TriX Loc: Raleigh, NC

Btw, since it’s a CF card, have you checked the pins in your card reader?

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

Vicki, I offer no assistance; only sympathy. I know what it's like to do a paid shoot, only to have NOTHING to give back. It's a real sinking into a puddle feeling! I hope the camera repair guy can recover your images. I've been lucky 2 of 3 times in recovering items off a hard drive. Not so lucky the third time and lost an entire trip!

charlienow Loc: Hershey, PA

Good luck Vicki. I hope they are able to be recovered...

charlienow Loc: Hershey, PA

Good luck Vicki. I hope they are able to be recovered...

Linda2 Loc: Yakima Wa.

Ditto! I always enjoy your pet photos!

lsaguy Loc: Udall, KS, USA

Vickie, When a file is deleted the operating system replaces the first character of the file name with a question mark. This makes the file unreadable and makes the space available for writing a new file. As long as the space has not been overwritten the file is still there. Recovery programs simply replace the question mark with the original character and now the file can be seen again. If you've accidentally fomatted the card the space is completely overwritten. Even then they can sometimes be retrieved. It depends on how thorough the format was and how aggressive the recovery program is. This is why I drive a nail through old hard drives when I replace them. This doesn't do anything to the files but it does make the hard drive so physically damaged that it won't work.
Wish you the best.

markngolf Loc: Bridgewater, NJ

Hi Vicki,

Sorry to hear about your issue. I know you are a very experienced photographer, but is it possible you flipped the small switch on the card? I've done that when inserting a card. Good luck. Hope you are able to resolve the issue and retrieve the images.
Mark

Alafoto Loc: Montgomery, AL

Have used "Recuva" several times. Works well and the price is right.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

This is a big no no. It is not a good idea to delete images with your camera. Sure, once in a while if you just took a burst of photos and all of them are out of focus and you know that they are no good I might delete those right away. But to go back after you've filled a card and delete images is no good. Why? Well when you delete an image it doesn't really delete it. It simply marks that small segment of the memory card as usable and that it can be written to again. But if the block is only, for the sake of this discussion, 100 blocks large and a file (picture) you've just taken is 110 blocks in size tries to take that spot on the card it will have to break the file up and put it in two locations. I forget the term for this (I think it's appending) but this is what can cause your card to become corrupt. A camera isn't the best device for managing the file structure of a memory card and can lead to this kind of card failure. It's best to shoot and keep shooting until the card is full and then insert another formatted card into your camera and use this until you are finished for the day. Go home and download your images and when you are sure that you have your images safely downloaded and backed up on your computer in at least 2 places, put the cards back into your camera and use the camera to format the card. Using the camera to format the card is the best practice for getting your card ready for the next shoot.

Next is your card reader. I'm not sure about the quality of your card reader, but I've talked to Lexar reps and they insist that a good card reader is also necessary to prevent cards from becoming corrupt. They were especially insistent when it comes to CF cards that are UDMA 7 compliant cards that I need a UDMA 7 compliant card reader.

Next is to make sure you look carefully inside of your card reader to make sure you don't have any bent or broken or missing pins. The broken or missing pins aren't as much trouble as bent pins. Bent pins can really make a mess of things and bent pins are the biggest problem with CF cards. I don't know what kind of card or camera you use but I vaguely remember that you might be using CF cards.

vicksart Loc: Novato, CA -earthquake country

I decided to let the "pros" at the camera store do the recovery. The card was under warranty, so there will be no charge for the service. I may see whether they can also copy the card to a CD or flash drive as added security.

I working off of a MacBook - no Windows Explorer. Usually a window opens with the MacBook photos as well when I submit the files to Elements. At some point in the process the number of files comes up, but those windows didn't open when I tried this download.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

If you never plugged your camera directly into your computer before, it probably started up one of the Canon programs (such as ImageBrowser) by default, which then started to compile a catalog of ALL the images on your computer.... hence the 33,000 images.

I doubt there is anything wrong with your memory card or that the images are actually lost.

It is not a good idea to delete images from a memory card unless absolutely necessary (i.e., running out of space and don't have extra cards). It is too easy to accidentally delete the better image or more than one image... and may even be possible to corrupt the memory card.

