Corrupt/Damaged/Unreadable Files Recovery

I am a photographer and videographer. I was shooting a small gig at a local bar on my Canon EOS 60D. I needed another SD card that could handle RAW video; one of my good friends said he uses microSD cards a good bit for his video work. I went and bought an Extreme Plus 32GB Red/Gold U3 microSDHC with an SD adapter. I formatted the card, took some photos and video. Everything was fine. I shot the gig.

When I went to export the RAW files to my MacBook Pro, most of my video files and almost 60 of the still shots reported an error message as being corrupt/damaged/unreadable. All files are PERFECT when viewed from the DSLR. When viewed on the computer, damaged still-images show horizontal banding and video files freeze-frame (the audio continues to play fine). I have never dealt with this type of issue, so I have no clue where to start. Is this possibly an issue with the card or my card reader? Could this be resolved with a simple free file recovery program? Any advice is welcome.

Hello, 

since the files show up and work fine on the camera i would suggest connecting the camera with the cable to the computer with the card and see if you can transfer and see the files on the computer. So in that case you can use the camera as a card reader to check if the files are still corrupted or not

In Canon 60d Manual i found 7 Ways to Fix Corrupted SD Memory Cards & SD Card Recovery​:

  • Connect SD card to other device.
  • Try “chkdsk” command
  • Assign a new driver letter
  • Use sandisk inbuilt solution
  • Format SD card
  • Reinstall the driver
  • Use sd card recovery software

There is possibility an issue with the card or card reader, so you should exclude the problem first. Connect SD card with another  well card reader to check whether the file is ok to open. If the problem still exits, then a recovery software is needed. In fact, most of free file recovery program is bundled with spam and useless advertisements.

RePicvid free photo recovery could restore corrupted photos, but it pays to retrieve videos and audio files. You may try the free version to scan and preview corrupted/damaged/unreadable videos. Here is the tutorial about how to recover deleted photos/videos from SD card. Hope it can help you.

There are several reliable software for SD card file recovery:

  1. RePicvid Free Photo Recovery

  2. Free Recuva

  3. PhotoRec

Reference: How to Recover Corrupted/Damaged/Unreadable Files from SD Card

The best way to restore photos from a corrupted SD card is using a third-party recovery tool like Disk Drill or R-Studio.