two of my CF cards are f'ed and I need to take the pictures off

[The Stigenator]

Any free windows / linux software that can do it. Files are in RAW format.

I used the free version of easeus data recovery, but it only does JPG's, then I tried Card recovery but you got to pay for it and it shows TIF files not RAW.

Its from my Canon 40D. Not sure what went wrong with the cards. Both were in that camera. One is a San Disk Ultra II the other is a Patriot 266x , both 4gb. The camera does not see both cards. Windows does not show any files.

I am buying new cards for next week's shoot.

 

[radhak]

Have you plugged it into a Linux machine yet? I am guessing you should simply see all the files in Konqueror (or whatever your file manager is).

I have not done it with Raw files, but many others that were not visible to windows (on drives that were reported 'damaged' by Windows) are easily accessed by Linux.

Booting from a live CD or pen-drive with bootable Linux should also do fine.

 

[The Stigenator]

I plugged it into my Ubuntu 11.10 desktop (laptop machine) with built in card reader.

It says "can't read superblock" but it shows the drive in the list of drives including the title "EOS_DIGITAL", just cant see the files.

 

[Throckmorton]

Google for: recover files flash drive

 

[The Stigenator]

I tried linux program photorec (its also available for windows) but that does not read cr2 it reads crw.. ugh!

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Sometimes there's hardware failure. IF its just a file system failure you can try to recover, but if your system just cannot read (i.e. it hangs while trying to access the card), you're SOL. The only way you could get out of that is to transport the NAND chips into another card. I would do this if that data's got some fortune 500 secrets or if you got the money, but I've had this happen to 1 CF and 2xSD cards. I've given up.

Try getdataback and see if it works at least. The free version will at least list all the files it can find. You're probably limited by file size or it might not even recover for you unless you pay, but at least you know what it can find for you before you need to splurge....

 

[AnitaPeterson]

Found these two - they offer evaluation versions:
http://www.usbdrivedatarecovery.com/usbdrivedatarecovery/mem-card.html
http://www.cardrecovery.com/

Have you tried something like Ontrack Data Recovery, or R-Studio?

Good luck. And please let us know if you end up finding something that works...

 

[Throckmorton]

I tried linux program photorec (its also available for windows) but that does not read cr2 it reads crw.. ugh!

That's why you need to do what I said and search just for flash drive recovery. If you search for photo recovery, you'll get programs that only recover certain types of files.

 

[The Stigenator]

so further testing shows that the card works, it looks like the boot block is fubared.

I was able to use card recovery (pirated copy for testing purposes, would have bought the software if they could have responded on CR2 read ability). Anyway the pirated one recovered 277 tiff files, which is what it should have, but none of them open, tried it in CR2 and .TIF, PS CS5 did not open those files.

 

[AnitaPeterson]

In CS5, did you try File > Open As > JPEG ?

If this doesn't work, try opening the tiff files in XnView or IrfanView (both freeware) or Corel Photopaint. Also try inserting them as image files into Word documents.

 

[The Stigenator]

coworker gave me sandisk rescue pro software, i tried running it at work with my work card reader, i hope i didnt fry the disc but the card reader smells funny..

I'll have to test it at home, i hate the CF pin system.

 

[pyonir]

coworker gave me sandisk rescue pro software

I was going to recommend that. I've used it in the past on a bad card and it did find all of my RAW files, and they were useable (meaning I could open them in Photoshop).

 

[AnitaPeterson]

So, any updates?