C300: C300 MK III CFexpress card data recovery

A

adawsonb

New member
Hi Crew, have a data recovery problem that I could really use some community knowledge about. I shot about 400gb of data on a 512 CFExpress Type B card, in a C300 MK III. After recording on Slot A, I meant to initialize the second card in Slot B, but inadvertently initialized Slot A instead. I immediately realized my mistake and removed the card and stored it safely to make sure now new data was put on it. I wasn't worried at the time as I feel like this has happened before in other cameras and I've been easily able to recover using consumer software like Data Rescue or Disk Drill. This time it didn't work. Nothing was working so I sent it off to a data recovery company who has been quick and friendly, but they are saying they see no trace of any data whatsoever on it.

"Unfortunately, after a deep scan we found that the card's unallocated space was filled with zeroes, and there weren't any traces of the previous data on the card. We do not know of any solutions that exist for recovering the data once the unallocated space is filled with zeroes."

I didn't think I would be in this position after such a simple mistake. I understood it to be that a card is essentially always full, and that initializing is just a way to tell it to start recording over what was previously there.

Does anyone know if the C300MK3 formats a card differently that other cameras? Initializing a 512 card takes less than 2 seconds so I find it hard to believe that the entire card can be wiped so thoroughly so quickly. Surely that actual data is still there, no?

Please help if you know anything that could help! It's client footage so I'm not in a position to give up too easily. I need a solution. Cheers, Adam.
 
Some of my Sony cameras allow me to do a Quick format or a Full format. Quick doesn't really erase anything, it just allows the card to record over the top of whatever is there, so until you start recording again, some clips might still be recoverable. Full format wipes the card clean right from that moment. Sounds like your camera did a Full format. If so, you're out of luck.

I never format a card out in the field.
I never format a card unless it is the only card in the camera and/or the other card is already blank or about to also be reformatted.
In other words, I never format a card when there is another card in the camera that has important content on it that has not been backed up.
I never format a card that has not been backed up onto two drives, and usually three drives.
I prefer shooting on multiple medium-capacity cards, rather than big cards, so that not too many eggs are in one basket.
 
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I've had luck in the past recovering files using the following software: https://www.easeus.com/brand/data-recovery-mac/drw-mac-version.html

I'm not sure if it would work on CFExpress Type B. I've only ever used it with SD cards before, but it did manage to recover the files when something went wrong.

I know you sent the card off for data recovery and they said they couldn't find anything, but it may be worth a shot to try all potential options available before giving up.
 
DustinSchmidt said:
I've had luck in the past recovering files using the following software: https://www.easeus.com/brand/data-recovery-mac/drw-mac-version.html

I'm not sure if it would work on CFExpress Type B. I've only ever used it with SD cards before, but it did manage to recover the files when something went wrong.

I know you sent the card off for data recovery and they said they couldn't find anything, but it may be worth a shot to try all potential options available before giving up.
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EaseUS. That is exactly the software I was going to recommend. I have used it successfully on SD, CF and XQD cards. Also, may I suggest you try EaseUS on a PC as I have seen a couple of cards that reported zero data on a Mac but displayed all the data when mounted on a PC.

Failing that, try the following outfit. They have written their own diagnostic software, "Treasured" for interrogating Canon DAT files on CF cards. Any video recording malfunction or abrupt shut down will end up producing a DAT file. DAT files cannot be opened, no video software can play or import them. So whatever you do not lose the DAT file if there is one.

There is a fee based on the amount of data recovered if the diagnostic and test recovery goes okay. It will cost you absolutely nothing to download and run their diagnostic app and recover some test files before you proceed. They are by far and away the best recovery outfit I know for recovering Canon files.

Read the following page carefully. Follow the instructions and download their 'App'. If you do use Aeroquartet, and they successfully recover your data post back and let us all know as other peoples successes are often useful for those who find themselves in a similar situation.

Nothing to lose I guess! Good luck.

