DO NOT throw away all those old memory cards

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JSER

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Jeremy
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I have a number of old cards 128Mb etc and even a few 16Mb from way back, I have just used Pandora recovery on them, they were all formatted and found so many forgotten memories.

This is my now 17 year old son in Scotland, check your old cards.

The other day I recovered over 1000 from a well formatted hard drive that had windows re installed, formatting is not always the end

JPEGImage2599.jpg
 
Is that free to use Jeremy, or do you have to pay for the recovered files?
 
Yup, but it was just before I had to go and shoot a mayor, so didn't have time for a proper look.

A simple `yes` or `no` would have done...
 
jon ryan said:
Yup, but it was just before I had to go and shoot a mayor, so didn't have time for a proper look.

A simple `yes` or `no` would have done...
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You SHOT the Mayor :gag: Are you on the run now :naughty:

Don't forget even IF you re use cards this program will STILL find the old pics.
 
What puzzles me is why these photos were not copied from the cards to a more permanent storage with backups when they were originally taken?

I still have the first digital photos I took on a Casio QV10 in about 1993/94. This camera only had internal storage. They have been on at least 8 hard drives through the years, originally on Windows 3.1, through most Windows versions to Win 7 64 today. They are now stored in at least 5 locations.

This is one of the photos, in original 320 X 240 resolution. My daughters are now 23 and 27.


Early Photo by jomike, on Flickr
 
Formatting doesn't actually delete data, it just marks the space as available for use. So if the data isnt overwritten it can be recovered.

So also don't just format old hard drives and throw in the bin. Take a hammer to it.
 
jomike said:
What puzzles me is why these photos were not copied from the cards to a more permanent storage with backups when they were originally taken?
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Im pretty sure that a lot of people (myself included) never gave it a thought to backup pics all those years back. It was only when i became really interested in photography that i started making my own duplicates on other drives and discs. I use Ontrack Data Recovery on any old cards that i have found with good results.
 
snoop69 said:
Im pretty sure that a lot of people (myself included) never gave it a thought to backup pics all those years back. It was only when i became really interested in photography that i started making my own duplicates on other drives and discs. I use Ontrack Data Recovery on any old cards that i have found with good results.
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My reason for downloading immediately back then was not so much for backup, more to see what they looked like on the "big" screen. Those old digital cameras had horrible screens, if they had one at all. They also had very limited internal memory, so you had to download regularly.

This probably got me into the habit of never leaving photos on the camera or card for long.

Even today I usually download any photos I shoot the same day, and then format the card.

I have only once had to use recovery software when I accidently deleted a photo in camera.
 
neil_g said:
Formatting doesn't actually delete data, it just marks the space as available for use. So if the data isnt overwritten it can be recovered.

So also don't just format old hard drives and throw in the bin. Take a hammer to it.
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A bit over the top. 35 pass format with random data overwrite should be more than enough.
 
I have recovered many a file from old hard drives for people, and I agree with Snoop 69, however many were simply taken as snaps, I kept all my EOS10D images but perhaps bought a small digi for quick photos then forgot about them as they were not considered important.

I however was and have always been lucky, since 12 I have been into photography and took everything, and still have the negs, I have photographs of Camberley, Surrey that no one under 20 would believe now.
 
Yes, it would need to be in a card reader.
 
I always use a card reader anyway, never leave card in camera
 
Its the overwrite that is key if you dont want your data to be recovered. I normaly format, overwrite and then remove hard drive internal disks and scratch them. It only takes a couple of minutes, and you can be safe that you documents can not be read by others.

For the avarage joe this is over the top but if you have customer data on your drive at least you dont need to worry about it coming back.

daugirdas said:
A bit over the top. 35 pass format with random data overwrite should be more than enough.
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tris101 said:
Its the overwrite that is key if you dont want your data to be recovered. I normaly format, overwrite and then remove hard drive internal disks and scratch them. It only takes a couple of minutes, and you can be safe that you documents can not be read by others.

For the avarage joe this is over the top but if you have customer data on your drive at least you dont need to worry about it coming back.
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Indeed, only the truly dedicated can recover data from a drive which has had an 8mm drill bit put through it a few times, plus the kind of people who have the resources to do it are not the kind of people you want to cross.
 
tris101 said:
Its the overwrite that is key if you dont want your data to be recovered. I normaly format, overwrite and then remove hard drive internal disks and scratch them. It only takes a couple of minutes, and you can be safe that you documents can not be read by others.
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.....or you could just throw it into the fire ;)
 
I would try recovering some photos off my old cards but I haven't got a card reader that will take such archaic cards!
 
TopBanana said:
I would try recovering some photos off my old cards but I haven't got a card reader that will take such archaic cards!
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So, pray tell, whilst us mortals are using "archaic" SD and CF cards what modern technology places your equipment above ours for storage :geek:
 
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JSER said:
So, pray tell, whilst us mortals are using "archaic" SD and CF cards what modern technology places your equipment above ours for storage :geek:
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No it's the other way round, I'm saying I can't get images off my old cards as my old cards are too archaic to fit in my card reader.

Having said that I'd prefer my current camera used SD cards rather the CF as I have more SD cards and laptops have built in card readers for them etc.
 
I have a camera from when i was little and they have pictures of random things, but the funny thing is i remember taking them! Oh to be young again! x :dummy:
 
Just found this thread whilst seaching info on memory cards.

I am about to sell my unwanted compact camera now that I have a DSLR. I've told the buyer I would include a few quality SDHC cards. The thing is, I want to permanently delete the photos on those cards.
I understand the best way to format is in the actual camera to prevent corruption, but I'm not happy with just formatting. So can I use my 'shredder' software first? It can write over the files in a Guttman method (or something) then afterwards, I could format the cards as normal in the camera to be sold. My one worry - will the shredder ruin the cards?
 
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despite all the hyper about securely "erasing" a drive, there is no need to write umpty million times over the drive with random data to erase it.;)
With newer hard drives ( in the last 10 years ), the data density is so small there is no residual magnet fields left to "deep" scan for to recover data.
A single write of zeros to every location on the drive is sufficient to erase all data.
With SD cards the technology is different, it is a semiconductor switch to hold the state, its either 0 or 1 , there is no residual memory. Simply write 0's to every location once., or copy a black/white image to it until its full.

I work in IT and have a vested interest in security, so we had to look into these things.
saying that when we actually need to destroy 35+ disks we get the apprentice to dismantle each one and bend the platters:thumbs:
 
Cheers John, I'll use the software to write over it a couple of times. :)
 
I tried Pandora and its great, but it cant reclaim RAW (NEF) files from my card.

Can anyone recommend a free program that can?

I found several that can and offer a free trial, but the trial version only lets you view the reclaimed files, not save them.

Thanks
 
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