Image Recovery


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espn

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Dec 20, 2002
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Planet Nikon
Hi folks,

I need urgently to recover some images from a CF card that's been formatted twice.

CF contained 206+ images. Formatted today, and refilled up the card. It has been formatted now.

Now I need urgently to recover the first 206+ images from the card as it's very important for me, even if I need to pay money for it, I'm willing. Anybody can tell me any s/w that's guaranteed to retrieve the images? Or any place guaranteed to retrieve the images for me?

I'm running Image Rescue 2 now but it's retrieving today's shots instead of the shots before that.

Any help is really appreciated.
 

As far as I know you can still recover the image after deleting or formatting the card. However it gets more difficult once you written some files on the card. I'm sure there are some company who can help you but it is going to cost a bomb. I have lost the card of the company that does this. Wanted to use them for my hard disk but they were too expensive that I gave up. Good luck.
 

But better not try if it's not life and death. 99.9% irrecoverable. Even if it's 0.01% can recover, you will only get bits and pieces which is meaningless since it's jpg. Part of my work involves this field.

Try CBL Data Recovery if you can afford it. It will easily run into 2K. You can pass the card to them first and they give you an eval. No data, No charge, that's the usual practice.

Either that or Cisco....the commercial police one, not the network company. They are cheaper but i recommend CBL.
 

Hi folks, the images are all Nikon RAW formats. I need them urgently, matter of life and death. Will appreciate any input. Thanks.
 

Come to think of it, might not so expensive. :think:

http://www.cbltech.com/

They are at The Signature. Just beside IBM Changi, near the MRT and Expo.
 

I've already contacted CBLTech they'll be open only on weekdays, the helpdesk rep that answered my call greeted me with good afternoon, so I presume it's the international help line although I called singapore line. Charges are starting from 150 (USD I presume) pretty ok to me IF they can get my images back.

I will be heading down to adelphi on monday and give it a try as well. Guess it's urgent leave for me on monday. :(

Any more suggestions? Tried virtual-lab s/w but it found the NEF files but it's 8KB ea found.


Now running R-Studio demo and crossing fingers.
 

espn...just a bad news for you....if you formatted the card and start to refill.....it depence on the amount of the second time you use the card.
Let say.....you taken 200MB of files and second time, you take 100MB...likely that only the last 100MB of the first batch can be recover
If so unlucky that the second time you got more than 200MB of shots...sad case...no picture can be recover at all.
Anyway....no harm trying and hope to get them.... here is a little program I used for my cousin last time http://www.handyrecovery.com/
 

Hi tunster, thanks for the 'consolation' but the card has been filled to the brim before formatting and refilled today to the brim. I hope it's not as you mentioned... I do hope the data is recoverable. I'll have to try everything I guess. Thanks for the link.
 

just google data recovery compact flash. they have tons of demo software..
see if any1 can recover your data. if no generic program can do it, you will need professional services.

gd luck. as much as you dread it, I think your case will probably not work for generic software because they need to reconstruct the data from scanning it using special drives.
 

espn said:
Hi tunster, thanks for the 'consolation' but the card has been filled to the brim before formatting and refilled today to the brim. I hope it's not as you mentioned... I do hope the data is recoverable. I'll have to try everything I guess. Thanks for the link.

Good luck man.....
 

Handy Recovery found certain NEF files, but the names are not in sequence :( I was about to purchase it already... at most 12 of the impt shots are retrievable.. but I'm still lacking abt 30+ more impt shots.

Thanks folks for your valuable input. I'm at the end of my tether...
 

I need more than that .... sigh. A lot more. I think I've given up self-recovery, will try the commercial services recommended. Thanks folks for the kind input. :)
 

Hmm....dunno if i should say this...

for hard disk and floppy disc, it is possible to recover even after u have reformat and over-written it serveral times. This is because the track is wider than what the head can write, so when data is overwritten, part of the track may still contain the the data u have previously, that's how the professional can recover the data from hard disk that is over written.

Think of a track similar to a road with serveral lanes, the head only over-write one of the lanes, therefore data still remains in other lanes, and that's how the data can be recovered.

However, for CF card, data are stored in an array of digital "pits", so once the "pits" have over-written, it will be impossible to recover liao.

But do let me know if the professional got new ways to recover this...may be by opening up your CF to scan for traces of static charges, and then reconstruct the file for you. but then to recover a RAW image without corruption..... :dunno:
 

Mic... go try this company... bery expert in recovery... i just recover my dead HDD thru them..... bery fast and customer frenly company.....u wanna know more.. can call me on my mobile 98293106 ... i tell you more!

Adroit Data Recovery Centre Pte Ltd Category : Computer Systems Integration Consultants
Address : 77 Science Pk Dr #04-12 Singapore 118256
Telephone : 6773 9277
Fax : 6773 0393

Anthony kho
 

Hi digistar, thanks for the links.


kerpalz: Will get in touch with you soon.
 

Take care buddy... I will be crossing my fingers for u ;)
 

In a case like this, I'll try everything I can, as long as it's non-destructive. Here's another tool which I've used to good effect :

http://www.download.com/PC-Inspector-Smart-Recovery/3000-2242_4-10261986.html?tag=lst-0-2

The only thing is that it seems to ignore the FAT table, and just aggressively goes and looks for files of a particular type. NEF is one of the options.

Give it a try, you've got nothing to lose, and I'm guessing you're not going to be in the mood to do much else today :(

Go to www.download.com and pick up a few other tools and try them out. PC Inspector is free, but others will id the files, and only recover after you buy the tools.

Wishing you good luck.
 

Wai said:
for hard disk and floppy disc, it is possible to recover even after u have reformat and over-written it serveral times. This is because the track is wider than what the head can write, so when data is overwritten, part of the track may still contain the the data u have previously, that's how the professional can recover the data from hard disk that is over written.

Think of a track similar to a road with serveral lanes, the head only over-write one of the lanes, therefore data still remains in other lanes, and that's how the data can be recovered.

However, for CF card, data are stored in an array of digital "pits", so once the "pits" have over-written, it will be impossible to recover liao.

But do let me know if the professional got new ways to recover this...may be by opening up your CF to scan for traces of static charges, and then reconstruct the file for you. but then to recover a RAW image without corruption..... :dunno:

Correct. But sometimes also quite controversial this kind of things. US DoD just specifies writing of zeros twice and it's more than enough for them. I think KGB is 5 times. Overwritting 1 time is recoverable, but the absolute success rate depends on the algorithms and heuristics. Else get bits and pieces here and there only (but for espionage it's more than enough sometimes).
 

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