CR2 Photos showing the correct file size for a photo but cannot open them or convert to jpeg?? Need help repairing!

[doublecaesar]

I was taking photos the other day at Glacier National Park and halfway through the afternoon the previews stopped showing up on my camera. After inserting the card into my computer I found that the second half of the batch were all the proper size for a photo but are giving me the error "may be damaged or use a file format that is unrecognizable".

 

I've tried every photo recovery software I could find and they all do not even recognize the files. I tried downloading iHex to possibly remove a damaged header but the photos show up showing only Fs' on every line (I've never used this program before so may be user error, screenshot of when I dragged the photos into the program attached). I have not done anything to the SD card itself besides make a copy of the photos on my computer. I also tried converting to JPG with no luck.

 

Any ideas?

 

I've uploaded 4 photos:

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0Bwvjk4sXOF52MUtpZXY1TTFFcDQ&usp=sharing

 

7829 is the last good photo, 7830 is where something went wrong, and 7831/32 are screwed.

 

Thanks for any help you can give me!!

[Draconian Guppy]

Most likely your SD died,   best bet would be use something like recuva or getdataback, THEN try to convert it. Also welcome to neowin.

[doublecaesar]

19 hours ago, Draconian Guppy said:

Most likely your SD died,   best bet would be use something like recuva or getdataback, THEN try to convert it. Also welcome to neowin.

Thanks for the welcome and the reply, I've tried quite a few programs like that and none of them recognize the corrupted files that are still on the SD card. I am still able to see and copy them off the SD card so they aren't lost exactly, just unreadable.

[Dick Montage]

What format should the files be?  JPG?

 

[Dick Montage]

http://forum.piriform.com/?showtopic=19987

[doublecaesar]

Just now, Nik L said:

What format should the files be?  JPG?

 

They were shot in CR2 RAW but I don't really mind which format they end up in as long as its viewable.

[Dick Montage]

It matters though, as you want to recover the data within them, not just the file with a "sort of" correct size.

 

My steps would be:

1 - Use Recuva to recover the data somewhere.

2 - Make a working copy of the above, don't work on the files themselves

3 - Find some software that will either open corrupt RAW files or recover them (I don't shoot in RAW so can't advise)

[doublecaesar]

I'm on a mac so cant try Recuva at the moment, but I've tried many like it and they don't even recognize the files on the SD card. I just tried compressing a few to .zip and they went from 16 MB to 16kb. I'm guessing all hope is lost at this point.

[Dick Montage]

Oh well, gave you a potential solution that has worked for me when all others failed.