Defective Memory Card

gener · January 2014

Just shot a lot of group photos at the church with a Transcend 32gb CF memory card in my D800. Tried to download the RAW pictures into Lightroom 5 and got all kinds of crazy yellow, green, blue, red streaks running vertically through the shots. Tried again and this time got error message that the files contained an unexpected end of file. However, when viewing all of the shots on the camera display, everything looked fine. Hence, there was no indication during the shoot that the memory card was bad. I know the camera display is showing JPEG conversions so that is why I did not know about the defective card. I was able to recover the JPEGs using Mac computer. So my take is to use a second card and record as backup on the camera. Anyone else experience bad cards?

sovaphotos · January 2014

Did you shoot Raw + Jpeg and only the jpeg files are viewable? Did you try to view the raw files in another application other than Lightroom? I don't think a defective card is selective on corrupting only certain types of files but I could be wrong. I would try to view the raw files on another application first and/or utilize a different card reader.

gener · January 2014

Thanks for your input. I shot only RAW. I used the Preview capability on the Mac and was able to see the JPEG files and copy them to an external hard drive. I used transcend's card reader and their recovery software but was unable to recover the files. I also used a different card reader but still got corrupt files. Then I used a different CF card, took photos and uploaded them without problems using the same LR5 and Transcend card reader. Every file on the Transcend card was corrupted except the Jpeg. I just read that since the camera displays the images in Jpeg that the data on the card is somehow accessible in Jpeg format. I tried to view the images in bridge and also in PS Creative Cloud. Still bad files.

sovaphotos · January 2014

Do the raw files show up when using the card reader? Are they listed as such when using Finder or on a Win PC in Explorer? If so, you should still be able to recover the files. You are correct in everything else in the manner in which you recovered the Jpegs and that it sounds like a bad card. I have had great success with "Active@ File Recovery" and also "ObjectRescue Professional" in recovering files from unreadable cards and other flash memory.

Jacob01 · March 2014

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JonLloyd · March 2014

I have had the same issue with a Sandisk Ultra - BUT only wen I use a particular card reader with that card. If I use a USB cable directly to the camera - they transfer fine. The corrupting occurs during the upload process - the files are otherwise intact. I bought another card anyway... just in case!