I was copying an SD card I use to shoot video with a Sony XA-10 camera. The card reader accidentally disconnected while copying.

I know have no good way of getting the data.

I tried using ShotPutPro but I get an error after 5 seconds. I cant copy from the Finer. I get the "error -36." I used Drive Genius 3 and it recovered data....but it only recovered it as a bunch of .mts files, so it has the data but not in the regular format. I tried copying directly from the camera but I got an error message after a few seconds too.

I dont know what else I can do. Anyone have a suggestion? I'm hoping to get the data in a format I can use with FCP, ideally to get the data in the way it normally looks, tucked neatly in a folder labeled "private," the way the camera always does it.

Suggestions?

ClipWrap: Easy AVCHD and HDV conversion for the Mac (http://www.divergentmedia.com/clipwrap)

I've had luck with this in the past:

Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File and Disk Recovery - Free Download (http://www.piriform.com/recuva)

So after 9 years of shooting, I've now entered the category of accidentally deleting a shit ton of video during a recent documentary shoot at a shelter for homeless families out in Salt Lake City. I REALLY want to save this footage if there's anyway possible. A lot of the recommendations I saw above were PC only. So the first one I've tried is "Stellar Phoenix MacData Recovery" and it's partner program "Stellar Phoenix MacData Recovery". While they appear to be able to potentially see a large chunk of the .mov files I accidently deleted off my GH4's SD Card, when I "recover" the videos, they don't work. I actually purchased the app, so I'll be requesting a refund and looking for the next option.

For Mac users, what else have folks tried and had success with?

Seriously? It's an SD card.

Go to a friend with a PC / Windows machine (any one will do) and use Recuva.

Andrew

ha ha. Somebody else on here said that didn't work for them and I didn't see a clear most recommended solution so I didn't think about the need to switch platforms. But I am desperate and don't care if it's a PC or MAC that saves my ass if anything does so I'll give it a shot :)

Please do. Also, let us know what the original format recorded to the card was.

Andrew

you mean like FAT or do you mean the format of files I'm trying to recover (.MOV)?

More like .mov (the container format) and what what flavour of codec it is, such as ProRes.

Andrew

Rodger. Shot on GH4. Quicktime lists it as h.264 and VLC lists as H.264 - MPEG-4 AVC

Awesome. Let's see how you go with Recuva on a PC and we'll take it from there.

Andrew

So Recuva was able to recover the bulk of the data which was a good piece of news. However the .mov files are damaged so I downloaded a piece of software called Grau Video Repair Software. I'm not sure if there's other programs that work better in this area or not. I'm able to see some image of the videos which is exciting but right now they're distorted. I wonder if it's an encoding issue or something since these .mov files where direct from camera and haven't been captured as stand alone videos yet.

Try the preview function of this service Fix corrupt video files. Recover footage from damaged disks and cards (http://aeroquartet.com/movierepair/repair) and see if it is likely to work in repairing your video file.

Andrew

I also used PhotoRec for Mac which goes through command line extraction. Of all the previous options that got the most data (read the most amount of deleted and invisible files off the SD Card). However they're still not playable for fixable using Grau. Any other video repair software out there folks have to recommend? I feel like as far as extracting the files goes that's now covered.

Andrew, I saw your service you linked to, and got really excited when I was able to see video previews of the footage I'm missing (interviews at a shelter for homeless families) but the price range isn't doable for us. This is a super low budget film and we don't have that kind of money.

I recently had a similar issue. I got a front panel usb3 memory card reader connected to pcie card. It has the most bizarre problem of sporadically corrupting memory cards. Lucky I record to dual cards one of which I gave the client. Talk about heart wrenching fear. I tried some trial recovery software with only partial success.

In your case I've gotten in the habit of only using copy and never cut then holding on to the card unit I'm done with the project. I keep a bunch of cards in rotation for peace of mind.

Josh,

I know what you mean about the cost of recovery.

On the other hand, having the smarts to know enough about the format and be able to re-index a .mov file so that it is playable again is a very niche area. Shop around as there are some bulk file repair options out there from competitors, but it's either that or a re-shoot.

Andrew

yeah, you make a good point. Was hoping to learn how to do it on my own but didn't work out. I'll message you.