CF card failure

[gdedward99s]

I think many people have experienced this too. I have one time previously but the 4 gig card was completely unreadable. That experience taught me not to put everything on one card.

In this case, it all copied and seemed fine until I looked at them on my computer. Different screenprints from Canon photo editor and Windows explorer.

I should add that they won't open at all with the Canon editor. They'll open with photoshop but they look just like the windows explorer version.

[RichardVM]

Have you tried ImageRescue3 from Lexar to recover the images? I recently used it to recover all the images from an accidentally reformatted card.

Richard

[gdedward99s]

Richard, thank you for the tip.
I obtained the program and used it. It really works, I recovered all 5 of my CF cards, sort of... There were even some Reno air race photos on one of the full cards.
However, it only recovered the first 7 photos (out of 120) on that card in question which were my daughters birthday, not airplanes. (and I had previously copied those months ago).

I'm not sure how it happened. I can only attribute it to the quirkiness of modern technology.

Thanks again, -ge

[André]

I'm not sure how it happened. I can only attribute it to the quirkiness of modern technology.

What card was it? I had a Lexar CF card doing the same. It most of the time happened when I used in a Canon D30. Can't remember if it ever happened in the 1D mk.2 though.

Never had this problem with Sandisk so that sole Lexar card ended in the trashbin. 

[FlyingKiwi]

Gordon,

Do you reformat your cards regularly?

Did you have a battery go flat on you while shooting?  That can cause data loss resulting in this sort of corruption.

Richard.

[gdedward99s]

Hi Kiwi,
I format every time I use them in the camera. Or I try to. There is nothing worse than taking three of your best paparazzi photos ever and finding out the card is full because you didn't erase it first...

I think the CF card I used was a Lexar also. Maybe that's why they had to make the recovery software. 

Batteries were fine. The 40d battery lasts 2 or 3 days, 20d battery 1 day unless I'm machine gunning it. (I know, same battery but that's how long they last)

I would like to pinpoint a cause, if it happens again (dread), I might have more to go on. (I'll probably stick with the Sandisk based on recommendations from people on this site, thanks André)

Thanks -ge

[DanG (m1)]

figures, just bought an 8gig lexar for a trip coming up... might just have to return it and get a sandisk, havent had any problems with them yet...

[hotreds]

Might just have been a fluke or bad card. Or- did you insert or remove the card with the camera on? Was the card door not fully closed? Was the card not fully inserted? Could be any one of a number of problems including the bad card!

Good luck to you, it sure hurts when you spend a day shooting airplanes and have bad Picasso paintings as a result!

[RichardVM]

It is a good idea to occasionally reformat your cards through the computer, which actually should reformat the entire card. Reformatting in the camera only wipes the directory and leaves the images, which is of course why you can actually recover most "lost" images. If you reformat in the computer, just make sure you also reformat in the camera also before taking any photos. If I remember, I try to computer reformat before a trip, but only reformat in the camera during the trip.

While incidents of card failures are pretty rare, exceptionally rare if you consider how many cards have been filled by the members here in relation to the reported failures, failures will still occur. Of course with a failed card you stand a good chance of recovering most images, whereas back in the film days an improperly loaded roll of film or a broken leader or other malfunction left you without any chance of recovery.

Failures  are very uncommon with any card from a reputable manufacturer (Lexar or Sandisk and a handful of others) but they do happen. I don't know if it really makes any difference for failures, but Sandisk works closely with Canon, and Lexar works closely with Nikon, so at least in the case of Lexar their cards seem to read and write a little (marginally) faster with Nikon cameras.

Richard

[Robin990]

The only bad card i ever had was a SANDISK........