Quote:
Originally Posted by sworks
One for the photographers and videographers, do you change you memory cards periodically? I had one fail yesterday and luckily the camera records to two cards. It was a good quality card that was around four years old. I've ordered a new card and card reader but what do the people that shoot photo's and video do? I have spares but the one that failed yesterday added the files to the card but would not let me remove them from it.
|
I dont know what could cause the failure, I have been lucky enough to not experience it. I have recovered images for many many people in my past life working at Jessops. Sandisk's own recovery software (not just for Sandisk cards) was actually quite good, and came free with their Extreme cards. It could be worth looking into recovery software, with most giving you a trail before buying. The trials will normally recover two or three images before telling you to buy, at least you will be able to see if it works. (another very good for the price software, was Image Recall, although I am not sure if it still exists).
Have you tried connecting the camera to the computer, and use it as a card reader? I have found, if I have issues with accessing the files, this will work.
There used to be a procedure for physically removing the cards and inserting them, as 'hot swapping' could prove damaging. I am not sure of it, as I always was able to hot swap (inserting the card without having to prompt the computer or camera that a new 'drive' was coming. I dont think this is (or has been) an issue since half way through Windows XP though. But perhaps something along these lines has caused the issue. EG removing teh card, or battery dying whilst it was still writing to the card. The file structure has been damaged, and whilst the files are still there, the reading device cannot recognise it correctly because of damage to the code. At this point, I used to reformat the card in the card reader, and then use Image Recall which to my knowledge recovered the files (and older since deleted ones too!).
When I use cards, I format them in the cameras before using them (obviously after downloading them).
If you have two card slots, you should be able to configure what each slot does. If they are big enough, you could simply use them to duplicate to each slot. If I was shooting anything important, I would use small cards changing frequently. Or if a larger card, I would rotate them regularly. This way it would mean if one failed, I wouldnt lose everything. For a dual slot system, I would still work like that - a double failsafe.