74images Loc: Los Angeles, California

Right After Christmas 2015 I Bought a 16GB Lexar Digital Card from a Target Store here in Pasadena, Calif.

I Started Using the Card in July 2016, from my Canon SX-50, & Amazed over 5000 Images on the Card & Still Using Nearly 3 Years Later!

Last Month on Easter Sunday I Shot Just Over 100 Images at an Easter Brunch Called the Reef in Long Beach, Calif.

Early this Month on May 11th, the Day Before Mothers Day I Shot Photos at a Boy Scout Function also in Long Beach, California.

Last Week I Just Started to Learn how to Transfer Photos from a Digital Card to a Flash Drive as a Second Backup, & I did the Scout Photos 1st Cause they were Needed by a Scout Volunteer for a Photo Project for a Scout Event.

& Then I Did Part of the Easter Brunch Photos by Transferring Some of the Photos to this Girls Flash Drive.

It was No Issues Till Memorial Day Monday.

When I went to Access the Easter Brunch Photos on my Camera with the Lexar Card Inside the SX-50, they were Not There, & One Photo from the Scouting Event was Separated from the Other Photos From May 11th, What the Hell Just Happened?

Well Damned if I Know! I Didn't Erase the Photos on my Lexar Card, which I Never Do, Those Digital Cards are my Master Copies, & Unless they are Bad Photos, those I Delete, the Easter Photos from April 21st had Disappeared!

I went Back Through the UHH Posting for May 15th about the Couple who Lost Their Graduation Photos, & were Freaking Out Because the Husband Erased & Formatted the Digital Card, & the File was Lost on the Computer, & was Told by Readers to Look at Recovery File Systems, to Recover the Lost Photo File, & there were Several Recommendations.

One was a Free System with Recuva, & I Installed it on a Library Computer, & Found my Lost Easter Brunch Photos From my Lexar Card on a Card Reader I Bought Nearly 5 Years Ago from Best Buy, & Transferred them to My Flash Drive, "Mission Accomplish!"

Questions are why did A Photo (Just One) From May 11th, Separate & End Up in Another Area? & the Easter Brunch Photos Disappeared? & Is that One Photo that Separated from the May 11th Scouting Event Responsible for Covering Up the Missing Easter Photos File from April 21st & I Can't find them on the Card, but Only Through Recuva or Other Software Recovery Systems?

I Need Questions from you UHH Members who have went Through this Type of Problem, without Accidentally Erasing Your Digital Card, Only to Find it Through a Recovery Program.

I Need Feedback... Thanks

74images

jdubu Loc: San Jose, CA

I have a friend that does what you do... namely, using the memory card as her master file and blithely going about her shooting all the time. I cannot speak to why your camera card put some photos someplace else, except for the fact that Canon cameras put files in folders within your memory card. Even if you don't see them via your camera, they are there and visible inside the DCIM file. After so many shots taken , a new folder is automatically created and used by the camera.

Unlike my friend and most photographers here, I use my cards as temporary memory cards to download my shoots into my workflow and backup system. I don't treat my cards as long term master storage because that's all your eggs in a not so secure basket. After ensuring proper download and backup, I reformat them in camera and use again and again.

hcmcdole

Did you rename anything on the card while it was in the card reader? If you rename any folders on the card itself, then Canon cameras won't recognize it and won't display it on the camera itself. You should see the folders while it is plugged into a card reader though (if this is the case).

Personally, I would take everything off the card after downloading the images to your computer so it is ready for the next shoot. Once the card is filled completely what are your plans? External hard drives are very large and very modest in price these days.

awesome14 Loc: UK

If you never copied any photos from the flash memory card, what did you do with them? Just view them on the camera display? To make a note. I am actually educated in computer science, not photography. Flash memory, such as SD cards, is more problematic than even floppy disks! Flash media is meant to be small, not reliable. It fails all the time!

