neilds37 Loc: Port Angeles, WA

Having gone from JPG to RAW a few years ago, for some reason yesterday I set the camera for RAW+JPG. Went to the Hook this morning and came away with four "once in a blue moon" shots plus two I really wanted to have. When I put the card in the reader and the message came up ...format this drive to be able to use it, I was somewhat devastated. Some hours later I remembered when I had received a message that "C" drive's FAT was corrupted and EaseUS Partition Manager had been able to rebuild it, so went there and was referred to EaseUS Data Recovery. $75 later I had all of the day's images IN JPG but none of the RAW's. If I had been shooting my usual RAW only I would still be SOL. Case closed, lesson learned.

pesfls Loc: Oregon, USA

We all have our habits on this. I have landed on raw plus jpeg. But for a different reason. I use the jpegs to get a quick view full size without opening PS or LR. Then I delete what I’m not happy with and then load the chosen raws into LR and then reformat the card. I’d guess there’s dozens of ways to go about this business but I have find this routine to be quick and efficient. Glad you retained what you most wanted.

neilds37 Loc: Port Angeles, WA

FYI, FastStone Image Viewer will open RAW files for both viewing and global editing. A large percentage of mine don't have to go to Adobe. Just open one raw file and a filmstrip of thumbnails in the folder runs across the top of the screen when you move the cursor to the top edge. Cursor to the left edge, and the editing tools appear. To the right edge, and the exif information appears. Very simple and handy. And it's FREE.

pesfls Loc: Oregon, USA

Thanks for the tip. Have not heard of it before

neilds37 Loc: Port Angeles, WA

You're welcome. I forgot, also on the top and bottom edge there are other handy items such as printing, slideshow, side-by-side compare, etc.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I'd suggest modifying your habits just a little:

Don't reformat the card until everything (original files and edits) are safely backed up.

TBerwick Loc: Houston, Texas

As a matter of habit, I always shoot RAW+JPG. Never have been "bit" but always considered the insurance too cheap to pass up.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Raw+Jpeg fails to suit my purposes. Many of my subjects are high contrast - for example mature eagles with dark and white plumage - and any jpegs I might take are garbage - either too bright and heads and tail feathers are blown out, or good tonality in the heads and tail plumage, but hopelessly underexposed everything else on the bird. Since these jpeg would be tossed anyway, I don't even bother shooting them. I have more space on my cards while shooting and less to look through when I get to my computer. An exposure of a high contrast subject for jpeg may work, but I generally adjust my exposure to prioritize highlight detail and by doing so, end up with darker exposures - which can easily be adjusted in post processing if shot as raw.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

When I first started shooting raw I show raw+jpg. I never used the jpg files and eventually I got a camera with dual card slots. So I dropped the jpg and duplicate the raw file in the second card.

a6k Loc: Detroit & Sanibel

If I understand this correctly, your Windows OS reported that your C drive's FAT was corrupted and somehow that lead to the loss of one type of file and not the other.

I have forgotten as much as I remember about Windows but IIRC, FAT is an obsolete file system. NTFS has been around many years. I can't be sure that NTFS didn't just use FAT as terminology for error reporting but that is what you seem to be saying. I suggest that the reply about not erasing or reformatting the original files until you are sure they are safe is very good advice. You should only be seeing FAT (versions thereof) on SD cards, flash drives and such. What's up with that?

Since I'm a convert to Mac computers I can't help suggesting that you also convert but I do understand that's too big a leap for many people, both financially and learning-curve-wise.

I don't know anything about the services you used to rescue your data but my curiosity is peaked. It is rare in my experience to have a file system corrupt without a hardware problem so I'm puzzled at how easily that was resolved, even with the loss of your raw file formatted images. Why would a .arw file not be rescued as easily as a pdf or txt or jpg or whatever?

The very few times that I've seen a file system corrupted, there was a power interruption involved. That's a very good reason for using a UPS if the computer is not a laptop or otherwise battery powered. Head crashes and bearing failures do happen, but when they do, you don't recover your files for only $75, if at all.

SSD's are not 100% free of failures, but they don't have bearings or heads and are worth considering for that reason. Yes, they cost more. But the cost issue is getting "better".

Anyhow, I'm glad for you that your pics were rescued!

neilds37 Loc: Port Angeles, WA

I'm beyond understanding what is going on with computers now. When the C drive was involved I used a recovery disk. The $75 is for a program that is good for the foreseeable future. I can't even begin to imagine was went wrong with the SD card. I pulled it from the camera, put it in a card reader inserted in the laptop, viewed the images, pulled it from the reader (after receiving the computer's permission) and placed it back into the camera which was connected to the TV via HDMI cable. Turned the camera on and received the message to format the disk in order to use it. Why could JPG's and four MOV's be recovered and not one raw? Oh, the C drive issue was a separate problem - in the past.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Interesting story. I wonder why they couldn't retrieve the raw images. I wonder if any of the free apps would have been able to retrieve the images.

charlienow Loc: Hershey, PA

im a raw + jpeg shooter also...since i have had 2 card slots available the raw go on card 1 and the jpeg go on card 2...this gives me a backup of all my photos, albeit jpeg. I know i can do raw on both cards, but using jpeg on card 2 i can shoot for days with that one card as backup and not have to take the card out of the camera....

fetzler Loc: North West PA

I agree with neilds37. Faststone is great. Windows explorer handles the Nikon RAW files just fine. Faststone is, however, useful for, Olympus RAW files.

joegim Loc: Long Island, NY

The Photos app in Windows 10 opens my OMD-EM5 ORF files with no problem. It cannot open my Panasonic RW2 files though.