# Please Help!!! My Photos have disappeared!!!



## BekahAura (Jan 5, 2012)

I just spent the last 4 hours taking photos of my bird. All I can say right now is luckily I wasn't shooting for a client, but I still want to cry right now.

I was checking the photos all along, so I know there were about 100 photos on my memory card. I popped the memory card into my computer and there are no bird photos... just some photos from last week. So I figure maybe they are on the other memory card (I have a D7000 with duel memory card slots). But there are no images on that one either. So I take the memory card out of my computer and put it back in the camera, hit play... and they've just disappeared!!!

Is there anything I can do to try and retrieve these photos??? There's no way I could have formatted the memory card by accident because there are still 100+ photos on there from last week.

Someone please help, I really want to cry.


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## Ballistics (Jan 5, 2012)

Does the memory card get used in more than 1 camera?


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## ph0enix (Jan 5, 2012)

I'm not sure about the D7000 but my D90 has a feature that allows you to take photos even when there is no memory card in the camera.  They don't actually get saved.  Could that be it?


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## BekahAura (Jan 5, 2012)

No Ballistics, it's only ever been used in my D7000.

Ph0enix: I'm not sure about that. But I know for a fact I had two memory cards in the camera. I took the pictures, looked through all of them on my camera. Took the memory card out, put it in my computer, and now they are gone.

I'm 100% positive they were there... does anyone know how to restore them? Or if that's even possible?


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## Ballistics (Jan 5, 2012)

Unfortunately this has actually happened to me before. I too have a D7000 and have lost around 200 shots for no reason.


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## MLeeK (Jan 5, 2012)

Try running Recuva on the memory cards and see if you can recover them. Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File and Disk Recovery - Free Download


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## BekahAura (Jan 5, 2012)

No!!! Don't say that... what kind of crap is this!? 

From now on I'm going to use the other memory card as a back-up. I've been googling this problem and it seems like there might be software to recover the files... if anyone has used this kind of software before please let me know.


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## BekahAura (Jan 5, 2012)

Thanks MLeek, I certainly will.


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## ph0enix (Jan 5, 2012)

BekahAura said:


> No!!! Don't say that... what kind of crap is this!?
> 
> From now on I'm going to use the other memory card as a back-up. I've been googling this problem and it seems like there might be software to recover the files... if anyone has used this kind of software before please let me know.



I've successfully used this several times on corrupt cards:
Photo Recovery Software - CardRecovery Download for Registered Users


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## Ballistics (Jan 5, 2012)

When you say corrupt cards ph0enix, are you saying permanently corrupt or that cards can do this with out warning but go back to normal?


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## cepwin (Jan 5, 2012)

It's possible the files themselves were corrupted so perhaps the sw mentioned above can help with that.  What about looking at the 2nd card that was in your camera?  The card itself can't be corrupt as the old pix are on there.


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## ph0enix (Jan 5, 2012)

Usually it's the file system on the card that becomes corrupt.  Reformatting the card fixes that type of corruption since the file system is recreated in the process.  I've never experienced partial card failure but I suppose that's possible also.


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## Ballistics (Jan 5, 2012)

cepwin said:


> It's possible the files themselves were corrupted so perhaps the sw mentioned above can help with that.  What about looking at the 2nd card that was in your camera?  The card itself can't be corrupt as the old pix are on there.



This is what I was leading towards. I feel like if the card is corrupt she would lose all files.


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## BekahAura (Jan 5, 2012)

Ph0enix: Thanks, that will be the next program I try if this "Recuva" doesn't work. 15% left to process and it found 96 deleted files... and I deleted dozens of photos as I went along setting up my lighting... so I hope it's not recovering those files!!! I don't want the ones I deleted... I want the ones that were taken from me lol.

Cepwin: There are no files on the second card... I did check. The way I have my camera set up now the second card is used only once the first is full. I checked anyway... hoping I was wrong and they were on my camera all along.

What really frustrates me is that it's not like I let these images sit on my camera for days.... I just took them less than an hour before I tried to download them, so it's not like I'm just having a brain fart and they are on another card somewhere. I was just looking at them on my camera!!!


