Recovering Images or Video from Memory Cards

[sdhelp]

Yeah im just trying to explain it correctly to him. Dont want to confuse the guy.

My camera is a fujifiilm finepix z saving to a puremedia sdhc card 8gb

[JimC]

Which Fuji?

I don't think they've ever make a Finepix Z. They make a lot of models starting with Z (Z1, Z2, Z3, etc.). What's after the Z?

From what I can tell from our review samples, these cameras normally use a .avi extension for their videos. Are you sure it's supposed to be .mov? If not, I'd see if they play in VLC if you rename them to .avi (which is what I see used in our video samples for the Finepix Z series camera I've checked).

[sdhelp]

Its a fujifilm finepix z20fd. They deffinetly save in mp4 format.

Il try changing to avi.

[JimC]

I'm afraid we haven't reviewed that one. So, it may be using a different format compared to the other Fujifilm models we've tested.

[Bozhidar.Stefanov]

You can try doing an experiment like I did - shoot a video and copy it to your PC and then delete (through the cam), restore and compare both files with a HEX editor (http://forums.steves-digicams.com/me...ml#post1085214). Doing this I found that my Praktica actually removes the MOV file header (which can be recovered as a separate file, using the Lost files search function of most file recovery software and then joined back using a HEX editor.)

[X_Marine]

Just wanted say thanks for all the good info.

I have been in computers for 20yrs and used to recover files manually actually reading the hex headers and size and where the next portion of a file started yadayada.. Boy I don't miss those days much. lol

After grabbing some photos of my xD card I must have done something that wrote back to it and it was corrupt. It has been yrs since I have done that but oh well.

I have an older free utility but couldn't find it, so searched and found a few but was very unhappy that they would say they were free until you scanned and found your pics then they wanted cash to save them. Grrr..

I'm not so tight I can't afford 30 or 40 bucks it's the principle.
So I was delighted to find Chris's site with the truly freeware util.
It worked perfectly and I quickly went back to his site and donated 30euros I think is what it was..

Thanks again for the info and good luck to others.
X/BillyD..

[nl5842]

Remember, to format the card in the camera. Do not use the computer, that will not work. And you should avoid missing pictures.

[ashmcs]

I wanted to thank JimC for suggesting this PhotoRec software. Saved about a 1,000 Photos from my compact flash card. When I frist put the card in the card reader it only saw 404 photos. I ran PCinspector I had about a 1,000 but they were corrupted and had grey on a portion of the photos. After running PHotoRec on the memory card it found all the photos and they were flawless! Thanks so much for the details and the help its appreciated!

-Ash

[m00x]

My problem is similar, My m2 card says, Do you want to Format? What the heck?
How come cards are so vulnerable? How to recover the data? Onyl Stellar Phoenix photo Rec sees the files.

[whitespike]

By following your steps I was able to recover all of the lost baby videos of my son. I cannot thank you enough!