Data recovery from SD card?

[John]

Hi Peeps,

Are there any freeware programs that will recover photo files from an SD
card that has gone faulty and cannot be read by normal means on my PC?

Thanks for any help,
John.

 

[Dugie]

Hi Peeps,

Are there any freeware programs that will recover photo files from an SD
card that has gone faulty and cannot be read by normal means on my PC?

Thanks for any help,
John.

The file recovery topic was covered on July 10/06, but not for your problem
of a faulty card, so the following may not help.
To ensure the problem is your card, and not the reader you use, have you
tried another reader, or tried another SD card in your reader?

Do a search in this newsgroup, using "Freeware to recover pictures from SD."

The smallest, and possibly best software is Zero Assumption at:
http://www.s2services.com/cameraundeletefreeware.htm

There are many other recovery programs there as well. Good luck.

Dugie

 

[John]

The file recovery topic was covered on July 10/06, but not for your problem
of a faulty card, so the following may not help.
To ensure the problem is your card, and not the reader you use, have you
tried another reader, or tried another SD card in your reader?

Do a search in this newsgroup, using "Freeware to recover pictures from SD."

The smallest, and possibly best software is Zero Assumption at:
http://www.s2services.com/cameraundeletefreeware.htm

There are many other recovery programs there as well. Good luck.

Dugie

Hi Dougie,

Thanks for all the info and program suggestion. I have tried another
reader and a good card in the readers to ascertain that I do have one
faulty SD card. Zero Assumption could not see my card I'm afraid.

Thanks anyway and I'll certainly do the search as suggested.

Regards,
John.

 

[Al Klein]

Thanks for all the info and program suggestion. I have tried another
reader and a good card in the readers to ascertain that I do have one
faulty SD card. Zero Assumption could not see my card I'm afraid.

Software can't fix broken hardware. SD cards don't usually fail but
when they do they're usually lost forever.

 

[John]

Software can't fix broken hardware. SD cards don't usually fail but
when they do they're usually lost forever.

I'm fully aware of that statement, but I'm unsure at this stage if the
card is faulty or it's just a data read problem within the card. Hence
my request.

Regards,
John.

 

[Al Klein]

I'm fully aware of that statement, but I'm unsure at this stage if the
card is faulty or it's just a data read problem within the card. Hence
my request.

Since SD card drivers make the cards look like drives, use any
software you would use to recover a damaged file on disk. But a read
problem on a chip is usually a bad cell - kind of like a physically
bad spot on the disk.

 

[k]

| Hi Peeps,
|
| Are there any freeware programs that will recover photo files from an SD
| card that has gone faulty and cannot be read by normal means on my PC?
|
| Thanks for any help,



thought this worth mentioning,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital

"The "Secure" in Secure Digital comes from the card's origin. To create the
SD card, Toshiba added encryption hardware to the already-extant MMC card,
to calm music industry concerns that MMC cards would allow for easy piracy
of music. ("


So fouling those sectory and that's that, the card is dead.


"The SD Card Association's current licensing agreement does not allow for
open-source SD drivers, a fact that generates a fair amount of
consternation
in the open-source and free software communities. The usual workaround is
to
develop an open-source wrapper for a closed-source SD driver available on
the particular platform, but this is far from ideal. Another common
workaround is to use the older MMC mode, which all SD cards are required to
support by the SD standard."

suggesting it's not a *simple* card.. and anything not simple is prone to
failures.


"This means that SD is less open than CompactFlash or USB flash memory
drives," er, more 'not good' information


worse

"Documentation for this mode can be purchased from the MMCA for $500; ..MMC
mode does not provide access to the proprietary encryption features of SD
cards, and the free SD documentation does not describe these features. "


basically if you addle the card, that's that.

I spent 2 days running every data recovery and diagnostic tool over a
brand new card I scrambled - no luck, it was fried. The supplier replaced
it though so I was back in business again luckily.. how I forked it?
copying a large file onto it when doing something system intensive - it
hung the copying process and left crap on the card. Formatting it wiped
carp -and the secure sectors and rendered it unable to be formatted again
:-(

more:
The digital rights management scheme embedded in the SD cards is defined as
the Content Protection for Recordable Media (CPRM) by the 4C Entity and is
centered around use of the Cryptomeria cipher (also known as C2). The
specification is kept secret and is only accessible to licensees. DVD-Audio
use a very similar scheme known as Content Protection for Prerecorded Media
(CPPM).

crap - DRM built right into the media :-(

 

[John]

| Hi Peeps,
|
| Are there any freeware programs that will recover photo files from an SD
| card that has gone faulty and cannot be read by normal means on my PC?
|
| Thanks for any help,



thought this worth mentioning,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital

"The "Secure" in Secure Digital comes from the card's origin. To create the
SD card, Toshiba added encryption hardware to the already-extant MMC card,
to calm music industry concerns that MMC cards would allow for easy piracy
of music. ("


So fouling those sectory and that's that, the card is dead.


