Digital Camera Data Recovery, Picture, Video, & Photo Cards

There are two main causes of data loss or inaccessibility on photos, pictures or video cards.

1. LOGICAL - In this scenario, the cameras card or photo/video card is physically functional. You may not be able to access the photos or video on it, but if you re-formatted it, it would work perfectly well for storing new images. And by the way, if you do re-format your photo card we can usually still recover your old pictures and video. Just like your computer, every camera uses a file operating system to organize where it stores images on the memory device. Your images may become inaccessible because the file system structures have become corrupted or overwritten. This may result from several scenarios including:

   Accidental deletion	Corrupted memory	No images/ Card Empty
   Formatted Memory	Corrupted pictures	Power Interruption or Spike
   Battery Died	Defective Camera	Read errors
   Deleted Video	Cable problem	Re-initialized Re-formatted

   
    
2. PHYSICAL - The camera or photo card is NOT functioning properly. Camera cards are very similar to USB flash sticks in architecture. The entire device inside consists of a controller chip and one or more integrated memory chips. Either of these components can be damaged as a result of:

   Critical Read Errors	Thunderstorm Damage	Fire or Water Damage
   Defective Controller	Defective Electronics PCB	Physical Abuse
   Cracked or Damaged Shell	AC Power surge	Bad Controller Chip
   Connector damaged	Prolonged Heat	ESD Static damage

Data Recovery from photo and video memory cards begins with an attempt to image the entire memory device.

If the device is defective and an image cannot be secured, the problem is further identified as originating from the controller chip or the actual memory chips. If the memory chips are defective, no data recovery will be possible. If the controller is non-operational we can either replace the defective controller or remove and read the individual memory chips.

If the camera card is able to be imaged, the problem will likely be a logical software issue with the file system. In most cases, whether the result of read errors, re-formatting or deleting photos, we will be able to repair or rebuild the necessary file system structures required to access your photos. When you delete or reformat your picture card the file system will basically re-writes the tables or indexes that define where the pictures are stored BUT the actual images will remain. Unlike a computer where the file may be broken into many pieces and stored in many different locations, the camera stores the individual pictures or video sequentially arranged with one image following the next. This is very good for recovery purposes as we can literally search through the raw data for unique photo or video file headers. Once we find a header or start of an image, we can rip off the data from the beginning of the header to the start of the next. While we won't have the original file names, we will have your images in perfect condition. BUT please be aware that with some cameras the re-format or re-initialization routine may overwrite the entire contents of the card and destroy any chance of seeing your data again.

Memofix can recover pictures, photos and video from all of the most popular types of camera memory cards including:

Not sure what type of memory card your camera uses? Need digital camera data recovery? No worries, we can recover the photos from most cameras and camera memory cards including those manufactured by:

We have the expertise to deal with all photo and video file types including: