Prevention
It’s always best to avoid a problem rather than recover from it. A common mistake is pulling the media card out of the camera before it has finished recording data. If you open the access door to remove the card, most cameras cut off power immediately. Eject the card while data is being written, and you’ll interrupt the flow of data. The result? Corrupted data on the card, which usually renders it completely unreadable.

Be sure the camera has completely finished writing data to the card before opening the access door or ejecting the card. Many cameras have an indicator light to show that data is being recorded. Make it a habit to wait until the light goes out and then wait a second or two before removing the card.

Also be careful of using the camera for too long with a low battery. If the battery fails while images are being written, the data may be lost and the card itself may be damaged.

Recovery
If prevention doesn’t save your images, there are software solutions that will allow you to recover lost images. Even when you format a media card, the contents aren’t necessarily lost forever.

When a file is deleted from a media card, the bits of information aren’t actually deleted. Instead, the entry for that file is removed from the “table of contents” (File Allocation Table, or FAT) on the card, and the space that the file occupied is marked as being available. As long as new data isn’t written over the same location on the card, you may be able to recover at least some files. Very few digital cameras use a process to “zero out” a card when it’s formatted. Instead, they re-create the FAT on the card, indicating there are no files and leave the data values on the card untouched.

When corruption occurs, it usually involves corruption in the FAT. For example, if you remove a card from your camera before the data has been completely written, the FAT isn’t updated with the latest file information. With a corrupted FAT, the road map to the files is destroyed. Even though the data is still there, it can’t be accessed correctly. While most of the images may remain intact, your camera or computer won’t be able to make sense of the data.

PhotoRescue
One of the most effective software tools for recovering lost images is PhotoRescue from DataRescue, Inc. This software is available for Windows and Mac, and supports virtually all types of media cards. The interface isn’t particularly user-friendly, but the software has a very high rate of success. It sells for $29, but you can download a trial version that will show you what images can be recovered before you commit to spending any money.

Lexar Image Rescue
Lexar Media has offered an image recovery service for its “Pro” lineup of media cards, and it has recently included Image Rescue software (available for Windows and Macintosh) with each card. The catch was that you could only recover data from Lexar brand cards using its proprietary “JumpShot” cable. Lexar’s latest release, Image Rescue 2.0, removes this limitation and offers an excellent solution for recovering lost images. Image Rescue 2.0 can recover any type of data file, not just image files, from any type of media card using any card reader.

Peace Of Mind
There’s no guarantee you’ll always be successful in recovering images, but the odds are in your favor as long as your media card isn’t physically damaged. As soon as you fear you may have lost images, stop using the card and try one of these software tools.