Recovery from Vixia HFR40 INTERNAL memory

[ccm007]

Is there any way to recover deleted videos from the Vixia HFR40 internal memory? We accidentally deleted all our videos (two years of kids) when trying to free up space.

We have tried all of the recovery software (10+), but they do not recognize the camcorder and its onboard, internal memory as a drive. The normal solution is to remove the flash card and use a card reader.

That is obviously not possible with the internal memory. We need a way to create a full image of the internal memory and its partitions/allocations...not just the remaining pics/videos.

Any suggestions would be extremely appreciated.

Best,

Chris

[VideoGeek]

I'm not quite sure where to go from here as far as getting your camcorders internal drive recognized..  I'm thinking it has something to do with no drive letter being assigned to the drive but I could be wrong.  I have searched for a solution and come up empty.  I'm not giving up yet though.

[dok407]

Any update/news?!? Sincerely hoping for a solution. I have the R42, but same story...  😞

[AlenSung]

Did you try Jihosoft Photo Recovery? Maybe you can try this one. They say that this picture recovery software support a variety of digital camera. Maybe you can give it a try.

[Johnhardesty]

Did you discover anything that will work? I’ve been trying for over a year

[Johnhardesty]

Did you ever figure this out? I have been trying over a year to find a solution

[ccm007]

Sorry, it was too long ago. We did find a way to somehow switch the camera over into "drive" mode where it acted more like a hard drive when connected to the computer. From there, we were able to use normal recovery software to get the ghosted files. Unfortunately, most of them were slightly corrupted with header information and other issues. I used a program called recover mp4 coupled with a good video to recover them. It never quite got all the way back to original quality, but it's a lot better. Good luck! I know how stressful and disappointing this is. 

[dok407]

Did you have to change it on the camera or the computer? We spent weeks trying to do that but never did could get it to switch to a "drive". Do you remember what version of Windows/mac/etc and any other details?!? 2 years of my babies videos are trapped on there. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[ccm007]

It took a few hours, but we figured it out again!!!  We remember how painful it was to lose all of those memories and hope this helps both of you too. 

Here's what you have to do - at least for the Canon HFR40. You have to trick the camcorder into connecting as a drive by switching to the AVCHD. 

1. With camera plugged into electric outlet but disconnected from USB/computer, press the play button. It is on the left side of the camera body, covered by the view screen. 
2. This will take you to your movies. There may not be any there...they were deleted after all. 
3. At the top, there will be several icons.
   1. Home
   2. SD/Computer chip
   3. MP4/AVCHD
   4. Camera Icon
4. Click button 2/3. 
5. At the top, change the orange slider to AVCHD. 
6. Plug into computer. 
7. A screen will pop up saying "Select the memory for connection". 
   1. All (for PC only)
   2. Built-in Mem. 
   3. Mem. Card
8. Select #2, built in mem. Remember, if your lost videos are on a memory card, just get a card reader to do this. 
9. Your computer should recognize the drive connecting. 
10. Browse to "This PC" and see the new Canon Drive. Mine shows up as E:\ but yours could show up as another available drive. It will be called "CANON". 
11. You can browse the folders like DCIM here. But your stuff is most likely gone. 
12. However, now that it is a mapped drive, file recovery software should work. When stuff is deleted on a computer, it often remains behind. There are many software packages out there that can recover it. 
13. Now, safely eject the camcorder by right-clicking on the drive and selecting "Eject". Unplug the camera. 
14. Once you've done that, you may need to repair the files. Often they won't play because they are missing "header" information. You record a new, good file on the same camcorder and use that as the header for the recovered files. For this, I used "Recover MP4". 
15. I'm not sure what the procedure would be on a Mac. But really, you know someone who has a PC.