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ok its christmas time and like us all we like to take tons of pics... & seeming its my sons second christmas of coarse i had to take a ton of pics..... from christmas eve up until boxing day evening the card has worked fine. ive been taking pictures and reviewing them... and then last night (boxing day night) i went to look at them and put them on my computer, all of a sudden its saying the memory card needs to be formatted. ive never seen this before.... and im sick thinking that ive lost ALL of my sons 2nd christmas photos...... can anyone help me recover these pics PLEEEEAAASSSE!!

Commented by: Beth at December 27, 2008 02:54 PM

i have a sony cyber shot dsc-w80 and i when to memory to and easre all my momery data could i get them back

Commented by: amnada at December 27, 2008 09:58 AM

hello i accidentally did a low level format on my sd card is there any way of recovering photos of

Commented by: Ruby at December 22, 2008 08:30 PM

I lost my SD card in with photos of Rome and Firence somewhere in Spain. If anyone ever heard for this please tell me!!!

Commented by: Ivan at November 19, 2008 06:22 AM

Sorry my email address is
fear_productions@hotmail.com

Commented by: Simon @ I wantmydata at November 18, 2008 11:38 AM

I want to help you all

Hello all I can help you with the lost photos. I have been able to retrieve all photos I lost on my 16GB SD card during my honeymoon. For the first 10 people I will do this for free. So please email me, you will need to send me your card to restore onto either the card or DVD

Kind regards

Simon

Commented by: Simon @ I wantmydata at November 18, 2008 11:35 AM

Hello all I can help you with the lost photos. I have been able to retrieve all photos I lost on my 16GB SD card during my honeymoon. For the first 10 people I will do this for free. So please email me

Kind regards

Simon

Commented by: Simon @ I wantmydata at November 18, 2008 11:33 AM

I accidentally formatted my sd memory card. my camera is a canon sd450 camera. I need to retrieve the pictures from my grandma's 90th bday party please, please help me.... :(

Commented by: ellen casa at October 21, 2008 10:03 AM

Hello,

I get a message telling me my mamory card needs to be formatted, I click ok, try to format and I get a message saying , disk is write protected, the problem is I've been using that key for over a year with no problem, can anyone help please

Commented by: meo at October 13, 2008 12:38 AM

Hello,

I get a message telling me my USB key needs to be formatted, I click ok, try to format and I get a message saying , disk is write protected, the problem is I've been using that key for over a year with no problem, can anyone help please

Commented by: meo at October 13, 2008 12:36 AM

Dear Sir,

I accidentally formatted my canon A 540 camera using low level format & all my pics taken during my trip to rome were gone. my husband took another 10 photos using the same card. Is it possible to recover the photos. they are very special to me, please help.

Commented by: kjai at October 6, 2008 08:40 AM

Dear Sir,

I accidentally formatted my canon A 540 camera using low level format & all my pics taken during my trip to rome were gone. my husband took another 10 photos using the same card. Is it possible to recover the photos. they are very special to me, please help.

Commented by: kjai at October 6, 2008 08:38 AM

Hi,

I had about 400 pictures on my 2GB SD card and accidently formatted the card now all my pictures are GONE!! Can anyone help me get my pictures back? Is there a way I can retrieve them from my card?

Thank You

Commented by: jessi at August 10, 2008 06:25 PM

HELP....

The batteries died in my camera and when I changed them the card won't read. I have downloaded Photo Rescue and it says files are corrupted. Is there ANYTHING I can do? I have an xd memory card.