"The SD Card Association's current licensing agreement does not allow for
open-source SD drivers, a fact that generates a fair amount of
consternation
in the open-source and free software communities. The usual workaround is
to
develop an open-source wrapper for a closed-source SD driver available on
the particular platform, but this is far from ideal. Another common
workaround is to use the older MMC mode, which all SD cards are required to
support by the SD standard."

suggesting it's not a *simple* card.. and anything not simple is prone to
failures.


"This means that SD is less open than CompactFlash or USB flash memory
drives," er, more 'not good' information


worse

"Documentation for this mode can be purchased from the MMCA for $500; ..MMC
mode does not provide access to the proprietary encryption features of SD
cards, and the free SD documentation does not describe these features. "


basically if you addle the card, that's that.

I spent 2 days running every data recovery and diagnostic tool over a
brand new card I scrambled - no luck, it was fried. The supplier replaced
it though so I was back in business again luckily.. how I forked it?
copying a large file onto it when doing something system intensive - it
hung the copying process and left crap on the card. Formatting it wiped
carp -and the secure sectors and rendered it unable to be formatted again
:-(

more:
The digital rights management scheme embedded in the SD cards is defined as
the Content Protection for Recordable Media (CPRM) by the 4C Entity and is
centered around use of the Cryptomeria cipher (also known as C2). The
specification is kept secret and is only accessible to licensees. DVD-Audio
use a very similar scheme known as Content Protection for Prerecorded Media
(CPPM).

crap - DRM built right into the media :-(

OK Peeps, many thanks for all you suggestions and information. I'll get
in touch with Sandisk and see if I can get a replacement card out of them.

Regards,
John.

 

[socrtwo]

| Hi Peeps,
|
| Are there any freeware programs that will recover photo files from an SD
| card that has gone faulty and cannot be read by normal means on my PC?
|
| Thanks for any help,



thought this worth mentioning,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital

"The "Secure" in Secure Digital comes from the card's origin. To create the
SD card, Toshiba added encryption hardware to the already-extant MMC card,
to calm music industry concerns that MMC cards would allow for easy piracy
of music. ("


So fouling those sectory and that's that, the card is dead.


"The SD Card Association's current licensing agreement does not allow for
open-source SD drivers, a fact that generates a fair amount of
consternation
in the open-source and free software communities. The usual workaround is
to
develop an open-source wrapper for a closed-source SD driver available on
the particular platform, but this is far from ideal. Another common
workaround is to use the older MMC mode, which all SD cards are required to
support by the SD standard."

suggesting it's not a *simple* card.. and anything not simple is prone to
failures.


"This means that SD is less open than CompactFlash or USB flash memory
drives," er, more 'not good' information


worse

"Documentation for this mode can be purchased from the MMCA for $500; ..MMC
mode does not provide access to the proprietary encryption features of SD
cards, and the free SD documentation does not describe these features. "


basically if you addle the card, that's that.

I spent 2 days running every data recovery and diagnostic tool over a
brand new card I scrambled - no luck, it was fried. The supplier replaced
it though so I was back in business again luckily.. how I forked it?
copying a large file onto it when doing something system intensive - it
hung the copying process and left crap on the card. Formatting it wiped
carp -and the secure sectors and rendered it unable to be formatted again
:-(

more:
The digital rights management scheme embedded in the SD cards is defined as
the Content Protection for Recordable Media (CPRM) by the 4C Entity and is
centered around use of the Cryptomeria cipher (also known as C2). The
specification is kept secret and is only accessible to licensees. DVD-Audio
use a very similar scheme known as Content Protection for Prerecorded Media
(CPPM).

crap - DRM built right into the media :-(

So Rodakil's Unstoppable Copier (http://www.roadkil.net/unstopcp.html)
will not work and neither will any imaging program?

 

[John]

So Rodakil's Unstoppable Copier (http://www.roadkil.net/unstopcp.html)
will not work and neither will any imaging program?

That's correct.

Regards,
John.

 

[Dugie]

| Hi Peeps,
|
| Are there any freeware programs that will recover photo files from an SD
| card that has gone faulty and cannot be read by normal means on my PC?
|
| Thanks for any help,

thought this worth mentioning,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secure_Digital

"The "Secure" in Secure Digital comes from the card's origin. To create the
SD card, Toshiba added encryption hardware to the already-extant MMC card,
to calm music industry concerns that MMC cards would allow for easy piracy
of music. ("


So fouling those sectory and that's that, the card is dead.