And the longer you use it, the more likely it is to fail. After 5 years, I just roast flash cards in the microwave for 60 seconds on high, to prevent the possibility of recovering anything off them after I throw them in the trash.

blackest Loc: Ireland

The file system on the card works a bit like a library with a card index and shelves. with your photos as books on the shelves. The index maintains a record of what is stored on each shelf. When you erase a photo , you don't actually erase the photo you just mark in the index that the blocks that the photo on are now free to be written too again. So until that space on the shelf is needed that photo is still recoverable. You can scan each block on the card and see what is there. Every picturefile has a header which is read which essentially says what file type it is and how big it is and a bunch of other stuff too. I'm simplifying of course. You can probably find a detailed explanation of how the file allocation table or FAT is specified.

But for now just accept that erasing and adding a file is done using the 'card' index.

The card index is spread over several blocks and for an sd card a block is the minimum that can be read or written kind of like a drawer in a card index catalog cabinet. like a drawer a block can hold a number of records each record showing which blocks need to be read to retrieve each photo.

because the block is the smallest chunk that can be read from or written too. if say a block contains 100 records and you delete 1 file the sd card reads that block removes the 1 record and writes back the other 99 records.

The problem is that a block can only be written too a limited number of times before it fails, sounds like a disaster but there are spare blocks in reserve so one of the reserve blocks gets substituted and the failed block gets marked do not use. Well thats what is supposed to happen.

There is also the problem that you might want to delete 50 files out of the 100 on the block so rather than erase and rewrite the block 50 times the changes are queued up on the computer and the block gets written to once instead of 50 times. This is great until you pull the card from the reader before these changes have been written back to the card. One of the reasons you should unmount a card first, you are basically saying to the operating system i want to remove this card and gives the operating system a chance to do its house keeping write any changes that need to be made and then say ok its ok to remove the card.

So essentially somewhere down the line the index file drawer got corrupted either by wear or removal before the changes were fully written. removing individual files increases wear rate and shortens the life of the card. Its much better for the life of the card to format the card between sessions.

This card failure you have had may be a sign its getting towards the end of its life while the index has now been repaired there are other blocks likely near to failure too. You may want to consider retiring that card and replacing it. It is certainly not a good place to store photos you want to keep long term.

74images Loc: Los Angeles, California

No...

The Only Files I Loaded on the Flash Drives were those Two, Last Week, which where the Problem Started.

I Loaded, or had Loaded from the Same Card the Scout Events Since November of Last Year, I Just Started Learning To Load Images on a Flash Drive Last Week, had No Problems, Used a Card Reader, as I do to Load Images on a Computer for Facebook or E-mail, as well as Other Cards.

I don't Own a Computer, I Use the Public Library Computers, & I Keep my Digital Cards as Master Copies, & Buy New Ones, Never Erase, or FORMAT, just Keep Cards for Master Copies, the Flash Drives I'm Using for Second Backup.

When I Loaded the Scout Events from May 11th, then I did the Easter Brunch Photos from Last Month, or Certain Photos from that File, No Issues, I didn't check the Card Until the Afternoon of Memorial Day, & Found Out the Photos Had Disappeared from April 21, & The First Photo from the Scouting Event for May 11th, J-PEG 7211 Turned Up where the Easter Photo Brunch Event was Supposed to be.

My Answer is what in the Hell did I do to Cause that?

74images Loc: Los Angeles, California

That's why I'm Transferring to Flash Drives for a 2nd Backup, I'm on a Budget, & I don't even Own a Computer, or a Storage Device that will Hold my Digital Photos from 11 & A Half Years (2007), in the Past I Bought A Fly By Night Digital Card from Electronic Fry's (2GB), which Sold on Sale for $2.99 & Used the Card for 6 Months in 2008, Afterwards when I Went to Wal-Mart, Target or CVS, Sometimes the Same Card wouldn't Work in The Photo Kiosk when I Made Prints or CD's in the Past, I had to Bring the Connector Cord that was Included from my Nikon Coolpix 11, or Use Another Machine, I Didn't get a Card Reader Until 2014 at Best Buy. In which I don't have any Problems with, or Any of my SD Cards.

& After that I Only Buy Cards Like PNY, San Disk, & Lexar (Which Folded Operations), & it's San Disk or PNY Today! i Haven't Used Sony Yet, & I Have Used Kingston, in which I Bought on Sale for Black Friday in 2010 at Electronic Fry's for my Coolpix 11, & No Issues!

No More Unheard of Fly By Night SD Cards for me... Ever!!!

