corrupted NEF

[crazyson]

Hi all,

in abit of a dilemma here.. about 2 weeks ago, i took some photos and a few of them came up corrupted. When previewing on playback in the camera, the picture is fine. However, when i got back and opened the raw file (i was shooting raw only at that time), the file was corrupted and lightroom was unable to modify it (the error message given was 'unexpected end of file').

In other circumstances, I would just make do and live without the shot. However, I find myself thinking back at what a waste of a good picture. I really like the lighting and composition of the picture and I want to salvage the picture. After abit of googling, there were 2 possibilities

1. Extract the jpeg out of the raw file - there is a freeware out there called 'instant jpeg from raw' which can be downloaded from Instant JPEG from Raw. But after typing all my details in to try and get the download link, it doesnt work.

2. Extract jpeg from exif - some suggested this, but i have no idea how to do it.

3. Repair the raw data - I'm not a programmer, got no idea how to go about doing it. tried to read an online instruction on editing raw info, but i cant figure it out.

4. Send it to NSC - I wouldnt think they would be able to help, but I would give it a try if nothing else works. Thought I'd ask here first before going to them.

just to give you a rough idea how corrupted the pic is, when i try to view it on windows photo viewer, it would load like this for a few seconds:

and then after that it becomes like this:

Anyone able to help me? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Squid]

Try extracting using the following software before porting to Lightroom:

-- freeware Nikon ViewNX2 or
-- 30 days trial version of Nikon Capture NX2

 

[crusher]

Try Faststone Image Viewer. I have 1 NEF files that have similar problem, I tried in-camera, ViewNX2 and Photoshop conversion to jpeg, none of them worked. In the end, Faststone Image Viewer solved my problenm.

 

[rain5533]

Try Faststone Image Viewer. I have 1 NEF files that have similar problem, I tried in-camera, ViewNX2 and Photoshop conversion to jpeg, none of them worked. In the end, Faststone Image Viewer solved my problenm.

Aiyah go for Picasa lah, just download for free

A little bit, like your PC not enough fast to support the higher Raw files on 75MB.

 

[crazyson]

Try extracting using the following software before porting to Lightroom:

-- freeware Nikon ViewNX2 or
-- 30 days trial version of Nikon Capture NX2

tried, no difference

 

[crazyson]

Try Faststone Image Viewer. I have 1 NEF files that have similar problem, I tried in-camera, ViewNX2 and Photoshop conversion to jpeg, none of them worked. In the end, Faststone Image Viewer solved my problenm.

downloaded faststone, and it works! able to open it, now to figure out how to export it as a jpeg or something. thanks!

 

[crazyson]

Aiyah go for Picasa lah, just download for free

A little bit, like your PC not enough fast to support the higher Raw files on 75MB.

i notice you like to post just for the sake of posting. please try to make more sense..

 

[crusher]

You can save as when viewing the NEF file, just type ctrl-s.

 

[rain5533]

i notice you like to post just for the sake of posting. please try to make more sense..

If Picasa for latest version still can't loading up the image and nobody can help you,
you may consider to convert from your camera to jpeg 1st and transfer to your pc.

 

[san2001]

This happens when you try to import the NEF directly from the memory card to Lightroom. Has happened to me before. If you did this, stop this practice in the future and copy from memory card to PC before importing to LR.

If you didn't do this, (Assuming you are using CF and not SD), check your camera CF contacts for bent pins. They are another top reason for corrupted memory cards. If this is so, get the camera serviced ASAP and get a new CF card.

In both cases, download a freeware called Zero Assumption Recovery. The steps are self descriptive. It will do a deep recovery scan and 99% of the time, recover the file as a TIFF. It's not quite NEF, but it's something.

Also, it'd be a good idea to stop using that memory card because even after formatting, I got the same error a few times after the first time.

 

[crazyson]

You can save as when viewing the NEF file, just type ctrl-s.

thanks! got it out as jpeg, which is better than nothing!

 

[crazyson]

If Picasa for latest version still can't loading up the image and nobody can help you,
you may consider to convert from your camera to jpeg 1st and transfer to your pc.

picasa cant open it, but faststone can. looks like faststone is nobody.

please teach me how to convert raw to jpeg in camera???? is that even possible?

 

[crazyson]

This happens when you try to import the NEF directly from the memory card to Lightroom. Has happened to me before. If you did this, stop this practice in the future and copy from memory card to PC before importing to LR.

If you didn't do this, (Assuming you are using CF and not SD), check your camera CF contacts for bent pins. They are another top reason for corrupted memory cards. If this is so, get the camera serviced ASAP and get a new CF card.

In both cases, download a freeware called Zero Assumption Recovery. The steps are self descriptive. It will do a deep recovery scan and 99% of the time, recover the file as a TIFF. It's not quite NEF, but it's something.

Also, it'd be a good idea to stop using that memory card because even after formatting, I got the same error a few times after the first time.

Yup I know about the dangers of importing straight from card to LR, thus I've always copied from camera to PC and backup hdd, then from PC import into LR. I'm having some problems with this memory card (it started just the day before i took this shot in question) and I've since placed an order on ebay for a new one (which turned out to be a fake, so pending refund). Thanks for the link

 

[rain5533]

picasa cant open it, but faststone can. looks like faststone is nobody.

please teach me how to convert raw to jpeg in camera???? is that even possible?

Hi, go to edit menu or crop or highlight something and save it, they will automatic convert to Jpeg format.

 

[joecool1211]

Hi!

I had exactly the same problem that happened at random over several months. In my case, it was due to file corruption during the copy from card to disk. I reached this conclusion because when I copied the file again from the card, the picture displayed correctly.

Eventually, I used file copy software (e.g. FastCopy) that will verify that the file was written correctly. (And I became KS enough to copy to different disks for backup purposes). By right, Windows Explorer will verify files are copied correctly, but it did not appear to in my case.