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## 2WheelPhoto (Jan 5, 2012)

If you didn't lose the bird you're still in good shape


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## KmH (Jan 5, 2012)

You should have uploaded those other 100 image from last week to your computer as soon after taking them that you could.

Once you verify they uploaded OK, put the card back in the camera and re-format it.

Don't use the memory card for casual storage.


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## BekahAura (Jan 5, 2012)

Ok Recuva was a flop... it finished the scan and although I remember it saying there were 90-something files found, nothing was listed at the end.

On to Card Recovery... and it looks promising! I have a little over an hour left and it's found 65 files so far... if it goes over 100 I'll know we're in business.

Thanks for the advice guys. I'll keep you updated.


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## BekahAura (Jan 5, 2012)

KmH said:


> You should have uploaded those other 100 image from last week to your computer as soon after taking them that you could.
> 
> Once you verify they uploaded OK, put the card back in the camera and re-format it.
> 
> Don't use the memory card for casual storage.



I did upload those photos onto my computer from last week, sometime last week lol. Why should I format the card? I usually wait until I back up everything on my hard drive before I format the memory card. That way I always have 2 copies. Except I didn't even get the chance this time.


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## BekahAura (Jan 5, 2012)

Woohoo 165 files found so far!

I keep wishing those other photos were deleted instead of the ones from today... it's crazy... I know the very last photo I took last week, and that's exactly the last photo the card decided to keep. What a cruel joke my equipment is playing on me.


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## Ballistics (Jan 5, 2012)

BekahAura said:


> Why should I format the card?


 To prevent this exact issue. Now that I think back... I hadn't reformatted my card when I lost the images.


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## BekahAura (Jan 5, 2012)




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## Ballistics (Jan 5, 2012)

BekahAura said:


>



Ah good, I am glad you got your pictures back.


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## baturn (Jan 6, 2012)

I love happy endings.


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## Robin Usagani (Jan 6, 2012)

WTH.. How could this happen?  I dont get it.


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## Joel_W (Jan 6, 2012)

Schwettylens said:


> WTH.. How could this happen?  I dont get it.



Me too.

I'm certainly glad BekahAura was able to recover her photos.

 Is there a proper procedure that should be followed with Memory cards?  My usual procedure after a shoot is to download all the pictures to my computer. I then delete them from the folder their in, but don't delete the folder nor the directory. The last time I formatted the card was when I bought it.


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## jkzo (Jan 6, 2012)

Ballistics said:


> BekahAura said:
> 
> 
> >
> ...



iam happy that you have got it back


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## DiskoJoe (Jan 6, 2012)

BekahAura said:


> I just spent the last 4 hours taking photos of my bird. All I can say right now is luckily I wasn't shooting for a client, but I still want to cry right now.
> 
> I was checking the photos all along, so I know there were about 100 photos on my memory card. I popped the memory card into my computer and there are no bird photos... just some photos from last week. So I figure maybe they are on the other memory card (I have a D7000 with duel memory card slots). But there are no images on that one either. So I take the memory card out of my computer and put it back in the camera, hit play... and they've just disappeared!!!
> 
> ...



I would not recommend pulling the card out and loading it to the computer. I always use the usb that the manufacturer made for the camera to download the pics then take out the memory card if needed. Pulling the card out can cause it to get corrupted if done incorrectly.


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## sanderso (Jan 6, 2012)

Joel_W said:


> Schwettylens said:
> 
> 
> > WTH.. How could this happen?  I dont get it.
> ...



Agreed...good her pix were recovered.  (Post any??)

It's a good idea to format the card...more than the first time when it's new.  I'm a casual photog, but I typically format after every upload to my computer....just after I've verified the pix transfer from the card was successful.  

