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08-05-2017, 02:29 PM   #1
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K200D empty SD card after humpbacktrip :(

Hi all,

K200D from mother-in-law. Returned it (after borrowing) with a full set of (Duracells rebranded as) Eneloops half a year ago.
Borrowed it from her 10 days ago, turned it on, battery seemed full and I inserted a 32GB uSD (as I have done many times before). Showed 999 photo's remaining (so the the card was obviously being read) and I took a test shot that showed on the LCD. I did not actualy play back from the SD card...

Then the battery was suddenly empty and I replaced them with a fresh set of Eneloops. (So does the camera have such a big powerdraw when OFF that it kills a set of Eneloops charged with a Maha-9000 in half a year?)

We went out into a fjord in Iceland and I took 100's and 100's of Humpbackwhale pics (on that same set Eneloops). They supposedly mostly hunt alone, but I took a load of pics with two, possibly even three tales diving at the same time... And pics of my daughters in focus and a humpback out of focus in the back, well, you get the drift. Probably rarest set of pics I ever took*

So we returned and I had a look on the camera to see some pics, but none showed. Later I took out the SD card and put it into a laptop. It showed a subfolder in DCIM that disappeared while the window refreshed for some reason on the laptop.
So then, when back home, I ran Recuva and I found just old damaged AVI files from when the SD card had been used in a dashcam. This is a dashcam that only works properly if the card is formatted in said dashcam, so pretty sure it was last formatted in this dashcam.

Then I ran a DEEP-scan with Recuva and I found a single (!!!) whale pic (and all other damaged AVI's). So it did manage to write ONE pic to the card.

I still have the SD card, but have very little hope of ever rescuing the rest, but open to suggestions!

Should the camera not have given me a warning that it had an issue writing to the card? It does read the card when first inserted, right? And what other tests aree done? Is there a file-check after writing?

Was this due to the batteries being empty? (I think I took the test shot with the Duracells, but I might have that mixed up and that the batteries died shortly after putting in the SD card and that I took the 'test-pic' with the new batteries. BTW, I did NOT find the 'test'-pic' on the card.)

Obviously reformatting a card when you're going to use it for something this important is wise... but given it seemed to read it just fine (999 pics left) made me kinda forget that...

Is this due to it being a Samsung card and the software being V1.00? I only read there supposedly is an issue with SD cards AND/OR uSD-cards AND/OR Samsung SD's and V1.00 after the whale-issue. I've shot 100's if not 1000's of pics without ANY ISSUE WHATSOEVER on uSD-cards before this with this same camera. Possibly also Samsung 32GB uSD's, but probably Kingston 32GB uSD's. I swapped the card for a 32GB uSD from (probably) Kingston and it worked just fine for the rest of the vacation.


Luckily we still have the video-camera footage. But I can't make a 4x3ft poster out of that...
And mother-in-law's photo's with her (much newer non-dslr) Canon are limited as her battery ran out. Glad she declined my offer to give her the Pentax back to take some pics, then I would have messed up two peoples photo's. Then again, I would have switched to my telephone (S4) and it would have made decent pics whereas now I have zilch... They sure were close enough, especially when going inches under the boat...



* loosing this set of pics was even more annoying than rolling up my 35mm film on the development spiral-roll in a darkroom and have a light suddenly come on. (Broken ON/OFF switch that suddenly made contact again.)


Last edited by r-p; 08-05-2017 at 02:48 PM.
08-05-2017, 03:04 PM   #2
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Sincere condolences!

The central issue here is that when a camera writes to an SD card, the camera trusts the card when the card says "OK" after the file is written. Unless the card reports an error, the camera assumes the file was successfully saved. There's no file check because that would take a long time and consume battery life. If that card had a non-standard format due to the dashcam or was corrupted by the batteries dying while in the middle of writing a file, it's possible that the card might think everything is fine but all the files written to it are getting garbled. (What gets garbled isn't actually the files themselves -- it's often the filing system that is mis-filing chunks of every file or mis-remembering where it put your files that can cause this kind of severe corruption).

It also doesn't help that when you stick an unlocked SD card into a Windows or Mac computer, the computer automatically writes a bunch of it's own files to the card which can further damage it.

You can (and should) try other recovery software. Moreover, if that dashcam has a USB port, you might just try sticking the card in the dashcam and connecting the dashcam to your computer via USB. If the dashcam uses a non-standard filesystem format, it may be able to read your files. One can hope!!!! Or the card may be so corrupted by all it's been through that the files are truly lost.


