recovering photos from a gnawed-upon SD card
November 29, 2009 8:41 AM   Subscribe

Are there any services (preferably in Canada) that will attempt to get data from a damaged SD card? A friend has baby pictures on an SD card, which said baby later found and used as an inappropriate teething aid.

The card doesn't show up on any computer/card reader, though most card readers do accept it.

I've tried RescuePro, PhotoRec and PhotoRescue, all on Mac. None of them even see the volume.
posted by scruss to Computers & Internet (6 answers total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Photorec doesn't see it? Ouch.

If you're in Linux, what messages do you get when you plug the card in? Can you make an image of it?
posted by devnull at 10:59 AM on November 29, 2009


It might be worthwhile to leave it somewhere warm and dry for a week or so and try again.
posted by bonobothegreat at 12:47 PM on November 29, 2009


Call around to the better (non-chain) photo labs in the area. Many of these places do data recovery.
posted by availablelight at 1:25 PM on November 29, 2009


Best answer: It's unlikely that a baby chewing on the SD card corrupted the data stored within. It's far more likely that there is physical damage to the connector, the wires between the connector and the silicon chip inside or the silicon chip itself is broken.

This means that a data recovery software program is very unlikely to work for you (as you've discovered). You need someone that can physically remove the memory chip from the SD card and read it. Google found these guys, I can't vouch for them, but they claim to be able to do what you need.
posted by Long Way To Go at 4:15 PM on November 29, 2009


Response by poster: no messages in the system log under Linux, either. I will try the German data recovery company if there are no labs in Toronto who can do this.
posted by scruss at 6:11 PM on November 29, 2009


Response by poster: Bloody hell, Recoverfab are amazing!

Got an e-mail at 06:30 this morning that they'd received the card, with a latest completion date of a week. Before 09:00, received a second e-mail with a link to picture samples and payment options. Have paid (not cheap - €89) and am awaiting the FTP link.

This is a card that managed to fry one of my card readers, and one of the better labs in town (Downtown Camera) returned as unreadable.
posted by scruss at 6:23 AM on January 16, 2010


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