Thanks in advance,
Ckat

Commented by: Catherine at July 24, 2008 01:48 PM

hi i have just recently formated my memory card by mistake with wedding pics on is it possible to retrieve them thanx

Commented by: margaret at July 21, 2008 01:34 PM

hi i have just recently formated my memory card by mistake with wedding pics on is it possible to retrieve them thanx

Commented by: margaret at July 21, 2008 01:33 PM

I PURCHASED A 4 GB LEXAR SD MEMORY CARD AND WHEN I PUT IT IN CAMERA IT SAYS LOCKED. I HAVE SLID THE TAB ON THE SIDE BOTH WAYS AND IT STILL SAYS LOCKED. HELP-CHRIS

Commented by: CHRISTINE ISON at July 21, 2008 11:50 AM

I PURCHASED A 4 GB LEXAR SD MEMORY CARD AND WHEN I PUT IT IN CAMERA IT SAYS LOCKED. I HAVE SLID THE TAB ON THE SIDE BOTH WAYS AND IT STILL SAYS LOCKED. HELP-CHRIS IN CABINS WV

Commented by: CHRISTINE ISON at July 21, 2008 11:48 AM

I PURCHASED A 4 GB LEXAR SD MEMORY CARD AND WHEN I PUT IT IN CAMERA IT SAYS LOCKED. I HAVE SLID THE TAB ON THE SIDE BOTH WAYS AND IT STILL SAYS LOCKED. HELP-CHRIS IN CABINS WV

Commented by: CHRISTINE ISON at July 21, 2008 11:47 AM

please help me to recover my formated photos from Sony digital camera

Commented by: yathism at June 29, 2008 10:35 PM

I sent my camera memory card through the mail to my friend and when she got it the pictures got erased and when I got it back and put it in my camera it said that it needs to be formated but I didn't do it. Can the PhotoRescue program recover my photos?

Commented by: Jasmine at June 9, 2008 03:49 AM

I sent my camera memory card through the mail to my friend and when she got it the pictures got erased and when I got it back and put it in my camera it said that it needs to be formated but I didn't do it. Can the PhotoRescue program recover my photos?

Commented by: Jasmine at June 9, 2008 03:45 AM

I sent my camera memory card through the mail to my friend and when she got it the pictures got erased and when I got it back and put it in my camera it said that it needs to be formated but I didn't do it. Can the PhotoRescue program recover my photos?

Commented by: Jasmine at June 9, 2008 03:45 AM

I sent my camera memory card through the mail to my friend and when she got it the pictures got erased and when I got it back and put it in my camera it said that it needs to be formated but I didn't do it. Can the PhotoRescue program recover my photos?

Commented by: Jasmine at June 9, 2008 03:45 AM

I sent my camera memory card through the mail to my friend and when she got it the pictures got erased and when I got it back and put it in my camera it said that it needs to be formated but I didn't do it. Can the PhotoRescue program recover my photos?

Commented by: Jasmine at June 9, 2008 03:45 AM

I sent my camera memory card through the mail to my friend and when she got it the pictures got erased and when I got it back and put it in my camera it said that it needs to be formated but I didn't do it. Can the PhotoRescue program recover my photos?

Commented by: Jasmine at June 9, 2008 03:44 AM

Hi. I recently accidentally formatted my SD memory card. Is it possible to recover these pictures? Do i need specific software and how much is a reasonable amount to pay? Many thanks.

Commented by: Folu Akindoyin at May 26, 2008 05:14 PM

Hi. I recently accidentally formatted my SD memory card. Is it possible to recover these pictures? Do i need specific software and how much is a reasonable amount to pay? Many thanks.

Commented by: Folu Akindoyin at May 26, 2008 05:12 PM

srry i just commented and left out somthing kinda inportant... that ive used the card alot.. and the prom pics were never on the computer...srry

Commented by: Rebecca at May 14, 2008 04:29 PM

k i got a camera for x-mas.. and it got broken.. so my dad boutgh me a new one for a suprize and i didnt really no how to work it.. and it was the night of prom so i took like 110 pics.. and i got home and was messing around with it and i didnt know what formatting did and i went into it and all my pics got deleated... PLEASE if theres anything u can do!!! please please help me... !!
p.s. my memorycard is a SanDisk 2.0GB...

