Professional SD Card Recovery

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1
Hi,

I have an SD card containing photos which I can read or recover using my PC and recommended software. So, I need to call in the professionals.

Can anyone recommend a particular photo shop which is good at recovering photos?

I know there are alot in Zurich (I googled) but I feel much better knowing the card is in good (professional) hands!

Thanks.

2
Havnt used them however Ritz Camera in the old town look like they know their stuff. The will however most likely use the same software you already have and charge you a motza

3
Have you tried Starus photo recovery software to recover photographs?

4
A photo shop is only going to have access to the same recovery tools that are already available to the consumer. They don't employ data recovery experts.

You haven't been specific in terms of the problem you have. Is the card simply not recognised, or does the computer detect the card but state that it cannot read it?

If it's the former then try another card reader. If you have no luck with that then it's likely that the card is dead and it's game over. It's possible that the company Kroll Ontrack may be able to do something - they work some real voodoo there, but it's going to cost big time.

5
The strange part of the post is the OP has stated that they can actually read the card with recovery software so cant understand why not do the complete exercise and recover the data

Unless it was meant to say cant read

6
That would be my guess .... he must have stopped for tea.

7
Thank you for all the helpful responses.

I have so far tried Pandora recovery and iCare. Does Starus do anything that a standard recovery software can't?

Regards accessing the card: I was able to open the card directory via a usb adaptor or the sd card slot on my laptop. The windows properties showed that some of the 4gb capacity was taken up.

However when I tried to access the photo folder the explorer crashed. Nor could I copy the folder - Windows reported the source files could not be read.

Unfortunately since then I have placed the card in the drives and Windows now can't recognise the partition and prompts to format the card (which I have not done).

If I run either of the above tools, it recognises the card but, again, can't recover the files... Would this suggest the card is dead?

If so I might have to go down the voodoo road...

8
Sometimes our SD cards go wonky and the PC won't read it. Pop it into my Mac and ta-da, there they are. If you have access to a Mac, try it. Good luck!

9
With straus soft i have been able to recover pictures deleted accidentally.

As per the help menu in straus soft should be able to do following

1)Photo recovery from any media.

The application supports any types of media (hard drives, digital cameras, USB drives, flash cards, cell phone memory cards, etc.). It works with all types of memory cards, including Compact Flash, Micro Drive, Memory Stick, MultiMedia Card, PC Card, Secure Digital, SmartMedia, xD-Picture Card and many others.

2) Recovers photos from any cameras.

The program works with all types of photos. Thanks to the support of RAW images, Starus Photo Recovery restores photos from all types of cameras, both mainstream and professional

3) Recovers images lost during virus attacks and after system crashes.

If your system was attacked by viruses, some of your images could’ve been deleted. Some applications can also inadvertently remove images when accessing them. Starus Photo Recovery will help you get these files back.

4) Recovers images deleted without being placed into the Recycle Bin.

Many applications do not use the Recycle Bin when deleting images. Even though these files are nowhere to be found, you can locate and restore them using this tool. You can also recover images that were deleted from the Recycle Bin.

5) Restores files from deleted and formatted partitions.

You can find deleted disks and restore from them files and folders. Also you can restore files from the formatted partitions. Even if you have formatted a disk and thus have changed type of file system on it, the program can find and restore files from the previous disk!

10
I have just used Starus and it is able to locate the files on the SD card (via the USB adaptor). It will tell me the file size but it unable to restore the files.

Could a specialist do anything more that this software cannot?

11
A specialist could do alot more.. For a start they would not be using a standard PC / Windows.. They'd likely dissassemble the card and remove the actual memory from it and re-attach the memory directly to their own "special memory reading device". Thus bypassing any problems with the interface between the memory and the PC/Windows. They would then have "special reading softward" that's not available to the consumer.. But as others have said, it will cost big time, possibly five figures.

I'd use a linux/mac type computer first and some tools like "dd" to read the raw partition of the sd card. Tools like this don't care if they can see .jpg etc, they just read/write/copy raw data. And it sounds like you can see something?

At very least you could use "dd" to copy what is visible and save an image of it, then hopefully mount that image and get yer stuff.

Remember, the more times you try something with the SD card itself, the less likely it is to recover anything. So I wouldnt just jump around trying this and that. Image it and play with the iamge.

some places i'd look:

unixetc.co.uk/2013/01/20/recovering-data-from-a-corrputed-sd-card/

sdrecover.sourceforge.net

freecode.com/projects/magicrescue

Or the pros

krollontrack.co.uk

12
Try this:

Short version:

Click Start then click Computer.

Highlight the drive you want to check, right-click it then click the Tools tab.

Under Error-checking, click Check Now>Apply>OK.

Long version:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...isk-check.html