Chris Young

https://aeroquartet.com/treasured/canon eos.en.html
 

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A real sector by sector writing "0" to all addresses on a 512GB card with a write speed of 1,500MB/s is going to take over 5mins, but it seems that CFExpress must have another way of doing something similar but in a much quicker way. Here is a video from Prograde alluding to it -
 
adawsonb said:
Hi Crew, have a data recovery problem that I could really use some community knowledge about. I shot about 400gb of data on a 512 CFExpress Type B card, in a C300 MK III. After recording on Slot A, I meant to initialize the second card in Slot B, but inadvertently initialized Slot A instead. I immediately realized my mistake and removed the card and stored it safely to make sure now new data was put on it. I wasn't worried at the time as I feel like this has happened before in other cameras and I've been easily able to recover using consumer software like Data Rescue or Disk Drill. This time it didn't work. Nothing was working so I sent it off to a data recovery company who has been quick and friendly, but they are saying they see no trace of any data whatsoever on it.

"Unfortunately, after a deep scan we found that the card's unallocated space was filled with zeroes, and there weren't any traces of the previous data on the card. We do not know of any solutions that exist for recovering the data once the unallocated space is filled with zeroes."

I didn't think I would be in this position after such a simple mistake. I understood it to be that a card is essentially always full, and that initializing is just a way to tell it to start recording over what was previously there.

Does anyone know if the C300MK3 formats a card differently that other cameras? Initializing a 512 card takes less than 2 seconds so I find it hard to believe that the entire card can be wiped so thoroughly so quickly. Surely that actual data is still there, no?

Please help if you know anything that could help! It's client footage so I'm not in a position to give up too easily. I need a solution. Cheers, Adam.
Click to expand...
I once made the same mistake, C300 series and CF Express card, and the data/footage was toast. I did send it to a recovery company but like with what you found - there was no way for them to recover the files. My understanding is that it had to do with the XF-AVC format. The format has a file structure and is not readable until opened/converted because it has data in different files. If anything alters the file structure on the card then the footage is lost. Had the footage been self-contained files (*.mov, *.mp4, etc) there was a good chance they would have been recoverable.
 
Jon Roemer said:
I once made the same mistake, C300 series and CF Express card, and the data/footage was toast. I did send it to a recovery company but like with what you found - there was no way for them to recover the files. My understanding is that it had to do with the XF-AVC format. The format has a file structure and is not readable until opened/converted because it has data in different files. If anything alters the file structure on the card then the footage is lost. Had the footage been self-contained files (*.mov, *.mp4, etc) there was a good chance they would have been recoverable.
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This is good to know, as someone who is still shooting on a C500 II.

I wonder if shooting the Canon Raw would result in the same results? Could the Raw files be recovered in an emergency?
 
DustinSchmidt said:
This is good to know, as someone who is still shooting on a C500 II.

I wonder if shooting the Canon Raw would result in the same results? Could the Raw files be recovered in an emergency?
Click to expand...
Sorry, but the information that Canon XF-AVC file are not recoverable is incorrect. I know of a number of cases where Aeroquartet have recovered them. To recover them requires specialist, specific recovery software. Not normal data recovery tools. Aeroquartet have developed their own recovery tools for this reason.

Chris Young

https://aeroquartet.com/treasured/xf-avc.en.html

 
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cyvideo said:
Sorry, but the information that Canon XF-AVC file are not recoverable is incorrect. I know of a number of cases where Aeroquartet have recovered them. To recover them requires specialist, specific recovery software. Not normal data recovery tools. Aeroquartet have developed their own recovery tools for this reason.

Chris Young

https://aeroquartet.com/treasured/xf-avc.en.html

Click to expand...
That's interesting. I'm keeping this bookmarked in the event I ever have an issue. Fingers crossed...

Will probably do my own testing regarding Raw files and trying recovery with some of the aforementioned options and see what happens.
 
cyvideo said:
Sorry, but the information that Canon XF-AVC file are not recoverable is incorrect. I know of a number of cases where Aeroquartet have recovered them. To recover them requires specialist, specific recovery software. Not normal data recovery tools. Aeroquartet have developed their own recovery tools for this reason.

Chris Young

https://aeroquartet.com/treasured/xf-avc.en.html

Click to expand...
Thanks for the correction/update! Great to know. This was not an option when I had my issue in 2012 with the original C300. So, I guess it was on CompactFlash cards, not CF Express.
 
Aeroquartet have stated that the type of card format is immaterial. As long as a file can be seen, they can analyse it in the majority of cases. For anyone who is not sure how the process works and who may need Aeroquartet's expertise now or in the future watch this 2010, an old but still relevant video, as it covers all the steps you need to take to effect a repair.

Chris Young

 
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