Commented by: Rebecca at May 14, 2008 04:27 PM

Following formatting my memory card on holiday (and seemingly to lose all the photos and video clips) I then went on to take another whole card full of photos and video clips. Does that mean that it is now impossible to recover the previously formatted photos and video clips? If that is so then I won’t spend the money on a fix -but if there is any hope then I will. My memory card is a ScanDisc 1.0GB

Commented by: Edward Troughton at March 11, 2008 09:37 AM

dear sir
this is me kebal from south asia .i just five days buy a 64 MB SD memory card . and take pictures as like half but the problem that when i plug with the help of memory card reader on the compture ,its reconized frist and i was trying to copy all pics .then its accidently lost all and i remove and again try to insert it on mobile but its shoe all the pics and data but its not copied on the compture .can i got any eapical idea for copy this pictiurs again ???
thanks

Commented by: kebal at March 8, 2008 08:44 AM

on my recent trip to Las Vegas, I accidentally Formated my SD card. I have used the since but sparingly. Is there any way I can get the phot's back?

Commented by: Rory O' Gara at January 8, 2008 03:39 PM

Like many above, i am devastated that i have lost all my honeymoon pics of Cairo and Athens (600+) from "accidentally" formatting my SD card from my camera. Help me please :(

I [accidentally] formatted the card from the camera. In a panic i removed the card and have been using an extra card for the remainder of our trip, in desperate hope that i can recover the lost data.

Commented by: renee at November 6, 2007 08:13 AM

URGENT:::::::::::::::::
My camera was stolen,and i wanted to know was there any way i can retreive unsaved pics from my laptop

Commented by: Sarah at October 20, 2007 01:26 PM

Hi i just recently put my San Disk camera card into my camera and it says that i need to formatt the thing, but i know that there are a ton of picture on the camera card, i dont want to formatt the card cuz i will lose all the pics is there anyway that i can save my pictures that are on the card??

Commented by: Stephanie at October 15, 2007 11:26 AM

Fun2post.com can help you finding a good solution.

Commented by: Tinku at September 26, 2007 07:17 PM

I TOOK SOME FAMILY PICTURES RECENTLY, AND DELETED THEM FROM THE SD CARD AFTERUPLOADING THEM IN MY COMPUTER. H I FOUND OUT LATER THAT THEY ARE NO LONGER ON MY COMPUTER OR THE SD CARD . I WANT TO KNOW IF THERE IS A WAY FOR ME TO RECOVER THE PICTURES FROM THE SD CARD.

Commented by: KAD at August 17, 2007 01:43 PM

I TOOK SOME FAMILY PICTURES RECENTLY, HOWEVER I DELETED THEM FROM THE SD CARD AFTER PUTTING THEM IN MY COMPUTER. HOWEVER I FOUND OUT LATER THAT THEY ARE NO LONGER ON MY COMPUTER OR THE SD CARD . I WANT TO KNOW IF THERE IS A WAY FOR ME TO RECOVER THE PICTURES FROM THE SD CARD.

Commented by: KAD at August 17, 2007 01:41 PM

I TOOK SOME FAMILY PICTURES RECENTLY, HOWEVER I DELETED THEM FROM THE SD CARD AFTER PUTTING THEM IN MY COMPUTER. HOWEVER I FOUND OUT LATER THAT THEY ARE NO LONGER ON MY COMPUTER OR THE SD CARD . I WANT TO KNOW IF THERE IS A WAY FOR ME TO RECOVER THE PICTURES FROM THE SD CARD.

Commented by: KATHY at August 17, 2007 01:41 PM

I FORMATED MY ORLANLO VACATION PICTURES AUGUST 2007. TOOK 30 MORE FROM THE PLANE RETURNING HOME. CAN YOU HELP ME RECOVER MY VACATION PICTURES

Commented by: MICE at August 6, 2007 07:59 PM

formated my memory card by an accident,I lost more than 450 pictures, so if I use the Photo Rescue card, is it possible to recover all of them, also I still have about 200 pictures in my "favorite photo".Does it help? my digital is Casio Exilim.
Thanks a lot for your respond

