My datacards, have no video on. Can anyone help?

[Ryan Elder]

I am shooting a documentary film for someone, and got back from the days shoot to make copies of the footage. When I put the data card in the computer, all that comes up on the card is a file called "USBC"

I tried putting the card back in the camera to see if it could read any of footage but it says "no image". I know it's on there because I played back the takes while we were shooting to review them. So can anyone help me get the footage off the card, or figure out what the problem is? According to the computer there is 17 GB of data on the card. So it is reading something on there, but it cannot actually read any video?

Thanks for any advice. I really appreciate it.

[Brian Drysdale]

You may have to transfer the files onto your hard drive, so that your programs to read them,.

You may need software to transfer your video to a computer.

[Paul R Johnson]

Ryan be precise - when you put it in the computer, and view it using file manager, does it reveal anything at all. Any folder structure? Usually your camera will automatically create the directories and folders it needs, and these are always visible. A totally blank empty card is worrisome. One thing to test is to put a file from your computer ONTO the card and see if the camera reads it. You could have removed the card during a write action, and this will have killed it, however it's very unlikely. If there are hidden files on the card, assuming you have configured windows to do it, it should be possible to see these hidden files. You need too explain in a bit more detail. Have you tried other cards to see if they behave differently? Stick in another to the camera record a short clip, then look at that in the computer explorer to compare. Then report back.

[Donald McPherson]

You may need to try a data recovery program. There are some free ones that might do the job.

[Ryan Elder]

Originally Posted by Brian Drysdale

You may have to transfer the files onto your hard drive, so that your programs to read them,.

You may need software to transfer your video to a computer.

Oh okay thanks, do you know what software is good for that? When I google it, a lot comes up and I am not sure if there is a specific one I should choose?

Originally Posted by Paul R Johnson

Ryan be precise - when you put it in the computer, and view it using file manager, does it reveal anything at all. Any folder structure? Usually your camera will automatically create the directories and folders it needs, and these are always visible. A totally blank empty card is worrisome. One thing to test is to put a file from your computer ONTO the card and see if the camera reads it. You could have removed the card during a write action, and this will have killed it, however it's very unlikely. If there are hidden files on the card, assuming you have configured windows to do it, it should be possible to see these hidden files. You need too explain in a bit more detail. Have you tried other cards to see if they behave differently? Stick in another to the camera record a short clip, then look at that in the computer explorer to compare. Then report back.

When this card worked before, whenever I would plug into the computer, two folders would come up. One would say 100CANON and the other would say 101CANON. The video was always in the 101CANON, every time before. Now when I plug it in, the 101CANON folder is missing, and that's where all the video would be in. There is also another thing on there, which says USBC, which I have never seen before and this is new.

So according to my computer, there is nothing on the card, accept for this new USBC file which just shows up as a white rectangle. There is also a white rectangle file just called C. That's it. I haven't seen that before either.

I tried putting a file onto the card from the computer, to see if the card will read it, and yes the card will read it. Also, it says there there is 17GB on the card, which sounds about right in terms of the footage we shot. So that means that there is something on there, doesn't it, if it says there is 17GB on there?

I tried another card and it works fine. It's just this one we shot on that seems to have a problem. I don't think that there was any write action being performed when the card became 'corrupted', because I wasn't writing anything to or from the card. The card worked fine during the shoot, and we replayed the video over in the camera, to check to see if our footage was good.

I then took the camera with the card in it, home, and I put the card into my computer. It was then that all of a sudden no footage was on the card, and that the usual 101CANON folder was missing and there are now two new files, USBC, and C instead.

However, it still says there is 17GB on the card though strangely. I tried plugging into a different computer from someone I know to see if it is the same, and everything still comes up the same. Does this help at all?

[Patrick Tracy]

Run chkdsk on the drive.

[Ryan Elder]

Okay thanks. I tried that and it says access denied, and that I do not have privileges though.

[Patrick Tracy]

You have to run it as admin.

https://askleo.com/chkdsk_what_is_it...w_do_i_run_it/

[Ryan Elder]

Okay thank you very much.

So it says that it found errors on the disk and says I can attempt to repair them if I type in /F. But I am reluctant to do this as I fear that may make the problem even worse, if any changes to the disk are made?

It also says that there is an unrecoverable error as well though. And it asks if I want to convert a folder to a file.

[Patrick Tracy]

I don't think using the chkdsk fix function will hurt anything, but I do suspect it's going to take more than that to recover the files. Most likely it can be done with third party software.

[Ryan Elder]

Okay yes, I ran the chkdsk now and it said that it was not able to locate anything to recover. Do you know any third party software that is good?

I tried one so far, but the software was not able to see the video on the cards, and that's the problem. The computer cannot read it and neither can the recovery software.

[Jase Tanner]

Originally Posted by Ryan Elder

Oh okay thanks, do you know what software is good for that? When I google it, a lot comes up and I am not sure if there is a specific one I should choose?

What kind of card is it? Have you told us that and I missed it? When I had an issue with a Sandisk SD, the recovery software that came with it, did the trick. Not saying it will necessarily work in your case as I imagine the software I used doesn't work always either.

[Ryan Elder]

Oh okay yes, it is a sandisk card that can 32 GB. And it's an SDHC card, class 10. It didn't come with software though, when I bought it. Just a card on it's own.

[Ryan Elder]

I suppose I could just get the others together and get the two locations again to reshoot the scenes, but this is my last datacard and will need to re-use it if I choose to reshoot the scenes. So since it has 17GB of footage on it says, but it cannot be read, should I just reformat it and start over, thus erasing the footage, if we reshoot? Or is this footage still worthy of trying to salvage, if it cannot be recognized?

[Brian Drysdale]

How old is this data card?

What is the cost of getting all these people together?

Can you retrieve the data using recovery software?

It is worth reusing a card that seems to have an unknown issue, rather than replacing it?

Note that in film making terms the card is petty cash, it's so cheap some people don't reuse these after filming, but store their rushes on them as a back up.