corrupt card help!

[Randy Johnson]

I just finished a wedding I was watching the footage as the day went on now I tried to dump in the footage and the card is not readable I put it back into the camera and it it having trouble playing it back. Any thoughts!?!?!?

[Chris Harding]

Hi Randy

If the card has an issue then the camera should come up with a message and ask you if you want to repair it. Exactly what happens when you put the card in the computer's card reader? Will it not read it?

Sometime I have had a card from cameras that wouldn't read and I simply re-inserted it a couple of times until the 'puter read it. If you can do that for starters ..dump the stream folder onto your drive as a back up.

Wipe the card contacts with a clean cloth as well so there is no issues there.

If it looks like the card has been damaged somehow then you might need a recovery program.

If you can specify exactly what happens with the card in the camera and the card in the computer I'm sure some of us can figure what's going on?

BTW: Lock the tab on the card so the computer cannot write any data to it as well

Chris

[Jody Arnott]

If none of Chris' suggestions work, a recovery program is a good option.

I've used Recuva many times with good success, but it will only work if the card is still actually readable and it really depends on what the underlying issue is: Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File and Disk Recovery - Free Download
The Windows version is free. The Mac version isn't, for some reason. Maybe they think Mac users have more money? Who knows.

A data recovery specialist is an option but should be the last resort. Hopefully it doesn't come to that... they're not cheap!

[Chris Harding]

Thanks Jody

That will help him too. Seriously any decent card should never fail unless it is damaged or a cheap eBay knockoff. This sounds weird as the camera should have picked up an error as soon as the card went faulty. Luckily I have never had a card issue but I do use good cards. I'm surprised the card only failed when uploading so it could be a card reader fault or similar.

The other option might be to see if the USB camera interface will transfer the data with the card intact in the camera.. We are often warned to lock cards before transfer so the computer cannot write/overwrite anything and is only allowed to read ...it should never damage a card just reading it surely??

Chris

[Randy Johnson]

I am currently running a recovery program I am not hopefull its acting just like a bad hard drive where windows sees the data but when I try to move the files windows says the files are corrupt or damaged. I got some files off but they are fragmented pretty much un useable. I put it back into the camera I see all the clips I get no errors until I try to play one. Anyone know a good affordable recovery service? This is making me want to but 2 16gigs per wedding instead of 1 32.

[Serggio Lamas]

Randy look your email

[Noa Put]

Originally Posted by Randy Johnson

This is making me want to but 2 16gigs per wedding instead of 1 32.

It was exactly the same reason that made me buy a sony hvr-dr60 a few years back when I had one bad minidv cassette which made me loose a entire wedding ceremony, it costed 1K back then but I had more ease of mind afterwards being able to record simultaneously to cassette and the dr60, the safest option you have is to get a fmu128 so you get dual recording. In my case there was no recovery option, the footage was so badly corrupted it was gone, on a sdhc card you still do have the option to have a specialised firm try to recover it, it won't be cheap but there still is a chance, I do hope it turns out alright for you, I know how it feels to lose important footage, not fun.

[Chris Harding]

An FMU is a good option but that's not the concern at the moment.

When you put the card in a reader can you navigate the folders at all or does the card simply refuse to read. It would be nice at least to be able to look at the batch of files and see what has gone wrong and whether they still are listed and all have MTS extensions.

A long shot but have you seen if the Sony Content Management Utility will read them???

Hope you manage to get them all. The worst I have ever had over the last 15 years has been an old card that froze my Panny HMC72 and I lost just one clip.

It would be nice to know what has actually happened??? Holding thumbs for you!!! Have you also tried the repair database option in the camera which is supposed to repair damaged files

Chris

[Noa Put]

I know the fmu is not the concern right now, if you actually read my comment you"ll notice it was a reaction to Randy's comment to get 2 small instead of one big card. You might loose only half in case you get corrupt data again but with a fmu you would not lose anything.

[Randy Johnson]

Everything seems normal until I try to copy them over or play them. All the folders are there and so are the files its like the disc is bad when it tries to move or play them. I hope the file recovery places can do more than I can do. I am sending it off to one my friend recommended I think I am going to invest in a fmu in the future though.

[Noa Put]

Would be great if you could update on the outcome, hope it works out for you, fingers crossed!

[Randy Johnson]

Will do, I think I will try a Mac just so I can say I tried everything I could.

[Jody Arnott]

Just out of curiosity, what type of SD card were you using?

If it wasn't such important data, I'd try doing a "quick format" on the card (same file system) and then using Recuva again. This would sort out any potential issues with the file system. A quick format doesn't technically delete any data, so in theory Recuva would get it back.

But this really is a last resort. And I probably wouldn't do it with such crucial data at risk.

You've really highlighted my 1 big issue with the EA50. The single SD card slot does make me nervous. I've had a corrupt SD card on my HM600 in the past. It happened during a live event shoot, but luckily I was using dual-record mode so I could keep going without any interruption.

The omission of a 2nd SD card slot is obviously just so Sony can sell that overpriced FMU.

[Randy Johnson]

Well I had Panasonic AG-HMC 150s and they only have one slot.

[Chris Harding]

As Noa says , rather get a FMU as with 2 x 16GB cards you still could lose half the wedding. I shoot in 16GB cards in each camera so my only advantage is if I saw a camera fail/fall/go up in smoke, I could continue with the second camera and film the wedding using just one camera.

For $300 a GoPro is also a great investment for me! At least I would be able to give the bride something if the other gear failed!

This card issue is still puzzling Randy ?? Sony use quite extensive error trapping routines on their cameras so it seems strange that the camera never came up with an error message on such a corrupt card unless it WAS ok in the camera and when it went into the computer something went wrong and data on the card was corrupted by the computer ..easy to do if the protect tab was not on!!

Yeah, Randy, what card brand were you using ?? I still use Transend 16GB cards and have never had an error since I stared with my old HMC72's ... Unlike others I have only had issues with SanDisk cards ..weird, they are supposed to be the best but the 30K ones I had gave me issues in the EA-50's

Keep us updated

Chris