Best to download all your images to your computer, then use the larger monitor screen to sort through and delete the ones you don't want. That's much better/safer than trying to do it in-camera or with camera tethered.

I'd suggest you turn off ALL the "auto download" features you have set up on you computer, ESPECIALLY those in Lightroom or Elements.

Instead, use your computer operating system:

1. Before you even insert the memory card, set up a folder to receive the new images (however you organize your images... that's up to you).

2. Insert card in reader. If anything automatically tries to download the images, cancel it.

3. Navigate to and open the card in your computers OS... such as Windows Explorer or whatever Macs use now (I haven't used a Mac in about 20 years).

NOTE:I t's possible to set up your computer to do this by default, any time a memory card is detected.

4. Look for a folder on the memory card called "DCIM" and click on that (ignore the "MISC" folder you'll also see).

5. Look for a folder named something like "100EOS7D" and click on that (ignore the "EOSMISC" folder). You should now see a list of all the images.

NOTE: There may be more than one folder: "101EOS7D", "102EOS7D", etc. The camera automatically creates add'l folders when the file numbering system requires it. Be sure to check inside and copy from each, if there are multiples.

6. Highlight all the images (click on one to highlight it and then use "Ctrl A" to highlight all the rest). Then drag and drop them to the folder you created.

NOTE: In Windows, drag and drop using the mouse's left click button will automatically "copy" images.... while drag and drop with right click will bring up a menu giving choices... in either case, always "copy".... don't "move" images. Moving them removes them from the memory card and you don't want to do that yet. Copy leaves the original on the card, just in case there's a problem with copying them to your computer.

7. Let the system complete copying the images, then point Elements organizer to the images and tell it to import them (or however that's done in Elements... I use Lightroom and am using that terminology, but I imagine Elements is similar).

8. Once you confirm the images have been safely copied to your computer and have backed them up in whatever manner you use, it's safe to delete the ones on your memory card. I recommend you do that by using "format" in your camera (ONLY in the camera where the card will again be used... NEVER format in your computer or in another camera... this "prepares" the card for use in that particular camera). Personally I usually don't format my memory cards until I go to use them again.... The first thing I do whenever I swap a card into my camera during a shoot is "review" one image to be certain they are images that have already been copied off the card.... then when I'm sure, I format the card (some cameras... not sure about 7D... can do a "deep format" which takes longer. That's usually unnecessary... a quick "normal" formatting suffices).

Formatting in-camera doesn't really erase images. Instead it marks them as "okay to over-write". If you accidentally format, all is not lost. The images are still recoverable until you start using the card and sending new images to it. (Even then, it may be possible to recover images that haven't been over-written yet.)

All this takes far longer to write and read than it takes to actually do it. Using the OS data transfer method described soon becomes second nature and is pretty foolproof. There are just too many ways that "auto downloads" can screw up or be set incorrectly. I don't trust them!

Note: If you shoot JPEGs, you can see small thumbnails of them in Windows Explorer and can enlarge and view them in Windows Picture Viewer. But if you shoot RAW (CR2 in your case), those are not directly viewable, will appear with a "generic" icon on lists. HOWEVER, there are "codecs" you can install that make possible viewing thumbnails and even enlarging RAW files (unfinished, so color, contrast, etc. will be off... but useful to check focus, composition, etc.) At one time Canon had a codec they offered for free. I used it for a while on an old computer, but when I went to a 64bit operating system, it would no longer work and Canon didn't seem to have any interest in updating it. I've heard there are some other codecs available free from Microsoft and elsewhere, but AFAIK they are fairly restricted in what they can handle and I have no idea how well they work or if any of them are able to deal with Canon CR2 files.

