Salvaging corrupted RAW downloaded files

[edt]

I downloaded about 250 RAW images, .CR2 files.

One of the thumbnails reveals about 1/2 the image properly. The rest are all black and have text in red saying Unsupported Format Variant.......even though they all end in .CR2

When this happened once before I was able to close PM, then reopen, and the files then behaved normally.....or I was able to double click an individual image, taking it full screen, then it would work fine.

When I open them in Capture One I only see about a dozen files, and 3 of those show color stripes and the other 8-9 are blank.

Shedding all pride, I will admit that any of these things could be the culprit, in the sequence of my suspicion:
   --While downloading I opened another program and had to Force Quit it, possibly corrupting the download process
   --It is possible that I took a partially used flash card out of the 1D3 and put it into the 1D4, or vice versa--is that a no-no?
   --I guess it's possible the card went bad, but I did see these images on the camera as I chimped so I know they did exist

Each file seems to have been downloaded twice, as all the file names are repeated but with an A in the duplicate, ie, 6841.CR2 and 6841A.CR2. This likely means nothing other than I downloaded them twice in my frantic effort to resolve......?

To make matters worse I cannot determine which flash card they were on.........just shoot me!

IS THERE ANY WAY TO SALVAGE THESE IMAGES?

thx,
Ed

[Kirk Baker]

Ed,

I downloaded about 250 RAW images, .CR2 files.

One of the thumbnails reveals about 1/2 the image properly. The rest are all black and have text in red saying Unsupported Format Variant.......even though they all end in .CR2

When this happened once before I was able to close PM, then reopen, and the files then behaved normally.....or I was able to double click an individual image, taking it full screen, then it would work fine.

When I open them in Capture One I only see about a dozen files, and 3 of those show color stripes and the other 8-9 are blank.

Shedding all pride, I will admit that any of these things could be the culprit, in the sequence of my suspicion:
   --While downloading I opened another program and had to Force Quit it, possibly corrupting the download process
   --It is possible that I took a partially used flash card out of the 1D3 and put it into the 1D4, or vice versa--is that a no-no?
   --I guess it's possible the card went bad, but I did see these images on the camera as I chimped so I know they did exist

Each file seems to have been downloaded twice, as all the file names are repeated but with an A in the duplicate, ie, 6841.CR2 and 6841A.CR2. This likely means nothing other than I downloaded them twice in my frantic effort to resolve......?

To make matters worse I cannot determine which flash card they were on.........just shoot me!

IS THERE ANY WAY TO SALVAGE THESE IMAGES?

1) Force quitting some other app likely wouldn't have had any effect.
2) We always recommend formatting a card when you put it back into your camera, especially if it is a different camera than the one that last formatted the card.
3) Cards do have a finite lifetime and do go bad over time.  The firmware on the card is supposed to map-out the bad sectors/blocks so that they aren't used but this doesn't always work especially if the card is going bad in a big way.

Did you perhaps ingest one card and then pull it out of the reader before you unmounted it completely, and then insert the next card?  There are issues that can occur if a card isn't unmounted properly and another card is inserted.  What happens is that the OS caches some of the data from the old card and some of the data from the new card is mixed in.  This can result in images that are unrecoverable.

If you haven't re-shot pictures on the card and haven't formatted it yet, try remounting it and ingesting it again.  If you have reformatted the card then there are several applications like ImageRescue that can scan the blocks on the card and find the pictures and restore them.

HTH,

-Kirk