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Cannot Read Files On Card

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raydemel

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Joined: May '10
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I recently took an old Nikon 995 on vacation and took many photos. I am able to see the pictures on the 995 screen but I cannot export the files from the card to any of my Mac computers. The file names can be seen but no programs can open the files. I have tried CaptureNX, Photoshop etc - get a message that the file either cannot load or be opened. If I take the card from the 995 and place it into my Nikon D200 - it will not read the card - but the 995 can read the card.

Any ideas on how to salvage the files would be greatly appreciated.

Posted 2 years ago #
NikoDoby

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Welcome to the forum raydemel.

I miss that old school swivel body on the 995. As I remember this camera could save images as JPEG or TIFF files. I don't think it was capable of RAW. So I'm thinking your files are TIFFs which would have been the highest image setting. Though photoshop and Capture should be able to open TIFF files.

What is the file extension on the photos? Do they look like DSC0011.jpg? Or does it end in .tif? And how are you trying to download the images? USB cable from the camera or through a card reader?

Posted 2 years ago #
raydemel

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The files have the jpg extension. I am trying using both the camera via a usb cable and with a card reader. I placed a different card in the 995, took a picture and was able to transfer it to my mac. Could it have something to do with the fact that the card in question was formatted on a different Nikon camera and then used in the 995. I will take the card to a local camera store and see if they can recover the images.

Posted 2 years ago #
tc

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There likely is a file system corruption. Basically some cameras may not implement the windows FAT system completely, and there is a mismatch about what data should be written where. Don't take any more pictures onto the card since that increases the chance something is going to get overwritten.

Last time I used a free program called "recuva" and it worked wonders and I was able to recover most of the files. Give that one a try.

Posted 2 years ago #
NikoDoby

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Yes there is free file recovery software you can download that might recover the images. The software I use came with my SanDisk cards so I paid for it but I'm sure others can recommend more programs like tc did.

Did you test out the camera before using it on your vacation? Always a good idea to do that before you leave. Good luck.

Posted 2 years ago #
raydemel

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I appreciate the comments so far. I have tried some of the mac recovery programs that I found on the internet and none seem to be able to work.

Could anyone tell me why the camera (995) can read the card and display the images on the camera screen and nothing else seems to be able to read the card? Like I said earlier, i can use a different card in the 995 and take a shot and transfer it to my computers.

Thanks

Posted 2 years ago #
tc

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Your 995 may got confused (when the card was formatted somewhere else) and interprete the file location differently than what it should be. So it may took a picture and put it on location X. But others may read the file table and thought it's on location Y. Thus it can't read the data.

I had this happening to one of my Nikons too. The cameras probably don't implement all the details of a file system, and if there is some caveats unexpected, it's going to screw up. The lesson I learned is always to format on the camera and use the card there only.

Can you use a USB cable to connect 995 with your mac? If so, that probably should work since you would be using the camera as the card reader.

Posted 2 years ago #
Anaxagoras

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Joined: Dec '09
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Ray,

Try to beg, borrow or steal a Windows PC and use that with your card reader.

I think tc above is on the right lines. I had a not-too-different problem with my Mac and the SD card from my satnav a couple of months ago. Whilst the Mac can read/write and even format to FAT, I've now learnt that it isn't 100% foolproof. In my case there was a format error on the card that Windows spotted and fixed (with no loss of data), whereas my Mac was reporting that the card was OK. FAT, of course, is native to Windows, whereas it's an 'alien' format for the Mac.

[ Don't worry, you can go back to your Mac afterwards ;) ]

Totally off-topic - my very first digital camera was one of those swivel body 9xx series.

Posted 2 years ago #
raydemel

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Thanks to all for the advice. I connected the camera to a windows pc and it was able to read the files and I was able to recover them. I then reformatted the card in the 995 and took some pictures and I was able to see them on a mac. So I guess the message is to format the card on the camera that you are going to use it on.

Posted 2 years ago #

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Cannot Read Files On Card

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