# How can I recover data from a Compact Flash card?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-recover-data-from-a-compact-flash-card/255255
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 15, 2004, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-recover-data-from-a-compact-flash-card/255255 "2004-07-15T13:56:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@picker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picker)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2004, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-recover-data-from-a-compact-flash-card/255255/1 "2004-07-15T13:56:51Z")
Backstory:
I shoot a lot of concerts, using a Nikon D100. Periodically, I’ve been starting to have some issues while shooting, almost always when I only have a shot or two left on the card. What will happen is the card will ‘freeze up’ and I will get a display message on the LCD that says _File does not contain image data_. I can’t do anything at this point.
At that point, I have found that i can generally turn off the camera, reseat the card, and turn the camera back on. **Then** I get the same message, but I can also scroll through the images on the card. When I get to the ‘No Image Data’ file, i can delete it and keep shooting.
I haven’t really paid attention, but I’m starting to think that this is only happening with one particular memory card. That could be wishful thinking, though…
So anyway, last night I’m shooting, and I get the situation detailed above. However, this time, I can’t follow my normal work-around, instead I get a message that says ‘Folder contains no photographs’ while the camera control screen (where it tells me among other things how many pics are left) tells me that the card is full.
Any thoughts on how i can recover the shots on this card? I don’t have a CF reader, I normally just hook the camera directly the computer via mini USB.
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### Author:  [@picker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picker)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2004, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-recover-data-from-a-compact-flash-card/255255/2 "2004-07-15T14:09:01Z")
More info here:
I have attached the camera up to the computer and attempted to initiate the transfer sequence. When I tried to do that, the program (Nikon Xfer 6) told me that there was ‘no compact flash card in the attached camera’
I then inserted another CF card in the camera, and it immediately recognized it and began to transfer the data.
So I’m beginning to think that the card is fried. Still, does anybody know how to try to recognize the data?
P
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### Author:  [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2004, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-recover-data-from-a-compact-flash-card/255255/3 "2004-07-15T14:09:38Z")
I suppose buying a CF reader is out of the question? There’s a good one (Viking Intelliflash) on [Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00004TEN2/104-5239790-1923914?v=glance) for $9.00.
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### Author:  [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2004, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-recover-data-from-a-compact-flash-card/255255/4 "2004-07-15T14:11:55Z")
This may not be very useful information, as you said you didn’t have a card reader external to the camera, but I run into a similar problem with a Smartmedia card. I tried many recovery programs and was hoping to find one that was free or shareware. The best I found was a free one from [http://pcinspector.de/smart\_media\_recovery/uk/welcome.htm](http://pcinspector.de/smart_media_recovery/uk/welcome.htm) , so if you can get to a reader, it might be worth a try. It was a VERY slow program, but it was the only one that worked in my case.
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### Author:  [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2004, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-recover-data-from-a-compact-flash-card/255255/5 "2004-07-15T14:12:09Z")
Name tag’s advice is about your only real option. If you need an additional reason to get a reader, I have found that getting the pictures off compact flash using the stand alone readers is generally quicker and easier than using the hokey software that tends to come with cameras.
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### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2004, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-recover-data-from-a-compact-flash-card/255255/6 "2004-07-15T14:17:02Z")
[Lexar Media’s New Image Rescue™](http://www.dpreview.com/news/0310/03103002lexarreadersrescue.asp)
[digital Photo Recovery](http://www.photosrecovery.com/)
I think you may need a USB card reader to use these utilities.
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### Author:  [@larsenmtl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/larsenmtl)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2004, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-recover-data-from-a-compact-flash-card/255255/7 "2004-07-15T17:31:58Z")
Do you have access to a Linux workstation?
I ask because…
I have a Nikon 750 that causes me A LOT of grief, paticularly when trying to get the pictures off with their software and a Win32 machine. At the time I had a Mandrake 9.1 Linux machine and for grins plugged the camera in. Bam, Mandrake treated it like a newly mounted drive/directory (it even auto-detected and mounted). All my photos were just sitting there in that mount waiting to be copied off.
On my Fedora Core One machine, I have to manually mount it with this, but once it’s mounted it’s essentially just a directory:
mount -t vfat /dev/sda1 /mnt/MountDirectory
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### Author:  [@picker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picker)
#### Post date: [July 15, 2004, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-recover-data-from-a-compact-flash-card/255255/8 "2004-07-15T18:18:55Z")
No - no Linux here. I’ve been using my Windows machine to xfer photos, b/c I actually like the Nikon View software for sorting my images before I dump them into photoshop.
Unfortunately, there is no Mac platform (which is my main workstation - a G4 with OSX) for the Nikon software, and iphoto won’t recognize my Nikon directly.
Sigh…
I guess i’ll have to pick up a flash reader after all.