"The SD Card Association's current licensing agreement does not allow for
open-source SD drivers, a fact that generates a fair amount of
consternation
in the open-source and free software communities. The usual workaround is
to
develop an open-source wrapper for a closed-source SD driver available on
the particular platform, but this is far from ideal. Another common
workaround is to use the older MMC mode, which all SD cards are required to
support by the SD standard."

suggesting it's not a *simple* card.. and anything not simple is prone to
failures.


"This means that SD is less open than CompactFlash or USB flash memory
drives," er, more 'not good' information


worse

"Documentation for this mode can be purchased from the MMCA for $500; ...MMC
mode does not provide access to the proprietary encryption features of SD
cards, and the free SD documentation does not describe these features. "


basically if you addle the card, that's that.

I spent 2 days running every data recovery and diagnostic tool over a
brand new card I scrambled - no luck, it was fried. The supplier replaced
it though so I was back in business again luckily.. how I forked it?
copying a large file onto it when doing something system intensive - it
hung the copying process and left crap on the card. Formatting it wiped
carp -and the secure sectors and rendered it unable to be formatted again
:-(

I'm assuming you didn't do this as an experiment.
Very puzzling is how or why formatting wiped the secure sectors. Since SDs
are able to be formatted, maybe it's related to the aborted file copy.

more:
The digital rights management scheme embedded in the SD cards is defined as
the Content Protection for Recordable Media (CPRM) by the 4C Entity and is
centered around use of the Cryptomeria cipher (also known as C2). The
specification is kept secret and is only accessible to licensees. DVD-Audio
use a very similar scheme known as Content Protection for Prerecorded Media
(CPPM).

crap - DRM built right into the media :-(

Thanks for posting all this information, k. It's not encouraging, even
though I've used about 3 or 4 SD cards for a few years and had no problems.
I did learn early on that the "Secure" in SD was not a user "security"
feature, as many people might reasonably believe. This could be considered a
bit of false ... terminology? ... advertising?

It's tempting to use other types of memory cards, but SD seem to be the
standard. :-(

Dugie

 

[k]

"Dugie"
| I'm assuming you didn't do this as an experiment.

not initially, though I did a second time as I'm a perverse nut and I don't
like not knowing why I couldn't recover the card


| Very puzzling is how or why formatting wiped the secure sectors. Since
SDs
| are able to be formatted, maybe it's related to the aborted file copy.



that's pretty much it.. I scrambled the disk and reformatting it wiped those
sectors - end of card :/



| Thanks for posting all this information, k. It's not encouraging, even
| though I've used about 3 or 4 SD cards for a few years and had no
problems.
| I did learn early on that the "Secure" in SD was not a user "security"
| feature, as many people might reasonably believe. This could be considered
a
| bit of false ... terminology? ... advertising?

I concur 100% !

| It's tempting to use other types of memory cards, but SD seem to be the
| standard. :-(

Since SD is the same as MMC (and complies to this standard) all except for
the SD DRM rubbish, MMC's work fine in any (most? all? - they should)
devices

What bugs me is the suspected collusion - what camera or other device these
days that uses SD informs the consumer that MMC is also compatible?

Worse, why are the tech sites not making more of a big deal about the
issues?

k

 

[Al Klein]

So Rodakil's Unstoppable Copier (http://www.roadkil.net/unstopcp.html)
will not work

Unstoppable means that if it hits a bad sector it'll skip it and go on
to the next one.

and neither will any imaging program?

You can't make an image of what you can't read. Both of these are
good if the format of the data is no longer readable by the program
that wrote it, like an .xls file that's no longer in spreadsheet file
- the data is probably still there, or at least most of it is, but
Excel can't make sense of it. Some other software might be able to
read it well enough that you could copy it from that software and
paste it into Excel.

No software can read data from a sector that can't be accessed.

 

[Rarana]

Recover Pictures

I'm sorry to tell you, that software won't work the problem out in this case.
If the SD card is not recognized in the PC or it is impossible to access the data on it, the controller on the card is damaged. There is only one way to get the data back, unsolder memory chips and directly access their raw data with a programable chip reader.That is a physical damage, if you need to get the data back you have to use a special service. I also tried to recover may pictures with free software but then i realized, i have to find a company and pay for it. I again tried 2 companies which couldn't help, but then i descided to send it to germany and thank god they safed all my pictures.The prices are ok, anyway i am happy now, look for http://card-recovery.biz/us/service.php

 

[witch123]

Hi Peeps,

Are there any freeware programs that will recover photo files from an SD
card that has gone faulty and cannot be read by normal means on my PC?

Thanks for any help,
John.

There is no worry about your deleted files from your SD card. Because you can easily recover them by using Data Recovery software. The software can recover the files from SD card even after formatting. By using this software you can easily recover SD card datawithout missing a single one.

 

[chrisgermoy]

Yes, I suggest that you use Asoftech data recovery software which is good at recovering software from sd memory card.