I accidentally formatted my SanDisk CF card with all the family Christmas pics before downloading them to my Mac desktop.

I am shooting a D800 using a SanDisk UDMA 60 MB/s Compact Flash card. Of course, I Googled "recovery software" and found many options. Before I plunge into this blindly, I would appreciate any advise or guidance from fellow Nikonians that might have had luck with recovering photos in the past.

BTW, I am running OS 10.8.2.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Wm.

I have tried Stellar Phoenix Photo Recovery and a program called Card Recovery. Stellar Phoenix had issues with cards over greater than 4Gig and Card Recovery worked where Stellar Phoenix failed for me. I had over 300 pictures on a 32 Gig formatted card (36mp pictures) and it took about 4 hours to recover the card.

Be prepared it will take time.

I know that SanDisk recovery software as well that several others have said was great and there should be a link in the SanDisk docs you got.

Good luck.

Mike

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

SanDisk and Lexar have their own software for just such an emergency.

I hear lots of good things about Recuva, but it is Windows only.

---------+---------+---------+---------+
Joseph K
Seattle, WA, USA

D700, D200, D70S, 24-70mm f/2.8, VR 70-200mm f/2.8 II,
50mm f/1.4 D, 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 VR, 18-70mm f/3.5-4.5 DX

William - Not to worry.

I have used both SanDisk and Lexar's recovery software. Unless you have reused the card since you accidentally formatted it, you will probably recover ALL of your images. Even if you have used it, you should recover MOST of them. I have found both Lexar and SanDisk's versions to be excellent and not brand dependent. In other words, they will work on virtually all cards. I helped a colleague recently with Lexar's software on a SanDisk card and recovered images he shot as far back as last summer, since which he has formatted and reused the card several times. But the best results derive from a formatted, although not used again card. Lexar produces 2 recovered files: a full size file and a 15kb thumbnail you have to discard. It takes awhile to do -- just follow the directions. If you fail -- start again. Nothing is lost.

For those old enough to rememebr pre-windows days, all formatting memory does is remove the first character of the file name, replacing it with another character and rendering the file unreadable. In the old days you had to go in and figure out what character removed was, to restore the file. Now, Lexar and SanDisk simply replace it with their character and move on -- easy. I believe you can download either brand from the internet. I'd just pay the going price vice getting the free version. You'll be satisifed, paying will focus your attention and updates will be available to paid versions. And both are relatively inexpensive. If you are already in for a D800, this is a minimal insurance cost! Good luck.

Alan
Waterloo, IL, USA
www.proimagingmidamerica.com

Visit my Nikonians gallery.

Joseph, Mike, and Alan,

Thank you for the sage advice. I will download the paid version of the SanDisk program and report back to this thread.

As always, Nikonians are lifesavers. I appreciate everyone's help.

Wm.

Data Rescue 3 - http://www.prosofteng.com/products/data_rescue.php

works on your camera cards and Mac Hard discs. Worth its weight in gold IMO.

It recently pulled 2TB of filesoff a hard drive that came up with the dreaded "cannot mount disc please initialize" error msg.

Cheers

Andrew

Thanks to everyone for your help and encouragement. I am pleased to report that I purchased the SanDisk-recommended Rescue Pro 4 (Standard edition) and was successful in recovering my Christmas photos! It also recovered a shoot from earlier in December 2 formats ago. The cost is $39.95 for a one-year subscription.

The process was not well explained online line but the support team was readily available via phone and was EXTREMELY helpful. I wouldn't wish this problem on anyone, but in the event it occurs, Rescue Pro is highly recommended.

Thanks again for your help.

Happy New Year to all.

Wm.