Digital Photo card still keeps photos -completed with thanks

[heywood]

Hello everyone,

I am hoping that some well informed person can explain something to me. It is not a worry but can be irritating. I have just uploaded 27 photos from my photocard on to my laptop- using the card slot but there was also an extra 100+ photos from last November!
These were deleted at the time, and there have been many photos taken, uploaded and deleted since then.
It has happened before- sometimes just one or two snaps come from nowhere.
I know that there is a facility to recover photos as I have had this done previously when another computer did something to a card. However, at the moment, I am 'recovering' photos I don't need 
I have tried to search for an explanation but I can only see sites which help to recover rather than delete.

Thanks for reading and I hope someone can advise on this mystery.

regards
heywood

[les_looking]

are you deleting via the camera of the pc?
have you maybe protected the images that stops deleting? try the settings on the camera
will be in the same place you set quality etc, otherwise last resort is to format the card after you have made sure
you have saved them all.

Just to add it maybe worth formatting the card if it is playing up as it maybe a bit buggy

[heywood]

Thanks for the reply. I delete via the camera- I suppose I am more intrigued as to why it happens. It's not always the same pictures- today it was 100+ of old photos at other times it's just an odd one 
When I review on the camera, they are not there.
As long as I don't do anything by formatting the card, I may do this when it is supposed to be 'blank'.

[les_looking]

yep formatting a memory card is not the same as doing a pc hard drive, and takes a minute at tops,
it maybe there is a file that is causing the delete to go iffy, ie could be some video taken
or maybe something that you have put on it etc etc,
as you say best time to do it is when its supposed to be blank or just before your ready to empty the card,
so you can see it has been done properly

I would also add if after formatting and further down the line it starts doing it again, i would say the card is a bit dodgy,
and for the sake of your photos and regarding the price of them i would get another, and just keep that as a spare

[heywood]

thanks - I knew someone would know 

[lookingforold]

I read in a book written by an 'Expert' that, when deleting all photos from a card, one should re-format every time. It's like a hard drive. They stay there hidden. That is how Mr Plod can find things that people had thought were long gone!

[RJ_Paton]

I read in a book written by an 'Expert' that, when deleting all photos from a card, one should re-format every time. It's like a hard drive. They stay there hidden. That is how Mr Plod can find things that people had thought were long gone!

When an item is "deleted" either from a computers hard drive or from a memory card - the machine doesn't actually remove anything it simply takes the file and marks the space as available should it need it for any new files (in some instances this can cause photographs to appear out of sequence).

Formatting a card or a drive does wipe rather more and basically renders the card/drive to be read by the machine as blank. However again depending upon how much you are willing to spend the data is still recoverable. Some software will format the drives/cards fill them with gibberish and again reformat , repeating the process several times - however recent advances in forensic recovery mean even this does not completely rule out recovery.

[heywood]

Hi,
thanks for the interest. I did format the card afterwards through the camera and all seems well for now.
I am aware how items can be left on computers and thought that this problem would be similar but didn't want to 'interfere' with the card until I knew it would be ok. I just like to have explanations for things 

thanks again
heywood

[km1971]

The table that stores the location of the files might be corrupted. If you put the the card in a PC or connect a reader via the usb, you can right-click it and look at the properties which will show how much free space there is. If the photos are still there after you have deleted them on the camera it may be the firmware in the camera.

Leaving the camera connected to the PC may drain the battery so you should ensure power save isn't set too high.

Ken