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Corrupted CR2 file out of the camera

groman
Apprentice

I have a 7dii bought new 6 months ago- I have gotten three or four files that came off the camera corrupted. Why is this happening and should I worry about it? So far it hasn't seemed to affect any important shots, but I will know I will be dissapointed if it happens to a great shot.

13 REPLIES 13

Ray-uk
Whiz

Are you using a full sized SD and not a micro SD with an adaptor.

Are you using a cheap memory card.

Have you formatted the memory card in the camera.

Are you transferring your picture files from your camera via a cable or with a card reader.

I am using a Lexar Pro 800x 16gb CF card, and transferring pictures via cable. I have taken about 9,000 pics and only a few have been like this. I can't say I have actually formatted the card- I move all photos from the card to a file folder on the computer, then into Lightroom for processing. The corrupted files show up in the folder after the initial download.

Thanks for getting back to me.

If the files show up as corrupted after you download them but appear alright if you view them on the camera then that suggests you probably have have either a faulty cable or the connection is breaking at times.

 

I have found that a good quality card card reader is easier and more reliable than using a cable.

 

The card should be formatted in the camera, the instruction manual tells you that. I would definitely recommend that you format the card in the camera every time after you have downloaded the files and avoid deleting individual files as you shoot.

Thanks very much- I will try formatting the card in camera. I regularly delet shots directly from the camera- didn't realize it was a bad idea.

"I regularly delet shots directly from the camera- didn't realize it was a bad idea."

 

They say it is but I have not experienced any issues doing it. 

EB
EOS 1DX and 1D Mk IV and less lenses then before!


@groman wrote:

Thanks very much- I will try formatting the card in camera. I regularly delet shots directly from the camera- didn't realize it was a bad idea.


It seems to be "fact" without proof. When you delete at file, you just change the address to the file, so it shouldn't give you any problem. With that said also I format the card in the camera after each photo session. Actually even low level formatting the SD card.

 

Low level formatting the card will decrease the life of the card, but if a card has 100,000 write cycles as a limit, how many years will it survive only by low level formatting each day....

My last failure was 2008. 40D and Transcend. All pictures left on card. Just card error in camera.

2006 I got the whole card destroyed. S3 IS and SanDisk.

It appears the in camera low-level format overwrites the entire card. The normal format just rewrites the system part of the FAT32 partition, leaving data intact. The low level format sets the whole partition data to zero.

I agree it is not good practice to low level format each time since those are write operations and each memory cell on your SD card only has so many writes to it before it becomes unusable. If you decide to format SD cards in your computer, make sure that you check the “Quick Format” and NOT the low level format.

EB
EOS 1DX and 1D Mk IV and less lenses then before!


@groman wrote:

Thanks very much- I will try formatting the card in camera. I regularly delet shots directly from the camera- didn't realize it was a bad idea.


It could be bad if you have never formatted the card yourself.  New cards should always be low level formatted prior to first use.  New cards are not pre-formatted.  They are tested during production, and what seems like formatting is actually residue from production testing.  

 

I have never had problems deleting files in the camera, but it is usually the most recent shot that I took.  Deleting files just erases the entry in the storage medium’s directory.  The actual data is not overwritten or erased, but it can be if you write new data to the card.

 

As far as low level formatting a camera goes, I have to question what it is that the camera does when it supposedly performs a low level format, because the camera does it WAY too quickly.  A computer spends a LOT more time performing a low level format on a memory card than your average camera. Use a card reader and try it some time, but do not use a high capacity card if you do.

 

I do not think cameras actually test every storage bit.  I think they just go through and erase the pointers in storage blocks.  The file directory points to the first storage block of a file, and at the end of each block there is a pointer to the next storage block.  This continues until the final storage block, which will have an “End Of File” code, instead of a pointer.  I think cameras simply erase the pointers, which makes it near impossible to recreate the storage path of a file.

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