SR2 (Sony) and CR2 (Canon) file recovery fails with RAW-data only

Using PhotoRec to recover lost data
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tomcek
Posts: 3
Joined: 11 Aug 2017, 11:53

SR2 (Sony) and CR2 (Canon) file recovery fails with RAW-data only

#1 Post by tomcek »

Hello,

I try to help a friend who fomated a 2TB harddisk twice ...

What had happen: He had a harddisk with HFS+ file system full of JPGs, SR2 and CR2 files (and many other stuff like *.pdf, *.indd and so on). He formatted accidently this drive with FAT32. Knowing that he has a backup of all files (later he noticed that this disk wasn´t backed up since month) he thought reformatting again with HFS+ would be a great idea. :shock:

Now we have again a HFS+formated drive but without normal usable data. What I did now was a recovery with PhotoRec. And all files like *.jpg, *.pdf and much more can be opened like normal. BUT... the SR2 and CR2 can can be opened as well but they seem to be corrupt if you decode (develope) them- the picture looks like it has purple scratches (like on a analog picture). The meta-data are always intact - you can read everything on all raw-files!

The SR2 and CR2 files are like a container. The files contain a big thumbnail (1080x1616 for SR2 and 3744 x 5616 for CR2). The thumbnails are always visible, only the part with the RAW-data is corrupt. In Lightroom, when you see the thumbnails and try to develope the RAW you can see some parts from the RAW and you see that the RAW (the rare parts you see) has often a different content than the thumbnail, it´s like from another picture!? A good example is picture "f1207024658.sr2" ... in thumbnail you see a mushroom on a tree, but decoded there are parts from another picture to see.

Does PhotoRec interprets with a wrong signature of file type?

From 1500 SR2 files I have only 4 really working files, from all the others the RAW-data is corrupt. From CR2 (this are much more) I can't tell at the moment.

I have some sample files in my dropbox and would appreciate if someone can help us! We have really the big hope that the files can be well recovered. Because "only" twice reformatting happened - no deletion, no writing to disk, nothing. The data is still on disk.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/hrtsftkwuwwk ... aYxja?dl=0

The cameras are: SR2 - Sony α7R II (ILCE-7RM2) and for the CR2-files a Canon EOS 5D Mark II.

If someone needs more information, please ask. Thanks in advance!


Tom

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cgrenier
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Re: SR2 (Sony) and CR2 (Canon) file recovery fails with RAW-data only

#2 Post by cgrenier »

If you get a mix of 2 pictures in a single file, it's usually because the files were fragmented before deletion...

Do you get better results with latest 7.1-WIP ?
You can also try with Paranoid: Off in Options.

Please tell us if one solution gets better results.

tomcek
Posts: 3
Joined: 11 Aug 2017, 11:53

Re: SR2 (Sony) and CR2 (Canon) file recovery fails with RAW-data only

#3 Post by tomcek »

Hello Christophe,

thank you for your reply.

The last run I did with version 7.1 but I think I did not set "Paranoid: off" ... I will give it a try tomorrow.

Regarding the fragmentation ... is it possible to read the fragmentation status for the files so that a correct restore would be possible?

tomcek
Posts: 3
Joined: 11 Aug 2017, 11:53

Re: SR2 (Sony) and CR2 (Canon) file recovery fails with RAW-data only

#4 Post by tomcek »

Hello Christophe,

I did a second run with PhotoRec (I switched off Paranoid mode and all the other options) but the result is the same.

Do you have any other idea how to get the data back, I mean is there a way to fix the fragmentation to read the files correctly?

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cgrenier
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Re: SR2 (Sony) and CR2 (Canon) file recovery fails with RAW-data only

#5 Post by cgrenier »

Unfortunately no magic solution. There are solutions to deal with fragmented jpg, but none (AFAIK) for tiff/cr2/sr2.

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