« on: Tuesday 16 April 13 12:42 BST (UK) »
I've been handed a few corrupted SD cards (and hard-drives for that matter) in my time and have always managed to recover the majority of files using standard recovery tools (Zero Assumption Recovery being one of my favourites). Normally the files are intact on the storage but the directory information is lost or damaged. This is similar to recovering "deleted" files which remain on the storage medium until they are subsequently written over, either in whole or part.
Anyway, recently I got this SD card (taken from a camera) which appeared fully functional but the required files were zeroed out, i.e. all the files contained zeroes. This is a very curious failure mode and it could really only be explained if the card controller itself had mapped out the underlying storage and mapped in a new area populated by zeros. An SD card, like many storage devices, has an internal storage capacity greater than it claims to allow for bad blocks which may occur at manufacturing time or during its life. It would appear that this card's controller had swapped out the area containing the wanted files and replaced it with a new area.
The question is - were the files still stored in the flash memory and could they be extracted ?
A little googling around revealed the existence of RecoverFab in Dresden, Germany. They by-pass the SD card's internal controller and instead read-out the flash memory directly. Anyone technically competent could set this up themselves but it would take time and equipment to do so and become good at it. So I took a punt on them with this faulty card.
Anyway, I can report success - they have indeed recovered the missing files!
You'll need to evaluate the cost of recovery which is based on the size of the device, versus the value of the files/images of course. If you've been out photographing distant relatives, archive documents or headstones only to return home to find the SD card corrupted in this manner, there is hope.
Pailing, Palan, Palang, Palding, Palen, Palén, Palenius, Palin, Paling, Pallant, Pallein, Pallen, Pallin, Palling, Pallinge, Pallon, Paulding, Paulin, Pauline, Pauling, Pawley, Pawling, Payling, Pealing, Pealon, Peelen, Peeling, Pelan, Pelán, Pélan, Pelander, Pelin, Pellam, Pellan, Pelland, Pellant, Pelling, Pellington, Pelon, Pillan, Pilling, Pillion, Pilon, Plain, Plaine, Poland, Polin, Pollen, Pollin, Pollington, Pollyn, Powling, Pullan, Pullen, Pulleyn, Pullin
