Did I Really Lose All of My Family Vacation Pics 4Ever or Can I Get Them Back?

I am a professional photographer and what I have used in the past is a software called ImageRecall. It recovered all of the images- there were a few that were corrupted which probably caused the problem in the first place. Good Luck!

My husband just got home and has questions.
What is the name of the photo card company? What is the size of the card (he means how many MB) Is it an HD or what style of card is it?
You can sometimes, contact the company for them to help you recover the photos.

I'm a professional photographer. A couple of months ago I shot a wedding and when I went to download the photos, the same thing happened to me. I almost died. I saw a lawsuit in my future and a bride with no photos of her wedding.

I called the card manufacturer and they told me to send it in. They recovered the files.

As long as you don't write over them they are still there. So do not format, do not try to erase it, just call the manufacturer and see if they can recover it.

I use pro cards, so the support might be better, but it never hurts to ask.

Good luck to you!

So sorry you are experiencing this. I work with a group of volunteers that do a lot of digital camera work and here are their tips. This often happens when you put the card in the camera and take it out when the camera is turned on. Another issue is the camera can get confused when you delete images using the camera's feature.

The PC should be able to fix this. plug in the cable to the camera and the PC and then turn on the camera. If you have changed the folder the pictures go into try to make sure the photos are going into the correct photo structure.

Your camera mfg should be a big help, go to their website and type in the exact error you are seeing. Use their Q&A section, web chat if they have it or call their call center.

Another suggestion is a card reader that connects to the camera with a cable.

Here are a couple of websites might colleagues recommended that address the issue:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=2007121619381...

http://www.squidoo.com/formattedsdcard

http://the-gadgeteer.com/2002/06/12/a_brief_primer_to_rec...

Don't take any more pictures on this card until you can recover the images ... it will write over old images you want to recover.

Best of luck!

Try downloading the pictures with your USB cord instead of your memory card. This will probably do the trick

I am interested in the responses.

S.:

I had the exact same thing happen in the middle of a trip to the Holy Land. I lost six days of irreplacable pictures. There was no hope of placing the card in the computer, printer or another camera to see the pictures. The pictures are basically in "hiding".

I was referred to Global Data Finders by people from the group and actually contacted them from Israel. I spoke to Neil Martinez at ###-###-####. They were able to salvage the majority of my pictures (due to reformatting, not all may be available). To me, the expense was worth it. I anticipated almost $500 but paid only about $150. It was worth every penny.

Best of luck to you.

Read the posts on this website....You might get the answers you might need. There are some other programs mentioned on this site that might help you.

Good Luck

http://www.oempcworld.com/support/honeymoon.htm

Looking for answers, my dau. did the same thing

Yes, whatever you do, DON'T format! That does erase everything. Have you tried just downloading the photos on the computer or have them 'developed' at walgreens, walmart, etc.? I'm sure they're still there, just needs to be downloaded. Good luck!!

I believe you can recover your photos. I did the exact same thing--reformatted. I took my camera to Wolf Camera and they were able to recover all of the photos. Just don't take any pictures on top of the ones that you already took. They are still there, you just can't see them. I paid around $40 for this service. Good Luck!

Do not format your memory card. This same exact thing happened to us after our California trip. My husband downloaded a program from the internet that helps restore photos from memory cards gone bad. We paid around $30 for this program but it saved all 200+ of our photos and we were able to recover them without any damage to our memory card or camera. After we downloaded the photos, we reformat the memory card and haven't had any problems with it since (that was back in Oct. 2007). The program was called photo rescue. Good Luck!

-M.

Lots of good suggestions. I am going to keep this one---because this will happen to me.
Yes, the manufacturer is a great place to start. Get their technical help.
Also, my husband has had a few problems with his new, fancy Canon digital and he goes to Wolf Camera for help. They are excellent at troubleshooting.

We went to Germany 2 summers ago. I was terribly worried that something would happen to a camera/ or pictures in a foreign country, a place we would be unlikely to visit again. So my kids used disposable cameras, my husband and I both took digital cameras. I had triple back-up!

Hey S. - oh wow what a tense situation. :( When you hook the camera up to the computer, try finding the folder the images are in and copying the folder to your computer, instead of trying to upload the traditional way. If you are on a PC, plug in the camera (close out the software that automatically pops up if it does), on your desktop go to "start", "my computer" then find the camera (most likely E or F drive). Double click on it - there should be a file (or 2) there - keep opening the file(s) until you find one with your images and then right click the folder, copy and then paste it somewhere onto your computer (in your Pictures folder or wherever you would normally upload). Hopefully they are still there.

Unfortunately it sounds like you may have some corruption on your memory card - so you may have lost some of your images. Hopefully that is not the case though.

After you find the images and have them on your computer (make SURE you actually have them!) then you should format your card, 3 times at least. FYI, When you format a memory card, the first time, only about 20% of the information is erased, the second time, about 50% and the 3rd time usually will get it all. If you use your camera a lot, your card may have a bunch of broken info on it and that could ultimately be the problem.

I hope this helps!
D.

Try using a card reader that plugs directly into your computer. Good Luck!

I had problems with one of my memory cards......and I called the company and they helped us get it working... It was a really big memory card...and the chip had to go into a special "reader" and then into the computer...... It was talking about formatting etc... but when I put it in the reader.. all went well..

Good luck.

J.