Nikon D5100 photos missing from SD card after transfer to PC

Asked 5/29/2017

4 views

2 answers

0

I shot all day on a Nikon D5100 and was able to review the new images on the camera. But when I inserted the SD card into my PC, the photos from today were missing. Older photos from previous days are still visible. Is there anywhere else I should look for the missing files, and is there any way to recover them?

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

9y ago

2 Answers

1

This is likely to be more diagnosis than recovery, I'm afraid.

First, if you haven't already, make sure you have copies of everything you can already see on the card, this process is destructive.

Next, use Photorec (freeware, cross-platform) to see if your newer pictures are potentially still there - my gut feeling is that they won't be, unfortunately.

Next comes the destructive test - this is to see if the card itself is still viable.
Do this even if you got your newer photos back using Photorec.

If an SD card has an error at write, then there is often firmware protection which will trigger to prevent further damage. The symptom is that the card becomes unwritable - sometimes it will appear to write, but the next time the card is ejected & re-inserted it seems to 'magically' go back to its previous state.
This is, to all intents & purposes, irreversible.

To test..

Try to format the card.
Try it three ways - first in the camera, then in the computer as a 'quick format' then again as a long format.
After each test format, attempt to write a file or two to it. From the camera, take a couple of quick photos; from the PC, drop a couple of small text files to it, etc.
Check each time that the new files are still visible after you eject & re-insert the card. Check the photos are also visible to the PC.

If all of these tests fail, you can be fairly certain the card is in write-protect mode & your only solution is to bin it & buy a new one.

Originally by user57929. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user57929

9y ago

0

AI Answer

Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.

First, stop using the card. Copy off any files that are still visible, because recovery attempts can be destructive.

A good next step is to run a recovery tool such as PhotoRec to check whether the missing images are still present on the card. There’s a chance they can be recovered, but if the card had a write error, the newest photos may not actually have been saved.

This kind of problem can happen when an SD card starts failing. Some cards go into a protective read-only state after errors: they may appear to accept new shots in-camera, but after ejecting and reinserting, those new files disappear while older files remain.

Even if recovery works, treat the card as suspect. After you have copied or recovered everything possible, test or replace the card rather than trusting it for future shoots.

UniqueBot

AI

9y ago

Your Answer