It hasn’t happened to me in a LONG time, but I did get asked the other day by a fellow photographer about recovering pictures from a memory card after an accidental reformat. There’s a great tool that I’ve used int the past that can pull back photos from the grave called Klix.
The following issues can be solved:
- Deleted images
- Reformatted memory cards
- Corrupted memory cards (often cause by sudden loss of camera power)
The tool works on all types of cards and can recover photos or video (as long as you haven’t written a file to that new place on a memory card). The following card types are supported. It really works well and I’ve used it to recover gigabytes of data with no hitches. The best thing is the try before you buy. You can download the demo and scan your cards… if the demo version sees the pictures it can recover them. File this away for that disaster moment when you realize you’ve blown away a picture (or even a whole shoot) accidentally.
For $20 this is a good insurance policy… you can get more info or the trial here.
I painfully found out that by transferring images to a thumb drive from a borrowed memory card, checking those images out in Bridge for exposure, and then dragging them to the trash and deleting them, I was also deleting them from my thumb drive. Huge surprise, especially finding this out after reformatting the memory card. I use LightRoom, not Bridge, so didn’t know that Bridge was just a conduit. After an agonizing hour, I was able to retrieve all my images by plugging my thumb drive into another Apple computer and then searching the trash. I have finally surmised that… Read more »
There are many good apps that do this, fortunately!
If you buy Higher-end memory cards from Lexar and SanDisk, image recovery programs are included in the box.
Otherwise, I’ve used Data Rescue 3 very successfully in the past, as it can recover from any type of media. It’s $99 but has recovered a Drobo pretty successfully.
This is the best software and has a good support team behind it. Lexar rebrands it as Image Rescue and sells it or gives it away with their cards.
Have you tried this:
http://download.cnet.com/MiniTool-Data-Recovery/3000-2248_4-75337845.html
Can’t recommend as I haven’t tried it myself, but found in a Google search.
Good luck.