[Ham-Computers] RE: Flash card failure help

[Hsu, Aaron (NBC Universal)]

Since you need a new card anyway, go out and buy a Lexar "Professional" series CF card.  Lexar's pro series includes "Image Rescue 3" software which will work with any flash card.  The pro series includes a 133x and a UDMA version, but the D70 doesn't support UDMA so it won't be of benefit over the 133x.

I've been using Lexar CF cards in my D70 for years and just picked up a 4GB pro series card a few months ago in preparation for my trip to China last month.  I shoot RAW+JPEG and 4GB holds about 650 shots.  I bought mine at the local Fry's for $54 and received a $25 rebate from Lexar.  Looks like Lexar's current rebate promotion is for the UDMA version, so check prices and get the UDMA if it's cheaper.

For general file recovery, I use "Get Data Back" by Runtime Software (http://www.runtime.org).  As long as the system "recognizes" the presence of the drive, this software will work.  It's come in *VERY* handy in hard drive recoveries - I've recovered data from a a few dozen drives (including USB drives and memory cards) and in only 3 cases did I have to send the drive out to a data recovery service (at $2000 a pop).  Be careful though with this type of software as the more you work with a failing/failed drive, the more you risk physical disk damage that even a data recovery service can't recover from.  I usually create an image with Get Data Back and then recover from the image - if that doesn't work, the drive goes out to data recovery.

Good luck with your recovery effort.  If you're not in a major hurry, send the card to me and I can take a look - contact me off-line.

73,

  - Aaron, NN6O


-----Original Message-----
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 8:20 PM
Subject: [Ham-Computers] Flash card failure help

Group,

We have a Nikon D70 camera that uses (currently) 1GB compact flash cards for storage.  I have a small flash card to USB adaptor and USB extension cable (since all the USB ports are on the rear of the main computer and hard to get to).  This setup has worked well for three years or more.  I've probably transferred 40,000 photos with it.

Saturday we did our regular photo shoot, generating around 500 photographs in about 5 hours.  The camera was still happy with the flash card through the last shots.  About an hour later, I plugged the adaptor into the USB extension.  It took longer than usual but the disconnect icon finally showed up in the system tray.  But the Nikon transfer screen didn't come up.  When I took a look with Windows Explorer, the drive didn't show up.  I wasted about two hours trying to figure out what was wrong with the computer before I finally did what I should have done near the beginning.  Plugged the other card in and it worked 
fine.  

Digging into the Device Driver, I saw that there was an error when I plugged in the (bad) card.  Code 10.  I took the card to Wolf Camera but they weren't able to read it.  They said they could send it to another place with more capability but that it would take typically two weeks.  Does anyone have any familiarity with flash card recovery software I might be able to get my hands on?  It doesn't necessarily have to be free.

Robert Downs - Houston
wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
MVPA 9480
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