How to Recover your Data from your Digital Camera

You also think that one picture says more than a thousand words? Then you should consider this reading this blog entry. In the good old days you have a ‘normal” camera where you were not supposed to hold the film into the light if you would ever see your pictures again. Nowadays most camera’s are digital and you can buy them from a 150 Euro onwards. Maybe you are using the new digital card from 1 or 2 GB and you have stored more than thousand of high definition photos. With some digital camera’s you can buy a so called digital wallet where you can store on a 6 Gigabyte hard drive all your photos. Still the risk of loosing your valuable photos is still there.

Data Loss Prevention

What not to do

To prevent a data loss from happening is always a better option than getting the data recovered. There are some things that are just as simple as using common sense but in practice often they are overlooked. For example you can have a data loss situation if you are pulling out your memory card from of the camera before it has finished writing. Or when you are low on battery the camera could not complete the auto shut down and you have a corruption in the file system of the digital card itself (FAT12/16). Almost the result is that the card is not recognized in the camera as well in any computer (PC- card Reader). If that is the case you should sent the card in to a data recovery provider.

What to Do:

So always make sure that your batteries are fully charged or that you have it connect to an external power source even when you are downloading the files directly into the computer. There might always occur read/ write problems from the digital camera to the Operating System and backwards. With the Microsoft® Windows® XP operating system you have the option to use the Safely Remove Hardware icon to the notification area anytime you insert a memory card or connect a digital camera to your computer. You should double-click this icon and click the Stop button before physically ejecting your card or disconnecting your camera. Also make sure you handle the digital memory card with care. The chip inside is electromagnetic charged so with a magnet you can easily corrupt the chip inside. In practice this can produce problems if you a near an electromagnetic area or you are electromagnetic charged.

Data Lost and now What? How to Recover..

For any hardware problems with the Digital Memory card (the chip, interface or controller) you always will need a data recovery company in order to get your data back. If the card is recognized by Windows you would be able to use data recovery software to recovery your data. For example if you have erased you photos per accident you still would be able to retrieve your data with data recovery software very easily. The only thing that matters is if you have erased the card with the PC or with the digital camera itself. Some digital camera finishes the deletion process with writing zero across the board. In this case you will find that you can not recover you data.

Because normally when a file is deleted from a digital media card, the bits that store the information aren't actually removed. 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 a new file isn't written over the same location on the card, you will most likely be able to recover at least some files from the card.

When the digital card is not being read, 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 roadmap to the files on the card 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 on the card. In this case you will be able to recover you data by using a piece of data recovery software.

Here are some use full links to download Photo Recovery software:

www.software-recovery.com
www.mediarecover.com/
www.photosrecovery.com
www.imagerecall.com/