Long shot - looking for a specific memory card to help save a wedding!

Maggedy · Jul 25, 2011

I know I don't post here often, but I'm a regular on several other boards under TheMaggedy and MairImages. This is a total long shot, but I'm really trying to help one of my customers.

For my day job I work for a data recovery company. We are working on a very difficult case where 700+ wedding photos were lost when the photographer's memory card went bad (the whole wedding ).

There is a small chance of recovery IF we can find an identical card. Here's the problem. It's a Lexar 4GB SDHC card manufactured around 2009. We have already purchased 5 of them trying to find a match with no luck. The cards look identical on the outside, but the circuitry inside is different. We have to find one that's identical on the inside or we have no chance of recovery.

Does anyone by any chance have one of these cards lying around purchased in 2009 you might be willing to donate to the effort to save this wedding? Here's a link to the card, except that the one we need has a BLUE jacket. If your card saves the day, we'll be more than happy to send a replacement.

It's a long shot, but thought it was worth a try ...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001VZ1VI8
, thanks for reading

480sparky · Jul 25, 2011

Link takes me to:

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We're sorry. The Web address you entered is not a functioning page on our site

Is this it?

KmH · Jul 25, 2011

An entire wedding, 700 irreplaceable images, on a single memory card. That certainly wasn't very professional.

I hope the photographer has top shelf E&O insurance. On second thought, if they didn't use multiple memory cards, I bet they had nada for E&O insurance.

Trever1t · Jul 25, 2011

700 images on a 4gb card no less :sexywink:

table1349 · Jul 25, 2011

KmH said:
An entire wedding, 700 irreplaceable images, on a single memory card. That certainly wasn't very professional.

I hope the photographer has top shelf E&O insurance. On second thought, if they didn't use multiple memory cards, I bet they had nada for E&O insurance.

Be careful there. With comments like these you are going to raise the ire of all the touchy, feely, we don't need to know all that photography stuff to be a "professional" photographer folks that seem to be more prevalent these days. The same ones that get upset when someone tries to explain that professional photography isn't really about photography, but about a business first where you are selling your photographic skills and knowledge.

To the OP.... Good luck. I don't have any SDHC cards. Hopefully you will be able to find what you need.

Maggedy · Jul 25, 2011

Hmmm. I'll try the link one more time. Sorry about that: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001VZ1VI8

I may have actually found a contact at Lexar who can help through another forum so I'm really hoping that's going to work. I'll know more tomorrow.

And seriously, no comments from the peanut gallery please

What's done is done. I'm just hoping maybe everybody can have a happy ending.

480sparky · Jul 25, 2011

Maggedy said:
Hmmm. I'll try the link one more time. Sorry about that: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001VZ1VI8

I may have actually found a contact at Lexar who can help through another forum so I'm really hoping that's going to work. I'll know more tomorrow.

And seriously, no comments from the peanut gallery please What's done is done. I'm just hoping maybe everybody can have a happy ending.

Didja check my link?

Maggedy · Jul 25, 2011

480sparky said:
Maggedy said:

Hmmm. I'll try the link one more time. Sorry about that: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001VZ1VI8

I may have actually found a contact at Lexar who can help through another forum so I'm really hoping that's going to work. I'll know more tomorrow.

And seriously, no comments from the peanut gallery please What's done is done. I'm just hoping maybe everybody can have a happy ending.

Click to expand...

Didja check my link?

Thanks Sparky! The problem is that it says the condition of that card is new and from what we can tell, the one we need would have been manufactured around 2009. Getting one from the same "era" gives us the best shot that it was constructed with the same internal circuitry. At least it seems to be the best shot we have, as we've already bought 5 cards online, and had the photographer go back to the original store to purchase one, and still no match. I called the bride's father today to tell him we'd hit a dead end and couldn't find a matching card, and that's when he suggested posting around on forums to see if someone might have one lying around that was a couple of years old. I thought, you know, that's not a half-bad idea, and since I already belonged to several forums, I offered to do it.

Hopefully the guy at Lexar can help us. I'll be emailing him first thing in the AM!

480sparky · Jul 25, 2011

Maggedy said:
Hopefully the guy at Lexar can help us. I'll be emailing him first thing in the AM!

I just posted the link for the photo.

It could still be new.... just 'old stock'.

Is there any external markings or labeling that might help narrow down when a given card was made?

johnh2005 · Jul 25, 2011

I would HIGHLY suggest taking a pic of the actual card. One on both sides front and back. Also from the sides if there are ANY markings on it what so ever. If this is REALLY important, there are "clean rooms" that the card can be sent out to that do HDD's. Might be able to find one that can do SDHC cards.

Try:

Data Recovery Services and Solutions by Epic Data Recovery Labs

Google could help further.

Josh66 · Jul 25, 2011

A simple scan of both sides would probably be good enough for our purposes...

Maggedy · Jul 25, 2011

johnh2005 said:
I would HIGHLY suggest taking a pic of the actual card. One on both sides front and back. Also from the sides if there are ANY markings on it what so ever. If this is REALLY important, there are "clean rooms" that the card can be sent out to that do HDD's. Might be able to find one that can do SDHC cards.

Try:

Data Recovery Services and Solutions by Epic Data Recovery Labs

Google could help further.

I know about clean rooms. We have them

We also have some of the best folks in the country at flash recoveries. We've recovered devices where the even original manufacturer couldn't, but this is a particularly difficult case. If Lexar isn't able to help, posting images of the card is my next step.

Thanks!