Best wishes on a full recovery!
08-05-2017, 03:08 PM   #3
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Sorry to hear that you are missing out on all those pics- I know the feeling when it happens

If there's a problem with the memory card, the camera will still shoot a photo, but it should say "memory card error" on the rear screen after you capture a photo and it fails to be saved. Unfortunately, this can be easy to miss if you're not used to using instant review.

My experience has been that microsd cards are less reliable than standard sd cards due to the fact that they get exposed to more heat and physical pressure. I've had 2 fail on me already (got them replaced under the lifetime limited warranty), so I stick to standard SDs (from sandisk) in my DSLRs.

Also, nonstandard files/folders on the card can cause undefined behavior, so it is quite important that you format the card when switching between different devices.

Adam
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08-05-2017, 03:48 PM   #4
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The camera as well as you laptop must completely rely on the information the controller on the card is providing. It "sees" a virtual image of the file system and the position of the files. The real structure is kind of top secret of the manufacturers, as performance and wear is relying on these. That's why some brands have a better reputation than others.
As photoptimist said, if the card controller does not signal a problem to the operating system, the camera will not show an error.
And whether the controller of your card performs an internal verify or sum check, who knows? The manufacturer will not tell you.

But power failure during a write cycle will cause inconsistant FAT entries. This may later lead to overwrite or cross write files. Worse, directory entries could vanish, and their complete content would magically not exist any more. If you now stop working with this card, there would be a chance to re-establish this entry, and the complete content would magically be there again. But the chance is very small, as the original position of the directory entry start is not known. Specialized programs try to find some hint where it could have been, but (disks/hard disks included), during the last >30 years I had not more than 10% success.


Last edited by RKKS08; 08-05-2017 at 03:50 PM. Reason: Typing
08-05-2017, 06:09 PM   #5
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The situation doesn't sound very encouraging but try Photorec which I find to be way ahead of Recuva in recognizing images on a card.

Be sure to save the found files to some drive other than the card itself.

PhotoRec - Digital Picture and File Recovery
08-05-2017, 09:00 PM - 1 Like   #6
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What firmware is the camera running? I had the same issue with my Samsung GX-20 (K20D clone) and it turned out the camera's firmware was incapable of writing to 32GB cards. Firmware version 1.04 solved the problem for the K20D but Samsung stopped updating the GX-20's firmware with version 1.03 so that camera never got the fix. That said, the camera works just fine as long as I use a 16GB card or smaller. I got hold of a K200 a few weeks ago and it did the same thing with firmware 1.00. I updated it to the current version 1.01 and it now works just fine with 32GB cards.

Last edited by E-man; 08-05-2017 at 09:07 PM.
08-08-2017, 03:39 AM   #7
r-p
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The firmware is V1.00 (is also somewhere in the long original post ) but other 32GB cards have worked fine. I downloaded (but not installed) the most recent V1.01, so will update once I have gotten to the bottom of this issue.

I bought a 2GB fast normal SD card (Sandisk Ultra iirc) when getting my mother-in-law the camera originally, but somehow she NEVER has that card in the camera, just low budget 2GB or none at all. Due to the limited size, I would have placed a 32Gb uSD anyway.

Will try Photorec and the Dashcam options.

Thanks for the ideas and background-on-how-cards-work so far!!!


Last edited by r-p; 08-08-2017 at 06:54 AM.
08-08-2017, 01:21 PM - 2 Likes   #8
r-p
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Photorec came through!!! So thanks to all and a special thanks to Not a Number!!!



Quality varies (not due to the restoring process but due to my quality as a Photographer ), but many really amazing ones too!

The ones with my daughters in focus on the foreground and a whale blurred in the background are not recognizable enough. Too little field of depth with the SFXn's FF 70-210 lens. The ones with a whale in focus and the daughter out of focus are better. And the wife says the ones with the mirror 600mm FF are not sharp. She thinks the rings that form on the lightdots in the distance should be photoshopped out .


There's only 1GB of rescued data (250pics), but I think it might be all I shot. Then again, I could hear the K200D click 10 times when the guy with a newer dSLR behind me sounded like he was firing a machinegun...(10x more pics with ease) I guess the K200D is getting a little old.
I had it on single shot as I used the fast mode before, but it can only take 8 or so before it has to write them to the card and becomes unusable for a few seconds, and I didn't want to risk that. I missed the resurfacing pics when shooting someone paddling off a waterfall (Gollum's pool) in his kayak last year.

Thanks again, this thread saved me!!!
08-09-2017, 11:13 AM   #9
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I also used my K200D last weekend. It looks like my K5 is now deceased. The K200D still takes nice photos but I can tell a difference between it and the K-5. I have been looking forward to the K-3 successor (new sensor) for some time and hope to hear an announcement soon.
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