# Issue with Sandisk SD



## picturefan (Dec 18, 2017)

Hello all,

got a problem with the picture transfer with a Sandisk Extreme SDHC 8GB to the computer.

I wanted to download 300 winter pictures to the computer. 
In the preview-mode in Win around half of the pictures could be seen as thumbnails (as usual), but then the readout stopped and the second half of the thumbnail-previews remained all white.

After re-inserting the disk into the computer it said: "Card needs to be formated".
When putting the card back into 7D camera again, it says: "No access to card. Input card again or format card".
??

Is the card broken? Any other issue?
Can the card just get "busted" while readout?

What can I do? I guess if I use the format option in the camera, all pictures will be deleted? All my christmas postcards are one this one...

Thank you for the advice and happy x-mas all!


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## Valvebounce (Dec 18, 2017)

Hi Picturefan. 
Do not format the card. 
Have a search for image recovery on here, there have been several in depth discussions on this subject. Plus don’t the Sandisk cards come with a data recovery licence, try this before doing anything else. The software will often be able to look at the card even if windows can’t find it. 
I’m sure that others will help soon. 
I feel your pain after accidentally formatting (not a full format) a CF card years ago, it is not a fun thing to go through. 

Cheers, Graham. 
Edit. 
I just had a search and the search tool seems even worse than it used to be, hopefully others have saved the links for reference. 



picturefan said:


> Hello all,
> 
> got a problem with the picture transfer with a Sandisk Extreme SDHC 8GB to the computer.
> 
> ...


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## picturefan (Dec 18, 2017)

Thank you Valvebounce for the quick answer.

So the only option would be data recovery, right?
I found out about a sandisk recovery tool to download. but that is only free trial, without possibility for saving the recovered data. 
I should have this tool, as I bought plenty of sandisk cards. The only problem is I threw away the packaging boxes, so no more informations are available.
Are there other good (freeware) recovery tools to recommend or do some of you have good experience with some (capability, easy to use)?


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## Old Sarge (Dec 18, 2017)

It has been a while but I have had excellent results using Recuva which is free to download the basic version (all I've ever used).


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## cinema-dslr (Dec 18, 2017)

second that recuva is great.
If the computer doesn't let jou do anything with the card without formatting?? then do a quick format which doesn't actually touch the data only the fat-table.
after that you can try recuva.
But first try it without formating!!


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## picturefan (Dec 18, 2017)

cinema-dslr said:


> second that recuva is great.
> If the computer doesn't let jou do anything with the card without formatting?? then do a quick format which doesn't actually touch the data only the fat-table.
> after that you can try recuva.
> But first try it without formating!!



Thank you so far!

Tried some, but most softwares are only able to show the lost data/picures, but not to save them, e.g. easeuse.
Recuva - contrary to the others- cannot read the card.
Did I get the point, quick-format the sd-card, separatly through windows, should solve this but will keep data on the card? Isn`t that risky?
Other programs?


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## picturefan (Dec 18, 2017)

I guess its hard to recover... 
Another programm, testdisk, could read the card, but only recover the jpgs in a file size of 16KB, 
other version could only recover half of the image (upper half: picture was fine, second half below: picture was all grey)... 
Reason? Any ideas?


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## cinema-dslr (Dec 18, 2017)

picturefan,

i just PM'd you check your messagebox


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## picturefan (Dec 18, 2017)

Thank you all, now that I've tried a lot of programms, most (but not all pictures) are back. Still keep on trying...

There is one postcard I already could recover, so this one's by now for you and your very appreciated help:


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## midluk (Dec 18, 2017)

I would never try recovering on the drive directly. You always should make a copy of the complete drive and only work on the generated drive image. Not sure how you can do that in Windows, but on Linux I would recommend ddrescue.


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## Antono Refa (Dec 18, 2017)

Valvebounce said:


> Hi Picturefan.
> Do not format the card.
> Have a search for image recovery on here, there have been several in depth discussions on this subject. Plus don’t the Sandisk cards come with a data recovery licence, try this before doing anything else. The software will often be able to look at the card even if windows can’t find it.



AFAIK, only the more expensive Sandisk cards come with the data recovery software & license.


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## midluk (Dec 18, 2017)

Antono Refa said:


> Valvebounce said:
> 
> 
> > Hi Picturefan.
> ...


I think I read somewhere that most (if not all) windows file recovery software (also the one from SanDisk) uses TestDisk/PhotoRec under the hood. Why not just use that directly? It's free (not only as in beer)!


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## picturefan (Dec 18, 2017)

midluk said:


> Antono Refa said:
> 
> 
> > Valvebounce said:
> ...



Very interesting insight into the recovery architecture. Didn't know that. 
I already used testdisk, but it couldn't recover all files. Many files were recovered just at 16KB size. Do you know why?


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