few rows and the rest of the picture is one color. The icon for the picture is still intact and if I scroll quickly through the pictures, the pictures are fine for the split second it takes to load the picture and then becomes ruined. Is there a way to fix this???

An example is in this link: imgur: the simple image sharer . If anyone could help, it would be super appreciated because this was a memorable trip and it's a pity that so many pictures turned out this way!

 

[tirediron]

Wow, that is an odd one. Looking at the example image, it looks to me like one which was corrupted in the transfer process. Do you still have them on the memory card?

 

[Gavjenks]

What do you mean "in the split second it takes to load the picture." Load when? Do you mean in the camera (like it shows up for a split second on the LCD and then gets ruined)? Or do you mean it looks fine on the computer preview or photoshop or whatever for a split second, and then gets ruined? Or when? This is going to be very important in figuring out what is wrong.

The file is getting corrupted, yes, but it's critical to know where. It could mean the difference between various solutions, like:
1) Getting your camera fixed or updating its firmware if it is firmware or software
2) Using a fresh SD card if it's the card
3) Reinstalling your preview or photoshop software if that's where it's happening (or maybe just rebooting)

etc.

 

[amolitor]

Sometimes there is an embedded thumbnail that will be rendered first, and then the real thing will appear. If the thumbnail is OK but the real thing ain't, well, there ya go.

The pictures are definitely corrupted and being cut off partway through the file. The last half of the file is simply missing.

 

[lambertpix]

Sometimes there is an embedded thumbnail that will be rendered first, and then the real thing will appear. If the thumbnail is OK but the real thing ain't, well, there ya go.

The pictures are definitely corrupted and being cut off partway through the file. The last half of the file is simply missing.

I've seen this happen with RAW files on occasion -- the file is corrupt. I've usually been able to extract the embedded preview JPG, which is better than nothing. If memory serves, Irfanview can do this.

If you see this happen only with one of your cards, the card is likely bad.

 

[KmH]

+ 1. The image file data is corrupted.

It and the image files like it are toast.

As alluded to, the 'icon' for the image is an embedded JPEG Basic thumbnail file that is quite small.

I suspect you deleted images from the memory while the memory was in the camera.
I'll further speculate you deleted images because the memory card was close to being full.

 

[jnnchen]

Sadly I deleted the pictures off of my memory card because, yes, my memory card was getting full. The icon saved for the thumbnail seems to be fine, which might the reason why the image seems fine while loading and then ends up bad (I meant while viewing on my computer's image viewer).
Does this mean my SD card is bad? Or just that I did something while transferring files?
In the meantime, I will try using Irfanview to see if I can save something of the files that are already corrupted.

 

[jnnchen]

I am quite new with photo softwares. How would I extract the thumbnail using Irfanview?

 

[KmH]

Sadly I deleted the pictures off of my memory card because, yes, my memory card was getting full. . .
. . .Does this mean my SD card is bad? Or just that I did something while transferring files?. . .

The file size of a digital image varies by image content.
The images you deleted had smaller files sizes than some of the images that replaced them. Those bigger file size images are the corrupted files.
The File Allocation Table (FAT) on the memory card controller cannot be re-formatted on the fly. The images already written to the card have to be uploaded to storage, else they will be lost during a re-format.

No, your SD card is not bad, and you did nothing wrong during image file transfer.

Basically the issue boils down to the user error - not knowing about memory card usage limitations.
Deleting images in the camera to make room for more images doesn't work, because there is no way to update the FAT on the fly.

The solution is to carry sufficient extra memory cards, or to carry a storage device you can upload images to.
After uploading to storage, you would then re-format the card in the camera, and add more images on the now re-formatted, empty memory card.

 

[jnnchen]

So you're saying that once my card is full, I cannot delete pictures in the memory card via my camera in order to take more pictures. Instead, I need to transfer the files onto my computer before deleting them from the card, and then I can use the card to take more pictures. Right? So my images were corrupted because they were the images I took after I attempted to delete pictures off my camera?

 

[GDHLEWIS]

I had a similar issues a few months back, I found just defragmenting all my hard drives and memory cards solved the problem. I did loose a few photos but such is life.

 

[lambertpix]

So you're saying that once my card is full, I cannot delete pictures in the memory card via my camera in order to take more pictures. Instead, I need to transfer the files onto my computer before deleting them from the card, and then I can use the card to take more pictures. Right? So my images were corrupted because they were the images I took after I attempted to delete pictures off my camera?

You will want to find a workflow that works for you and stick to it consistently. Changing your routine is a sure recipe for mistakes, especially when you get in a hurry. In my case, I keep two baggies for cards in my bag. One is labeled "Empty" in green, and the other is labeled "Full" in red. When I start, all the cards are in the empty bag. :mrgreen:

As I fill up cards, I move them to the "full" bag, and when I get home, I download the files, making sure they've transferred successfully. Then the cards get formatted in-camera and moved back to the green bag. If you get in the habit of doing the same thing all the time, it's one less thing to worry about when you're shooting.

 

[KmH]

So you're saying that once my card is full, I cannot delete pictures in the memory card via my camera in order to take more pictures. Instead, I need to transfer the files onto my computer before deleting them from the card, and then I can use the card to take more pictures. Right? So my images were corrupted because they were the images I took after I attempted to delete pictures off my camera?

Yes.

 

[christop]

The File Allocation Table (FAT) on the memory card controller cannot be re-formatted on the fly. The images already written to the card have to be uploaded to storage, else they will be lost during a re-format.

No, your SD card is not bad, and you did nothing wrong during image file transfer.

Basically the issue boils down to the user error - not knowing about memory card usage limitations.
Deleting images in the camera to make room for more images doesn't work, because there is no way to update the FAT on the fly.

What?

The FAT is not a special part of the SD card controller. The FAT is just data on the memory card and is the same data structure as one that you would find on the hard drive of an older Windows system (before Windows unilaterally switched to the NTFS file system). It can be updated on the fly to delete files now just as it could be then.

An SD card, like any mass storage media, is a big chunk of non-volatile memory that you can write anything to, whether it's a filesystem (either FAT-based or not) or even unstructured data. In the past I've written Unix TAR files directly to both floppy disks and CD-ROMs to avoid the overhead of a filesystem. I could do the same with an SD card if I wanted.

In the present case, there was indeed some sort of hardware and/or software glitch that caused the file corruption. If the FAT or some data blocks were not written coherently (eg, there was a power failure before it was finished writing to the SD card, or the SD card was removed from a card reader before "safely removing" it, or there could be a software bug on the camera, or the SD card is bad, or a static discharge blasted part of the FAT), the software on the camera could mistakenly overwrite some image data with new image data if it thinks those data blocks are free for the taking. Formatting the card will only clear out the FAT data and mark all data blocks as unused, but it leaves all or most file data intact, so it is oftentimes recoverable with special software.

After uploading to storage, you would then re-format the card in the camera, and add more images on the now re-formatted, empty memory card.

This is good advice. It prevents any potential corruption of the FAT from "accumulating" on the SD card. It basically gives you a clean slate each time you empty the card.

 

[jnnchen]

Great, thanks for the informative responses. I'll be sure to try reformatting my cards after transferring the data. I don't believe anything happened during the file transfer process from my card to my computer, but perhaps it was just stroke of luck that something happened. Hopefully this will never happen again!

Does anyone know how to extract a thumbnail image from the file? The images are not RAW, but rather already .jpg. If I could get the thumbnail, this would serve for memory purposes for the pictures I have lost.