In general, a storage device like a memory card or a hard disk uses a storage structure which includes 1) a directory...the list/map of where the camera or computer can find files on the device, and 2) the file itself.  Since files/pix come in various sizes, the file/image is saved in the next largest unused space on the card.  If there are other files/pix on the card, then sometimes there won't be a single empty space on the card large enough for save the image in a single chunk of physical space.  So, the storage system (both cameras and computers) is designed to carve up the file/image and put the pieces in the space that's available on the device.  Then, the directory keeps track of where all the piece reside and will automatically rebuild the file so that when you call it up to view the image on the camera's viewer or on a computer, the file/image is returned like one big image....just like the original.  The ugly details are less obvious since folks don't (and shouldn't) care about them.

This is all happens at the blink of an eye and it's how computers have been operating for many years.  It's a reliable system 99.999% of the time (don't quote me on that figure).  

However, as the card or HD gets full, there's typically a lot of info carved into more little pieces...more than usual.  Then if a new image needs to be saved, the available storage space is spread over lots and lots of little pieces instead of one big empty chunk.  That's why your computer has a disk defragger utility.  Defragging a HD will attempt to consolidate files saved in lots of little pieces all over the HD, to single bigger pieces.  For example, say your 100G disk had 90G of stuff on it.  Most folks would look at it and say "oh...there's 10G free, I can save this 10G file".  However, in truth, the 10G of free space is NOT sitting in one open 10G chunk of space on the HD, it's actually sitting in 10 1G chunks....or 100 100M chunks....or 10,000...  You get the idea.  Defragging a disk trys to consolidate the open space and "free up" these many little pieces of free space.  That's also why a computer will tend to slow down as the HD get full....it simply takes more computer cycles to keep straight the many more pieces, and less free chunks of space, associated with all the files it uses.  (That's also why the computer-tech will first recommend doing a defrag for a slow computer.)

Camera storage cards use these same structures.....and they're subject to the same issues...and 99.99% reliability (don't quote me on that figure).   Yes, today's DSLRs ARE little computers (designed for a single purpose).

What does formating do?  It wipes the slate clean by rebuilding (sofware-wise), the directory and emptying the file storage area.  When you erase an image/file, it simply removes the directory entry for the single image.  When you format, it destoys the old directory (and all the files it was keeping track of) and rebuilds it...then, it "smooths over" the file/image storage area (I think of it as a clear glass lake w/o waves).  Instant do-over...and ready to store a bunch of new images.

So, to my way of thinking...providing a fresh new clean storage area before each shoot is the best way of minimizing any chance of an "issue" stealing away my photos.  

$0.02 from a non-expert.


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## Joel_W (Jan 6, 2012)

Sanderso, thanks so much for your detailed answer. While I knew generally how a computer stores and pulls up files, it just never occurred to me that a SD card did it the same. I'm going to start to format after every shoot and download.  Since I save all current photo files on my computer as well as on a external drive, I just assumed that deleting the photo were enough to keep my SD card clean.


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## sanderso (Jan 6, 2012)

Joel_W said:


> Sanderso, thanks so much for your detailed answer. While I knew generally how a computer stores and pulls up files, it just never occurred to me that a SD card did it the same. I'm going to start to format after every shoot and download.  Since I save all current photo files on my computer as well as on a external drive, I just assumed that deleting the photo were enough to keep my SD card clean.


Glad to provide insight.  Even having a background in computer stuff, I still marvel at the technology in my hand every time I frame up a shot.  Of course, I still can't stellar images out of the thing!


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## BekahAura (Jan 9, 2012)

@DiskoJoe: Good point... I will definitely take that into consideration.

@Sanderso: Actually my little thank you photo above was one of the recovered photos. I was doing mostly portraits of Yoshi, but then I decided to do some self portraits and update the photo on the about page of my website. (I had a photo of myself only and since I'm a pet photographer I thought it might be better to have a photo of me with my little buddy.) Thanks for all the info!

From now on I'm going to have both cards in my camera storing the photos. And if that fails, at least I know that this software might give me a good shot of recovering them.

Here's another photo you guys helped me rescue:







Thanks again!


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## ph0enix (Jan 9, 2012)

baturn said:


> I love happy endings.



This is not the right forum for this kind of talk.


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