I use a codec called FastPictureViewer. It costs all of $10 and allows almost every known type of RAW file to be previewed right in Windows, without having to open Elements, Lightroom, Photoshop, etc. It also allows direct viewing of TIFF, PSD and some other image file types that Windows can't normally "see". It has worked great with every type of RAW file (and others) that I've thwon at it and is well worth the money, IMO. I use it on three computers. https://www.fastpictureviewer.com/codecs/

P.S. If you need image recovery software, send me a PM. I have a bunch of licenses for Lexar Image Rescue that came free with memory cards I've bought over the years. Normally it costs about $50 for Image Rescue, but all you need to activate it is the license number (after downloading and installing from http://www.lexar.com/support/downloads/). I have used it and it works. I only need one copy, so am happy to share some of the 8 or 10 extras I got for free!

vicksart Loc: Novato, CA -earthquake country

I agree that it's a good idea to have extra cards. Lesson learned!!! What deterred me from having extra cards was the cost. I think I paid close to $100 for the first one. I'll revisit card options for the 7D. My 60D takes the smaller cards which I can easily buy at Costco, getting several for much less. This instance is a case for taking an extra camera body along as well as having spare cards. Hopefully the recovery project will be limited to the shots I've taken in the last couple of weeks and not all of the images I've taken since I bought the camera nearly 5 years ago. I've been reformatting the card after each download and hope that will limit the images that will be recovered.

Thanks for taking time for such good advice.

cjc2 Loc: Hellertown PA

Personally, I do NOT recommend deleting images directly from the card before upload. It's easier (IMHO) to do this job on a larger screen after uploading. As I use Lr, I may, occasionally, choose not to upload an image at all, but as I go through what I have shot that is where I do most of my deleting. Best of luck.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

IMO, it's best to have a number of smaller cards, rather than one or two large ones. Better to not have "all your eggs in one basket", should a card fail or get lost or go though the laundry in a pants pocket!

I used 15 16GB CompactFlash cards in my two 7Ds and 5DII. I got about 500 RAW files per card, so was able to take up to 7500 images in a day's shoot (thankfully, I've only shot that many or more on very rare occasion... it makes for many hours work downloading, sorting and editing at the computer!) Now, I'd HATE to lose 500 images due to a lost or damaged or failed 16GB card.... But it would be even worse to lose 2000 images on a 64GB card or 4000 image on a 128GB card!

Since getting my 7D Mark IIs, which have a second card slot for SD, I've added a half dozen 32GB SD cards (mostly used for backup, but sometimes in other ways).

Memory cards are CHEAP these days.

16GB or 32GB Lexar SD (like your 60D uses) are on sale for $9 apiece at B&H Photo in NY. Two packs of even faster Lexar 32GB SD Class 10 UHS-1 are going for $32 (but I don't think the 60D is UHS-1 enabled... it can use the "Ultra High Speed" cards, but they won't be any faster in it than the cheaper cards).

Compact Flash (like your 7D uses) are a little more expensive, but not bad. Again at B&H, 32GB Lexar 1066X is on sale at $33 per card. (16GB CF cards are getting hard to find!)

I mostly buy Sandisk or Lexar... and ONLY from trusted sources such as Adorama, B&H. There are counterfeit memory cards (just print and slap a label on them to change brands and claim higher speed). I have heard of fake cards showing up at the big retailers... Walmart, Cosco, etc. It's a major problem on Amazon and eBay. Adorama and B&H are pretty reliable. Everyone else... I worry about. Best Buy ripped me off with a very over-priced card... only because I absolutely had to buy one enroute to a job. Fry's Electronics? NO WAY! Staples? Maybe... I bought a couple cards there in the past, but would have been able to buy cheaper elsewhere.

Transcend branded cards are probably okay, too... though I don't use any. I have used a few Sony cards, which were fine.

Sandisk, Lexar, Transcend, Sony are all "actual" memory card manufacturers.

I avoid "outsourced" cards.... Delkin, Kodak, Duracell etc. Those are distributors who don't actually make the cards, but buy them from someone else and have them labelled with their brand name. They change sources frequently and probably often go with the lowest bidder. Who knows what you might get! I recall some years ago when memory cards were expensive I was very tempted by what looked like a "deal" on some of these types of cards.... but when I researched them I found out that they had an exceptionally slow "write" speed, which would have slowed the performance of my cameras quite a bit (the "read" speed they listed in the ad and imprinted on the cards was 3X or 4X faster... but only effects download speeds).

robertjerl Loc: Corona, California

The prices of CF cards have come down. I have multiple sets of 32GB cards and am considering getting one or two 64GB.
Another suggestion - the 7D is a single slot body - if you do many shoots for pay or other reasons for "needing" to have images you might consider looking for a decent used 7DII with two slots and then use the second slot as a backup. Murphy can still cause two cards to fail at once but at least you will make him work harder at it.