Commented by: Christine at June 20, 2007 05:06 PM

formated my memory card by an accident,I lost more than 450 pictures, so if I use the Photo Rescue card, is it possible to recover all of them, also I still have about 200 pictures in my "favorite photo".Does it help? my digital is Casio Exilim.
Thanks a lot for your respond

Commented by: Christine at June 20, 2007 05:06 PM

formated my memory card by an accident,I lost more than 450 pictures, so if I use the Photo Rescue card, is it possible to recover all of them, also I still have about 200 pictures in my "favorite photo".Does it help? my digital is Casio Exilim.
Thanks a lot for your respond

Commented by: Christine at June 20, 2007 05:06 PM

im so mad i turned on my camera and it was ok until i switched to take a picture and it says the card is locked how can i unlock it to take a picture please help me???????????

Commented by: ana at June 9, 2007 02:19 PM

PLEASE HELP ME!!! We just returned from our family vacation and I accidently deleted EVERY picture on my digital camera!! There were 192 pictures to be exact. I did the SAME THING that "Bang" did in a previous comment. I formatted the storage card and then took another picture in panic! Is there any possible way to retrieve these pictures??? PLEASE HELP!!!

Commented by: STUPID at June 3, 2007 12:19 PM

I lost my pictures in my Casio Exilim digital by an formatting accident,after that I took 2 pictures and deleted them twice, so if I use the Photo Rescue card does it still possible recover my pictures? also I still have some pictures in my "favorite photo", is there any ways I can down load those files to the computer? Thanks a lot for your help, I really appreciate that

Commented by: Bang at May 29, 2007 12:16 PM

I formated my memory card by an accident,I lost more than 450 pictures, so if I use the Photo Rescue card, is it possible to recover all of them, also I still have about 200 pictures in my "favorite photo".Does it help? my digital is Casio Exilim.
Thanks a lot for your respond

Commented by: trinh at May 29, 2007 11:42 AM

please help!
Is there a way to get my digital photo's back..i hit Format acedentally..now they won't show up? please tell me what can i do??

Commented by: Jackie at May 28, 2007 01:20 PM

please help!
Is there a way to get my digital photo's back..i hit Format acedentally..now they won't show up? please tell me what can i do??

Commented by: Jackie at May 28, 2007 01:20 PM

please help!
Is there a way to get my digital photo's back..i hit Format acedentally..now they won't show up? please tell me what can i do??

Commented by: Jackie at May 28, 2007 01:20 PM

i formatted my digital card how can i get my pics back please any help

Commented by: ashley at May 26, 2007 06:50 PM

I went to Wrestlemania 23 plugged my card into a usb hub to my laptop (I couldnot find the cord for my camera to laptop) got a weird memory error and lost all of the Wrestlemania 23 pictures!!!!!

I have been able to get older pictures back, but not the recent ones.
Any advice is appreciated!! Pretty pretty please tell me there is a way i can get them back? I am willing to pay any amount at this point. My baby brother went with me and I really really want the pictures for him moreso than myself.

Any help is TREMENDOUSLY appreciated!! edwina6180@yahoo.com

Commented by: Edwina at May 24, 2007 01:56 PM

I went to Wrestlemania 23 plugged my card into a usb hub to my laptop (I couldnot find the cord for my camera to laptop) got a weird memory error and lost all of the Wrestlemania 23 pictures!!!!!

I have been able to get older pictures back, but not the recent ones.
Any advice is appreciated!! Pretty pretty please tell me there is a way i can get them back? I am willing to pay any amount at this point. My baby brother went with me and I really really want the pictures for him moreso than myself.

Any help is TREMENDOUSLY appreciated!!

Commented by: edwina at May 22, 2007 05:38 AM

hello,
i just took a ton of pictures and videos at a cottage and all of the sudden out of nowhere it just showed up and said..." memorie card error...
how can i get my pictures????

