SD600 Destroyed Mid-Movie... Recoverable?

icjefferys

3

SD600 Destroyed Mid-Movie... Recoverable?

« on: 11 / August / 2009, 19:06:09 »

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My trusty SD600 bit the dust. It was fighting the good fight however, getting some footage slung under a radio controlled airplane. Unfortunately we had a rough landing and though the plane was fine, the SD's lens got whacked out of line for good, causing the camera to immediately shut down. I have the memory card and though there is of course no .avi visible since the camera never had time to finish off the file, some data must be still on the card, right? Do any of you know of ways to reconstruct an interrupted video from a memory card untouched since the video recording?

...not strictly CHDK-related but I'm not sure where else to turn. Thanks for any help guys!

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fe50

3152
IXUS50 & 860, SX10 Star WARs-Star RAWs

Re: SD600 Destroyed Mid-Movie... Recoverable?

« Reply #1 on: 12 / August / 2009, 02:00:01 »

Hello & welcome, icjefferys !

Quote from: icjefferys on 11 / August / 2009, 19:06:09

My trusty SD600 bit the dust. It was fighting the good fight however, getting some footage slung under a radio controlled airplane. Unfortunately we had a rough landing and though the plane was fine, the SD's lens got whacked out of line for good, causing the camera to immediately shut down. I have the memory card and though there is of course no .avi visible since the camera never had time to finish off the file, some data must be still on the card, right? Do any of you know of ways to reconstruct an interrupted video from a memory card untouched since the video recording?

You can try TestDisk, a great & powerful open source recovery tool...good luck !

*EDIT: First you should try PhotoRec, a companion program to TestDisk; PhotoRec ignores the filesystem and goes after the underlying data, so it will still work even if your media's filesystem has been severely damaged or re-formatted.

« Last Edit: 12 / August / 2009, 02:10:57 by fe50 »

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RaduP

926

Re: SD600 Destroyed Mid-Movie... Recoverable?

« Reply #2 on: 12 / August / 2009, 02:21:40 »

Probably the data is still there, but the file was not closed, so it's just a chain of lost clusters.
Try to run chkdsk /f on it.

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fe50

3152
IXUS50 & 860, SX10 Star WARs-Star RAWs

Re: SD600 Destroyed Mid-Movie... Recoverable?

« Reply #3 on: 12 / August / 2009, 02:36:08 »

Quote from: RaduP on 12 / August / 2009, 02:21:40

Probably the data is still there, but the file was not closed, so it's just a chain of lost clusters.
Try to run chkdsk /f on it.

No - you SHOULD use PhotoRec FIRST, before running any fsck tool that writes to the media !

You should also copy an image of the card to your hard disc, e.g. with HxD - Freeware Hex Editor and Disk Editor
(From HxD, do "Extras" - "Open Disk...", then call "Save as..." from the "File" menu)

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-->FIRMWARE DUMPS<-- * Manual * Lua * me

RaduP

926

Re: SD600 Destroyed Mid-Movie... Recoverable?

« Reply #4 on: 12 / August / 2009, 02:58:19 »

Well, I recovered quite a few files that way on my PC. Of course, if there are other, free tools, sure, try them first, but this is an option as well.

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Ailurus fulgens

38

Re: SD600 Destroyed Mid-Movie... Recoverable?

« Reply #5 on: 12 / August / 2009, 04:17:21 »

Quote from: fe50 on 12 / August / 2009, 02:36:08

Quote from: RaduP on 12 / August / 2009, 02:21:40
Probably the data is still there, but the file was not closed, so it's just a chain of lost clusters.
Try to run chkdsk /f on it.
No - you SHOULD use PhotoRec FIRST, before running any fsck tool that writes to the media !

i second that. i have lost ALOT (like gigabytes) of Data because of checkdisk. Actually i dont know what it is good for besides killing data. seriously. checkdisk should only be the ultima ratio.

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cybercom

268

Re: SD600 Destroyed Mid-Movie... Recoverable?

« Reply #6 on: 12 / August / 2009, 09:15:06 »

The absolute first thing to do is go to the card manufacturers' website and see if they have Recovery Software available!

I know for sure that Lexar and Sandisk provide it with their upscale cards - UDMA & Extreme.

The programs are capable of restoring files that have been deleted, and might even be able to recover incompletely written ones. You might not get everything, but they don't do anything to the card's files, so you'll still have a chance to use other methods afterwards.

HTH,

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icjefferys

3

Re: SD600 Destroyed Mid-Movie... Recoverable?

« Reply #7 on: 20 / August / 2009, 11:42:28 »

Well, I was unable to get that video back. But here is a video of making/destroying that video!

Super Sportster EP - Photo Flight 1

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Old Farseeing Art

61

Re: SD600 Destroyed Mid-Movie... Recoverable?

« Reply #8 on: 20 / August / 2009, 13:38:18 »

I shot one flight with an SD1100 mounted upside down similar to your setup except that my plane has no wheels. To land, I come in slow at knee high, pull up and catch it by hand. Another option is to land in tall grass.

One other thing that might have saved you is to turn off the camera before landing. I always do that so if there is a rough landing, the lens is pulled in, power is off, and any files are closed.

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Was: SD1100 IS, Autobuild, V1.01a, dunked in ocean
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Waiting to die: SX230

icjefferys

3

Re: SD600 Destroyed Mid-Movie... Recoverable?

« Reply #9 on: 21 / August / 2009, 01:45:06 »

Hah, yes my friend actually suggested do that, letting the camera shut down before landing, at the time of the flight. My famous last words were "nah it'll be fine... and the footage of the landing will be so cool!" Oh well.

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