jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Just out of curiosity, I tried Recuva on an SD card I had formatted and used to take two pictures. After twenty minutes of searching, it came up with nothing. If I ever need it for real, I hope it does better than that. I formatted the card in a Sony A6000.

dickparkans Loc: Arizona

From what I have been told. Sony uses a delete system that cannot be recovered

DMGill Loc: Colorado

I recently needed to recover a couple of files from a recently formatted XQD card. I had Recuva do a deep Scan and was able to recover almost all of the files on the card. A couple had been partially overwritten and weren’t usable but almost all were in perfect shape. At least with a Nikon, formatting in the camera appears to only erase the File Allocation Table but does not wipe the card so a file is recoverable until the camera writes another file on top of it.

Did you do a deep scan?

dickparkans Loc: Arizona

No. I had only borrowed the camera and I had to give it back

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

It can recover images lost due to accidental deleting, but formatted images are not recoverable!

Kuzano

Routinely, Format and Delete simply change the first letter of every file name to a character that recovery programs can find and change to a recoverable file name. These programs (recover) scan the card or drive for such a character.

Sony may use a delete or format process that does not follow this protocol, and the recovery program does not work. I would lay this problem at Sony's doorstep, but that's a WAG!. If that is not the case, I would try NOT using format, but rather would do a file- Select All- Delete to clear files off a memory card. I would do it in the computer. Avoid Format if you want to use a recovery program. This can be tested.

Sony may use a Format routine that actually overwrites the files on the memory card, which is not usual for most Format commands, hence the "gone" files you are encountering.

DMGill Loc: Colorado

Sony may be something unique and different, but I’ve used Recuva to recover files from cards and hard drives that had been formatted. If you want to prevent recovery you have to wipe the card or disk. All a simple format does is erase the directory that gives the address of the file. A deep scan with Recuva looks for the actual file and that file is recoverable if it hasn’t been over written with a new file.