Commented by: natalia at May 21, 2007 03:07 PM

Please Please Please can someone help me! I formatted my camera when out on saturday and im gutted, iv lost my weekend photos and want them back....is this possible? i have had a look on the internet and it says it is, but is it worth paying the money and does it really work? iv done a demo but nothing seems to happen...please help by email - nicole0610@hotmail.co.uk
THANKS

Commented by: Nicole at May 21, 2007 05:44 AM

Please Please Please can someone help me! I formatted my camera when out on saturday and im gutted, iv lost my weekend photos and want them back....is this possible? i have had a look on the internet and it says it is, but is it worth paying the money and does it really work? iv done a demo but nothing seems to happen...please help by email - nicole0610@hotmail.co.uk
THANKS

Commented by: Nicole at May 21, 2007 05:44 AM

Please Please Please can someone help me! I formatted my camera when out on saturday and im gutted, iv lost my weekend photos and want them back....is this possible? i have had a look on the internet and it says it is, but is it worth paying the money and does it really work? iv done a demo but nothing seems to happen...please help by email - nicole0610@hotmail.co.uk
THANKS

Commented by: Nicole at May 21, 2007 05:40 AM

Please Please Please can someone help me! I formatted my camera when out on saturday and im gutted, iv lost my weekend photos and want them back....is this possible? i have had a look on the internet and it says it is, but is it worth paying the money and does it really work? iv done a demo but nothing seems to happen...please help by email - nicole0610@hotmail.co.uk
THANKS

Commented by: Nicole at May 21, 2007 05:40 AM

i just had prom and took tons of pictures.. Being a blonde i accidently hit Format and my pictures are deleted please tell me there is some way i can get them back..

Thanks for ur time
Kelly

Commented by: KElly at May 6, 2007 06:32 PM

Hi.!
Well my story is my cousin took pictures of me and my loved ones at my highschool graduation with her digital camera. She was taking awhile to develop them and so I volunteered to do it. So, i did and never gave it back since i hardly see her. Recently my sister got a digital camera and i used my cousins memory card to take pictures. i was messin around with it and it said format memory card not knowing what that meant i erased all her pictures. im so afraid to tell her when i get contact with her bc it had pictures of her children in it and it had my highschool grad pictures which i lost the copys of. reading the others comments gives me hopes in theres some way to recover her pictures and my grad pictures. please tell me theres hope!!!!
thank you.

Commented by: Rena at April 27, 2007 11:38 AM

Hi.!
Well my story is my cousin took pictures of me and my loved ones at my highschool graduation with her digital camera. She was taking awhile to develop them and so I volunteered to do it. So, i did and never gave it back since i hardly see her. Recently my sister got a digital camera and i used my cousins memory card to take pictures. i was messin around with it and it said format memory card not knowing what that meant i erased all her pictures. im so afraid to tell her when i get contact with her bc it had pictures of her children in it and it had my highschool grad pictures which i lost the copys of. reading the others comments gives me hopes in theres some way to recover her pictures and my grad pictures. please tell me theres hope!!!!
thank you.

Commented by: Rena at April 27, 2007 11:38 AM

b435by4_66_t_1_n100

Commented by: 66willy@hotmail.com at April 19, 2007 08:33 AM

while formatting d drive in my computer, while formatting ends i got realised that i lost all my data saved on d drive. how could i recover those unsaved data.

Commented by: syed rashedul hossen at March 31, 2007 01:36 AM

hi,

i format my camera with my memory card on it and i lost all my pictures, can get my pictures back? how? pls help me....

tnx,
angie

Commented by: Angelica at January 13, 2007 01:40 AM

hi,

i format my camera with my memory card on it and i lost all my pictures, can get my pictures back? how? pls help me....

tnx,
angie

Commented by: Angelica at January 13, 2007 01:39 AM

helo sir
plese help me
my memory card to compture dosenot copied
window show the picture without priew
in copy step the error is - parrameter incorrect

Commented by: kamal at December 14, 2006 05:48 AM

For anyone who has lost precious photos and who is not comfortable attempting recovery software, ReMemory offers a quick recovery service on no cure no pay basis. We can most often recover photos from cards that have been damaged ("card error"), accidently deleted or formatted. We return your card (worldwide shipping) together with your recovered photos on a CD or DVD. Feel free to take a look at our website, www.rememory.nl

