Lesson Learnt: Back up your data or risk losing it all!

[jdwarren]

Hey all,

Just lost all the data from a full day of shooting on the P4P thanks to my MAC.

I transferred the data from my MicroSD card to my external hard drive.

Used the computer for 30 minutes doing other things

After the transfer was complete, I re-formatted my microSD card to use for the next shoot.

During previewing the files from todays shoot, I wanted a bigger preview so I changed the thumbnail size but did not like it so I hit "cmd + z" to undo the thumbnail size change, but unfortunately this un-did the "transfer" operation from my microSD 30 minutes prior... I immediately hit "re-do transfer" but since the microSD has been re-formatted, there are no files to copy!

So I lost everything from todays shoot by hitting command + z (undo).

In the future, I will make 2 backups on both of my external HDs before re-formatting the microSD card!

 

[Ozz]

You could also just undelete the sd card...

As long as you havnt written anything to it you can unerase or even unformat it.

Don't know about macs - but there are lots free pc software out there that can do it : eg. Recuva or Active File Recovery

 

[BigAl07]

We only format the SD card AFTER a project is complete except if we are working with a LEA on a SAR and they require the data to be erased after the file transfer is confirmed.

 

[anotherlab]

In addition to backing up your images and videos to another drive, you may want to consider having an extra level of backup. Like a home NAS solution. There a bunch of vendors making decent SOHO models. I have QNap TS-451+, but there are many others that can do the job.

Hard drives fail. It's not a question of if, but of when.

 

[jdwarren]

I would love to "UN-format" my SD card. Would it retain all the information in my pictures? There was around 500 DNG pictures. Does anyone know any unformatting free software for mac? TIA

 

[anotherlab]

I would love to "UN-format" my SD card. Would it retain all the information in my pictures? There was around 500 DNG pictures. Does anyone know any unformatting free software for mac? TIA

I don't know of any written for the Mac, but if you can get access to a Windows machine you can run DiskDigger on the SD card. Lifehacker liked it, and I have found their recommendations to be pretty good over the years. They have partial support for Mac, but it may be glitchy.

If you are anywhere near NYC, I read on CNet that Adoroma has a recovery service and can burn recovered files to a CD. I don't know if they still offer that service or how much it costs, but it might be an option.

 

[Athlon2K15]

SanDisk has Rescue Pro for PC and OS X

 

[anotherlab]

SanDisk has Rescue Pro for PC and OS X

SanDisk no longer supports RescuePro or RescuePro Deluxe. See this page on the SanDisk site for details. It's currently sold by LC Technology and it costs about $60 for the Deluxe version, which I think is the one that supports SD cards. Go here for the Mac version.

 

[Athlon2K15]

Lexar has Image Rescue

 

[anotherlab]

Kingston has MediaRecover for Windows and Mac. Free but I don't know if it's limited to their own brand.
Sony has Memory Card Rescue for Sony branded memory cards. It's free but only runs on Windows.
Lexar has Image Rescue for Windows and Mac. Costs $33.99 and supports any brand.

 

[Athlon2K15]

Kingston has MediaRecover for Windows and Mac. Free but I don't know if it's limited to their own brand.
Sony has Memory Card Rescue for Sony branded memory cards. It's free but only runs on Windows.
Lexar has Image Rescue for Windows and Mac. Costs $33.99 and supports any brand.

Thanks for the info.

 

[Ozz]

I would love to "UN-format" my SD card. Would it retain all the information in my pictures? There was around 500 DNG pictures. Does anyone know any unformatting free software for mac? TIA

The software i listed is old but can be found easily on the net - and is fully free - and I have used them with good success.

They have two modes - simple unerase - and a deep scan which will pickup even formatted files - doesn't matter what type although of course the smaller files will more likely to be complete if you have written anything to the drive.

Also - a point to note here is you should never give away SD cards with your cameras or drones if you value your privacy - its easy enough for people to recover stuff off them
...At least without using some wiping software first on it, which can erase the cards better, by writing patterns of data to the cards.