& In 2010 I Bought a 4 GB Lexar Card On Sale at Target for $8.99, & in a Mysterious Way the Card was Cracked & had to Tape it, what Happend After I Finished Using it from Late Summer of 2010 to March of 2011 was a Mystery? I take Good Care of my Digital Cards, Keep them Dry & in the Plastic Box or The Original Plastic Cover, & in a Small Mini Metal Box for Safe Keeping.

With the Current Lexar Card, its Almost at the End of the Line In Storage Capacity, Nearly 2500+ Images to Go! & Later to Be Stored & Later the Images Transferred to Flash Drive.

& This is the 1st Time I Ever had an Issue Like that!

& Again... I Don't Reuse my SD Card, I Keep for Master Copies, & Now Using Flash Drives for 2nd Backup!

olemikey Loc: 6 mile creek, Spacecoast Florida

It's a funny thing, I've lost data (or had to jump through hoops to get it back) with Laptop failures and PC failures, have never lost any to SD or any other card style failures, nor with external HD. I have some old cards (1, 2, 4 and 8GB) that have had same pics on them for years, still usuable, still good. With newer high MP cameras and RAW I go through a fair amount of 32GB HS cards and several 64GB HS cards. While I do keep the cards as original file, all are backed up to PC, Laptop and External HD. Since the files grow (sometimes) quite large with post processing, that is always done and stored off the original card in the PC and External HD, laptop sometimes, but most of my processing is on PC. I did see one of the new 1TB SD cards the other day, now that would be all eggs in one basket!!! With the 32 and 64GB cards becoming so reasonable in price, I'm happy!! I have not yet gone to cloud storage, maybe someday.

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Your answer is absolutely perfect yet sadly is beyond the techi-ness of most photographers given the questions that I frequently see here. Computer operating systems are not their strong point yet they should be since a modern digital camera is simply a computer accessory that captures images.

74images Loc: Los Angeles, California

& Not only that...

The Computer I Used was at the Boy Scout Office, where my Friend Works at, & I Once in a While do some Photo Work for Her, She said that the Computer was Old, & Another Computer Would Not Accept a Universal Memory Stick Device,

So it could have been the Issue why my Photos on my Card Disappeared, & the 1st Photo from another File Jumped Over to where the Easter Photos were.

I Just don't Know, that's why I'm here Getting Answers & Advice from the UHH Site Members who've had gone through Something Similar to What Happend to Me Last Week?

74images

74images Loc: Los Angeles, California

I Keep them as Master Copies...

As I said in the Earlier Post, I'm Now Starting to Transfer to Flash Drive as a Second Backup, I Just Started doing this in the Last Couple of Weeks, Before I do That I have to Rotate Photos in the Right Position that I Shot from my 1st Two Nikon Coolpix (L-11/16), that doesn't have a Device that you Can Rotate the Photos, so I Have to Use my Canon to Do this, its Time Consuming, + Weed Out Any Bad Photos, that I didn't Delete when I Used the Cameras (Nikon) back then, & All I do I Just Pop in the SD Card in My Canon Powershot, & Rotate my Photos, I Can do it on the Computer, but I Also Need it Done on the SD Cards that came from the Nikon Coolpix Cameras that I Used in the Past, this will be a Long Summer, Maybe an Early Fall to Get this Done, but will be Done!

74images

ed. dickau Loc: Alexandria, Virginia

I'll keep this simple. Your symptoms indicate a card that has a corrupted element and you really should purchase a portable hard drive that you can copy your files to. Go ahead and copy them to a thumb drive as well if you want but be aware they can fail quickly. Then, reformat your card after the transfer and don't challenge the card to max storage.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Well, you found out the hard way that you should never use a memory card as storage. It's not a practice that is smart and you are looking for trouble if you do.

Normal workflow is this:

Insert new card in camera
Format new card using the camera
Go out and take pictures at an event or outting
Come back home and use a card reader to copy pics from card to computer
Backup pics on computer to the cloud or another drive
Place card back in camera and format card
Go out and take pictures again and do everything again as outlined above.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

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gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

Copying or moving a file to another place creates a file that is exactly like the original. They are all originals or masters in your terms.