Commented by: Erik at November 14, 2006 01:32 AM

Hi I'm sebastian
My sister formated her sand disk card in her Casio Exilim by mistake.Now she is heart broken because all her 500 picture of Rome are gone. Please send me a solution to recover those pictures for her.

thank's

Commented by: sebastian at November 8, 2006 01:22 AM

Hi, i have formatted my digicamera memory card many times and was just wondering if anyone can recommend any software which will actually recover pretty much everything, saw between 1000 and 2000 photos back, and probably atleast 10 formats inbetween.
I have a freeware program which actually recovered some very old photos aswell as the most recent ones, but not much inbetween. is there anything out there that is meticulously thorough...i assume there must be the technology for this. or is it just chance?
thanks a lot!

Commented by: Gav at October 28, 2006 07:04 PM

Hi folks,

I use a TOMTOM sat.nav system and need to reload it onto my ipaQ, probgel is I cannot find anyway of removing the maps which are already on the SD128 that is part of the system. Without being able to cleanse the card I cannot load TOMTOM. Can anyone please help?

regards,

michael

Commented by: michael at October 15, 2006 09:39 AM

Exif Untrasher is freeware for MAC users. Is there freeware for Windows' users? I've tried Photo Recover by Art Plus and also Free Undelete but both haven't helped in recovering my photos on my digital camera. I clicked 'Erase' 'Format' by mistake!! Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

Ying

Commented by: Ying at October 10, 2006 02:45 AM

Does anyone know how long an SD card will *hold* image data for? Say for example, photos were taken a year ago, and since then the card has been formatted several times (by the camera) and many more photos have been stored on it, would it be possible to recover (even partially) using forensic tools the original photos that were taken a year back?

Commented by: Jan E at September 28, 2006 06:10 PM

Anyone that is not comfortable attempting recovery himself, can find several companies on the internet offering recovery services. Unlike most companies, especially the ones focusing on commercial customers, Rememory offers memory card recovery on a no cure no pay basis: you only pay for recovered photos. Feel free to send us an email for more details.

Commented by: Erik at September 22, 2006 06:45 AM

please i format my memory card and i need to get my pictures back , can anybody help me please please

thanks
A lambaz

Commented by: Adel Lambaz at September 14, 2006 01:59 AM

hai
i deleted the photos in my digital camera thru my laptop. but i didnt copy them. Again i took some 67 pics in it and copied 50 pictures back to it. and deleted those 50 pictures again. then only i realized i dont have a copy of those first deleted photos. is there a way to recover them? because those pics i took in niagara falls with my mother. they came out well. some one would pls tell me a way to recover the photos

thanks in advance
girija

Commented by: girija at September 5, 2006 08:07 AM

Hi, i would try to recover the date with the recovery program from sandisk... i recovered a lot of data from my cards. My old d70 didnt like it if you remove the card if safing isnt finished so the file table was destroyed but with rescue pro from sandisk i recovered all my pictures...

Commented by: apvis at August 24, 2006 06:45 AM

does anyone know if I have any chance of saving photos from an sd card that I formatted on my casio ex z60?...I also accidentally took one photo after formatting, and then we mistakenly, when downloading recovery software, burned the installer demo on the sd card (!)...is there any hope?...I have tries a few software programs and they have not worked...thanks

sheryl

Commented by: sheryl at August 23, 2006 03:04 PM

Dear Sir,
I was navigating the internet for the mentioned subject when I saw your article and something came up into my mind, that is every one now talks about recovering the data from the memory card if deleted by mistake but I found nothing about keeping our privacy if we delete something and we don't want any one by chance to spy us and break our privacy by recovering this data if he got our memory card or mobiles in away or another, so is there any safe way to remove the data from our memory cards without recovering it in future by any software?

