P2 card Format Err - catastrophe

[DIGIMARK]

Have been searching P2 threads and have found similar issues but nothing yet exactly the same. As there are so many users of this format I can't imagine this situation is unique.
Have a 64GB card that when put in to the camera reads "FORMAT ERR". There is about an hour plus footage on the card (720/30PN) that I fear is lost and have sent to Panasonic to see what can be recovered as it's a client project that can not be replicated, hence the magic of a live event.
Back story to this... shooting a live conference event on HPX-170, all day event, camera is running off power supply. (shortcoming to this series of cameras is that power supply attaches to battery port, no failsafe battery back-up). Event is wrapping up and venue technician starts pulling A/C plugs from wall in rush to get out quicker. Power to camera is cut before record is stopped. This is what I believe caused the "corruption" to card. Get power back to camera instantly the flashing "FORMAT ERR" pops up. Camera & Card will not go-to/get-to point where clip repair can be done in browser, have tried in the HPX-170, HPX-2000, and on mac dektop & laptop (card will not mount at all via AJ-PCD2 usb reader). Error on format level seems to nullify all else.

Now stuck with a client that of course wants footage they hired us to capture, a card that is unreadable, and Panasonic that charges $390 for data recovery on something that seems to me to be a system failure of "flawless" technology. A power failure should not wipe out an entire card.

Rather frustrating. Any input, advise, tale of similar situation much appreciated.

[ceejay7777]

Always run a UPS for gigs like this. It only needs too keep up for a few minutes to avoid the scenario you mentioned.

[Al MacLeod]

Always run a UPS for gigs like this. It only needs too keep up for a few minutes to avoid the scenario you mentioned.

I think he knows now...

I would hope the big boys on this forum will step up and offer some advice at this point.
This seems to be a deep and dark place any P2 user could fall into.

[NVentive]

Can you get to a PC with a P2 reader? I'm not familiar with Mac, but on windoze, there are several date recovery routines available if you could treat the card like a drive. I've never had a P2 card fail, but I have recovered data from other camera cards in similar situations. My guess is that a missing "Last Clip" file is at least partially to blame here. I'm not at my office right now, and can't remember the names of the software routines I use, but I'm guessing that any low-level reader should work.

[DIGIMARK]

Nightmare continues.

Unfortunate news. Just received word back from Panasonic technician... completely un-salvagable. Kicker is that panasonic technician making incredible assertions that card must have be reformatted twice or that there was nothing on the card. How do you re-formatt a card that instantly reads "format err" on 2 cameras and won't mont on 2 separate computers via Panasonic AJ-PCD2 reader? First conversation they told me there were 5 clips of 18-40 seconds each, after which I told them that was the wrong card as my clips would be in the 20-40 minute range. Response - "oh yes this is not your card, yours is a 64GB". So the new claim is that card got there, put in machine, read no errors at all and was completely blank. They have a 90% data recovery rate according to technicians claim... clearly this is in the dark unmentionable (obviously operator error) 10% of format error purgatory. Complete loss of confidence in this system.

A true P2 nightmare which is now costing me $140 (instead of $390 data recovery) for the reformatting of a card that they say had no errors & no data on it. Always find it delightful to be charged for failed technology. I was a very early adopter of P2HD owning a HVX-200 early on then subsequently a full size HPX-2000 & HPX170. There have been a few data hiccups along the way but this was the first truly catastrophic that is entirely technology based.

Awesome... can't wait for the conversation with client.

Will definitely swing future jobs of this nature towards my Sony SxS cameras as that in camera clip repair system (recently tested with cutting power scenario) actually works and will not cost me precious time and client confidence.

[Mark Williams]

Man, that was bad news. I too bought into P2 due to advertised reliability. I have never had an error but I don't shoot as often these days.

[DIGIMARK]

Appreciate the input. Used to have a majority of P2HD clients but past year and a half has become much less as many clients don't need the enormous data flow, preferring the slimmer 35mb @1080. Has appreciably cut down on my offloading to drives post shoot as I can use transfer devices in the field that are more advanced then archaic & slow USB-2.0.
With this uncomfortable experience will start to sway clients over to other systems as I have SxS cameras as well as a NanoFlash external recorder.
Of course battery powering the 170 from now on when it does get used because at least I have half a chance for survival with an indicator warning light. Its always a poor system design from day 1 to have the power supply connect to the battery input and not a separate one as on many Sony models in the solid state line-up.
Camera & technology was a workhorse for many shoots... think I am moving on where possible.

[AeroQ]

Hello,

If you have a P2 reader on your Mac, and the P2 card shows up in the Finder as a disk, then you can try DeepMediaScan with Treasured.

http://aeroquartet.com/movierepair/download.html

Open Treasured and do Disk > Open damaged disk... then select your P2 in left column of the dialog. Then cross fingers and launch the scan.

-- Benoît

[Kolor-Pikker]

Man, this is the second time I've ever heard of anyone losing data using P2 media from any reason, sorry for the loss. I've done torture tests before, pulling the card out, letting the power run out and pulling the battery off while recording, and the worst that happened was the clip I was recording got corrupted, but never the whole card.

[Barry_Green]

In eight years of using the system, that has been my experience as well -- I've torture-tested it, yanked cards out during recording, yanked the power out during recording, stomped on the cards, static-shocked them, dunked 'em in water, and I've never heard of any card ever going bad under any scenario. I've heard of a card being DOA when first used, but I've never heard of a card that has been working, suddenly not working.