File Recovery

egproductions

egproductions

Veteran
I accidentally formatted a CF card in my 5D IV. I used Rescue Pro Deluxe to recover. It seemed to have recovered the files (file sizes look like they could be the right size and the windows properties show the clip length and resolution), however the files won't open and won't import into premiere. I tried changing the extention from .mov to .mp4 but no dice.

What else can i try? I feel like it's some sort of header problem.
 
Importantly do you still have the original card with its corrupt files? What can happen with Canon files is due to the way they write the file headers. For any real chance of recovery you will need the original files. All this can be lost during a card format.

The conventional way H.264 files are written is that the header includes all the information about the codec, video format, fps and audio channels. This is done at the commencement of the file. When you hit the stop button the file is then closed. Unfortunately Canon don't write their files in the conventional H.264 manner. When you hit the stop button on a Canon camera during the process of closing the file the process includes going back to the header and then writing in the aforementioned codec, video format, fps and audio channels. In other words if a file is truncated at the end and it wasn't closed off correctly the information about the codec, video format, fps and audio channels never got entered into the header. If that happens there is no information in the header for a decoder to decipher the file. There has been a fair amount of discussion over the years as to why Canon only write the data into the header at the conclusion of a file rather than the conventional H.264 practice of entering the required information at record commencement. In normal practice basically the information entered at the conclusion of a file is related to duration and time code if used as the header information has already been entered. In Canon's case nothing is entered into the header until the file is closed. The only people I know of who have consistently been able to re-index Canon files correctly are "aero Quartet." They have written a number of special proprietary code based recovery programs to re-index Canon files. Plus many other file formats. They have an online file checking service which can indicate if your file / files are recoverable. How the whole process works and the fees involved can be found amongst the following links. Been there done that but with an XDCam file. Good luck!

Chris Young

https://aeroquartet.com/
https://aeroquartet.com/movierepair/canon eos.en.html
https://aeroquartet.com/movierepair/reindexing.en.html
https://aeroquartet.com/movierepair/pricing.en.html
 
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Just had a go at your uploaded file. I can see that it is a 1920 x1080 file at 185678kbps at what looks like 59.97 fps. I can see the legs of someone in jeans standing on grass adjacent to a flower bed but because there is no more header information I'm only able to decipher frame #1. Really does look like a job for aero Quartet sad to say.

Chris Young
 
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