16Gig Kingston SD Card, files recovered, card still good?

[Jarhead5811]

I've got two identical 16 gigabyte Kingston SD Cards, I shot 900 shots or so over the past week. I picked the camera today and went to shooting and noticed way too many shots remaining on the card. I immediately switched cards.


The card in question only showed about 20 files taken before today.


After googling a bit I used CardRecovery (www.cardrecovery.com)to recover over 1000 files from the presumably corrupt card. As part of the recovery process it scanned the card and didn't find any problems with it.


I do recall an occasion in which the SD card door was open while the camera an XSi was on. Did that cause this? Does it sound like this card is still good?


I guess I'm just gonna make a mark on said card and relegate it to an emergency backup and use the other one and an old 8 gig as primary.

[EdN]

If you ever have any doubts on the reliability of a memory card, I would advise to ditch it and replace it. Your shots are WAY more valuable than getting a replacement card if it ever glitches again. Kingston is a nice brand but I personally only use the better Lexar and Sandisk cards. Never ever had a problem with any of them.

[Steven23]

i would replace the card, and make sure you format the card each time before each reuse.

[peety3]

I guess I'm just gonna make a mark on said card and relegate it to an emergency backup and use the other one and an old 8 gig as primary.
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There's a memory card on my coffee table that I can't read (though I haven't tried any recovery software). I had enough other cameras in action that day that the shots on it aren't crucial (I had a crew of 8 photographers in action at the event). It's been sitting there for two months, but it's about to go to work and be a spare storage card for Cisco routers, to sneaker-net software files from computer to router. That's about the only kind of reasonable use I'd consider.


Long story short, if it was me, that card would never go in one of my cameras again.

[Jeff Lucia]

Long story short, if it was me, that card would never go in one of my cameras again.
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Second that. The pictures are the whole point, man.

[scalesusa]

Card Recovery does not try and will not fix your memory card.


from their description.


For data protection, CardRecovery performs read only operation on your memory card and it does not change the data on the memory card, so it does not repair or fix the memory card. If you need, AFTER you have recovered your lost photos from the card, you may try to format the memory card before re-use. It is suggested to perform enough read/write test before using it again to take new pictures. If you are worrying that the memory card is unstable and may cause further data loss, purchase and use a new memory card. Your valuable and irreplaceable photos are more important than memory card. Memory card is very cheap. A new 2GB SD, CF or xD card is less than $10.


Formatting your card will likely not catch any issues either, it definitely will not if you format it in the camera!


You must write to and read each memory location on the card in order to find any bad memory cells.


One piece of software that does do this is Lexar Image Rescue 4. It takes about 10or more minutes to completelydo a 4GB flash card, because itwrites a zero toevery memory cell.Then reformat the card.


If you have $100 memory cards, its worth it.


Damaged files can be caused by many things, data can be corrupted while downloading as well. Don't throw out a good card.

[mukul_chou]

Try to have the card formatted

[peety3]

If you have $100 memory cards, its worth it.

In who's book? Not in mine. It can easily cost WAY more than $100 to restage a particular event. If that card loses more photos, what are you going to do? How are you going to explain it? "Yeah, it gave me trouble before, but it 'tested' fine so I kept using it."


My $0.02? If the OP wishes to re-use the card, I ask that we never hear about it.