How can i keep this from happening?

[ga_shooter]

I just lost all of my shots from this morning because my CF card wigged and locked up. I reformatted it but how can i keep this from happening? Out of the 89 images I shot there was one that i really wanted...

 

[Chris of Arabia]

Other than keeping a spare and not succumbing to the temptation to try and pile all your shots on one card, I don't know that you can. I think it's just a case of making sure you are using decent quality cards really. I did once see some photo-journo say that he only uses 1Gb cards and makes sure he has plenty so that at least his losses are limited in the event that one screws up.

Back to your original card though - did you try using a USB card reader at all? It may have made no difference, but then again, it could have just been a camera glitch, not the card.

 

[usayit]

# Use good quality cards and keep them protected in a case/wallet.
# Keep the cards a reasonable size. Larger the card.. the more impact if one goes bad. I carry a bunch of 1gb cards.
# You can also consider using an image tank to perform backups out on the field.

There are software utilities that might be able to recover corrupted media cards. Once happened to me with my wife's camera with pictures of my First Born Son's delivery.. I was almost in tears when I couldn't access the card (I was also exhausted). Recovered 90% of the files using Steller Phoenix recovery.

 

[Alex_B]

i never had any trouble with my cards. i guess it strongly depends on the quality of the cards ... and sometimes also on the camera software.

a friend of mine had several failures with cheap cards, until she switched to Sandisk and similar brands and now she hadn't had a single image lost.

 

[Keagle]

I recovered mine using some software called CardRecovery when I accidentely deleted some, and my card-reader wouldn't read the card(I pulled them from the camera originally) and then reformatted it to see if it would work in the card-reader. No go. So I went downstairs, found a card reader in the printer, used this CardRecovery software, and wallah. Got all my images back. Even ones I deleted ages ago.

 

[Garbz]

When this happens again don't make matters worse by trying to write from it or formatting it or deleting the contents etc.

Data is rarely lost as such (minor bits may be corrupted) but nearly always it's possible to recover the data even if the camera or computer marks the card as faulty.

 

[jstuedle]

ANY card will eventually fail. I have had failures in good, name brand cards. They fail too, just not as soon as the cheaper brands. Cards do fail, and always when they have been written to hundreds or thousands of times. Flash memory does eventually wear out, it's the nature of the beast and can't be avoided. Follow the above recommendations and as time goes on upgrade your cards relegating old cards to moving drivers or even pics from machine to machine and never use them when no backup exists. Heck, use them to level an old table, but after a while, never use them to take an important image. Memory is cheap, so there is an incentive to only buy good brand names and upgrade capacity or speed from time to time. I used 512 cards for years, and only about 2 years ago started using 1 gig. cards. With the D3 I will most likely start using 2 gig. cards but don't expect to use larger ones for a long while. I am also of the belief more small cards are better than one or two big ones. Back in the day of the IBM micro-drive a lot of serious shooters found how devastating loss of files can be. I was one and just got in the habit of more and smaller is better.

 

[TCimages]

Consider having File Recovery Software installed. Sometimes it's all you need to recover your images.

I got Sandisk RescuePro free with my last card purchase:
http://www.lc-tech.com/software/rprodeluxedetail.html

 

[sothoth]

I've never lost anything on a card, but the advice about using smaller capacity ones and swapping them out when they're close to full is a good suggestion.

If one of mine did that even once, I'd just toss it out after recovering any files I could get off it. New 1gb cards aren't that expensive.

Also, I know a lot of folks like getting the "fast" cards, but frankly I don't see the point. I think the speed of saving or copying images on the CF card is bottlenecking by the camera's processing speed, not the card's. For example, if I plug my Canon into my PC and download the images, it takes 30 min to copy them all from a 8gb card. If I take the same card out of the camera and read/write to the card from a dedicated USB card reader, the same functions take 5 min or so. I don't waste my time on the fast cards, I get ones that are about 75x-100x and call it a day.

Maybe a VERY high end digital camera doesn't bottleneck read/writes, but the ones I have certainly do.

I prefer branded cards, like Sandisk. I think Sandisk has recovery software that comes free with their card readers.

I don't work for Sandisk.

 

[kundalini]

I (don't know why) use Lexar cards. I have 8x 2GB cards I carry. After I shoot a series, whether it's two or two hundred and change locations, I swap cards. After they are downloaded, I place them back in the camera to reformat. Touch wood, I haven't had any faults to date.

 

[ga_shooter]

I (don't know why) use Lexar cards. I have 8x 2GB cards I carry. After I shoot a series, whether it's two or two hundred and change locations, I swap cards. After they are downloaded, I place them back in the camera to reformat. Touch wood, I haven't had any faults to date.[/quot\

OK, I went and got a new Sandisk 1G card for the last shoot. But now that i am reading this i can't help but wonder, could it be that i am not reformatting my card after downloading? I have a tendency to jump in with both feet and forget to RTFM, so having made the jump to digital i didn't think much about the process after the images come off the card. I just erase them and move on.

 

[TCimages]

I (don't know why) use Lexar cards. I have 8x 2GB cards I carry. After I shoot a series, whether it's two or two hundred and change locations, I swap cards. After they are downloaded, I place them back in the camera to reformat. Touch wood, I haven't had any faults to date.[/quot\

OK, I went and got a new Sandisk 1G card for the last shoot. But now that i am reading this i can't help but wonder, could it be that i am not reformatting my card after downloading? I have a tendency to jump in with both feet and forget to RTFM, so having made the jump to digital i didn't think much about the process after the images come off the card. I just erase them and move on.

I never delete. Always refromat

 

[ga_shooter]

I never delete. Always refromat

All right then, that is what i will do from now on. Thank you.

 

[Mike_E]

You might want to go ahead and download a recovery program and learn it in case this should ever happen again. Your card's manufacturer most likely has one for free.

 

[Chas]

Sheesh, wish'd I'd read this thread before buying my first CF card (8G Sandis), then another 4, both of which I'm taking to Yurp this weekend. And there I was thinking bigger was better, what a Class A newb ....

O well.

At least I now know to reformat rather than just delete all after I've moved everything over to the laptop.
Thanks guys.