With All Thanks and Best Regards,

Commented by: Mohammad Tahseen at August 17, 2006 03:57 AM

Please please tell me how do i recover pictures that i recently formatted by accident??
Im a bit stupid and didnt realise that format meant erase....is there a way, my memory card is Jessops

Commented by: angela at July 9, 2006 10:00 AM

The problem with erasing or erasing all I am told is that the camera actually does not delete everything. Over a period of time you can no longer get as many photos on the card and in theory you slow the access time down.

Ken

Commented by: Ken Leonard at November 10, 2005 09:30 PM

Good conversation everyone, and I thank you all for chiming in. Here's the scoop:

I had an interview with Pierre Vandevenne of PhotoRescue. He said: "Overwritten data is of course lost forever, however, not yet
overwritten pictures can usually be recovered/reconstructed." I had tested this on an older digital camera and my conclusion was that formatting seemed to overwrite the files while erasing did not.

I just retested on a Canon Digital Rebel XT, as some of you had mentioned that you use. When I used PhotoRescue after "Erase All," I was able to recover 148 photos. I then formatted the card in camera and reran PhotoRescue and recovered 144 pictures.

So, those of you who stated that formatting in camera enables file recovery are right, at least with the Canon XT, and I would guess with most modern digicams. I should have retested on my most current cameras. My mistake.

Thanks for your help :)

Commented by: Derrick at November 10, 2005 11:09 AM

wrong...format only deletes the directory info. it would take quite a bit longer to write zeros across the drive. i personally always format in-camera after transferring the pictures.

Commented by: chris_sfo at November 10, 2005 10:29 AM

PhotoRescue is $29, but Exif Untrasher does the same and is freeware.

Commented by: Rik at November 10, 2005 10:19 AM

I've done some low level CF driver work and stepped through the code that does the formatting (Windows CE). Basically they rewrite the boot block (sector 0) and then zero out the fat table(s).

The data isn't overwritten unless a special option is invoked and that will take some time as it typically writes a sector at a time.

Commented by: Jerry Halstead at November 10, 2005 10:09 AM

I don't really know about the technology behind this stuff, but are you sure about what you've written about the "Format" function?

Just judging by time alone, I would guess you're incorrect. Write time on CF is pretty darn slow (as compared to read) and my Camera (Cannon Dig Reb XT) formats a card in just a couple seconds or so.

I guess I would expect that Format would just rewrite memory map of where all the files are located. That's what it means to reformat any other type of fixed-storage. That type of operation should leave all the files intact for "Rescue" like software to dig them up.

Please post a link to where you learned this information (or a retraction if you find that you're incorrect).

Isaiah

Commented by: Isaiah at November 10, 2005 09:52 AM

I would disagree - I have had much more success recovering images off a card I have formatted than one where I "erased all." (Believe me, I've had both experiences!)

When you format, that actual files and data are still there, and are easy to detect and recover. When you erase all using your camera, it will actually go through and remove file data information, making it much more difficult to recover any images.

It is possibly true that formatting your card in-camera instead of from your computer may save you a little bit of trouble, it is still better all around to format your card in-camera than to use the erase all function.

Commented by: Josh at November 10, 2005 09:47 AM

I will often use my 1D MkII's lock feature to tag images I know I want to look at after I load them in Photo Mechanic. After I copy the images to my harddrive the originals are still locked. Rather than go back through and unlock then erase those images, it's much easier to just format the disk in-camera.

I use SanDisk's RescuePro and have definitely used it to save images from formated disks before.

I can't speak to point and shoots, but for pro-sumer and pro DSLR's formatting is a much easier way to clear a card. And as the previous poster notes, the .DS_Store and other files are good to get rid of as well.

Commented by: Aaron at November 10, 2005 09:23 AM

I upload my photos to OS X and when I am done I format the card on the camera so that the invisible files (.DS_Store, Icon, etc...) that Mac OS X loads the card up with do not confuse the camera.

Also the format option on some cameras does not go as deep as you would expect.

Commented by: Mark at November 10, 2005 07:20 AM