cgsecurity.org

Posted: **20 Jul 2020, 21:19**

Hi,

After accidentally reformatting the memory card while using my camera, I tried to recover the files using Photorec ( v7.1).

All images were successfully recovered, but none of the videos.

I followed the instructions under chapter 13 of the TestDisk Documentation Release 7.1
"RECOVERING LOST VIDEOS FROM A MEMORY CARD USING PHOTOREC" where I selected the following option:

[X] mov/mdat Recover mdat atom as a separate file

After running photorec I end up with two movie file types, "mp4" and "_mdat.mov". There are approximately the same number of files (141 vs 137 respectively). Selecting or unselecting the option mentioned above does not change this result. I see no files labeled "_ftyp.mov".

The .mp4 files are typically small file size (less than 1MB) and when I play them back there is no image (the image is black), but they seem to have the correct duration. The mov files typically have larger file sizes (10s - 100s of MB) and if I try to play them I get an error. I have tried to open videos both in QuickTime and in VLC.

Any suggestions for how to successfully recover these videos would be very much appreciated!

Posted: **21 Jul 2020, 11:45**

Unfortunately I have no recommendation for you!

If your card is healthy defragmentation is the only explanation for that behaviour.
When deleting never delete single photos or videos, only delete every file on your memory card after having them copied to your computer.

Posted: **21 Jul 2020, 11:52**

Ok, thank you for clarifying.

The card should be healthy, and I made sure to remove the card from the camera immediately after it happened, so I am assuming that all files are intact.

Posted: **05 Jan 2021, 22:50**

Hi, maybe have a look at Recover MP4s from Canon format. I used and extended the Script of the last post.

rebuild.sh

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
for j in *.mp4
do
  unset found
  for i in *.mov
  do
    cat $j $i > output/$j
    if ! ffprobe output/$j 2>&1 | grep -q NAL
    then
      found=true
      break 
    fi
  done
  if [ -z ${found+x} ]
  then
    rm -f output/$j
    echo $j not matched 
  fi
done

You need to have ffmpeg installed.
Switch to the folder with your *.mp4 and *.mov files, create a subfolder "output" and run the .sh script.

It try's to combine all mp4 and mov files and checks with ffprobe if it is a correct file. If no matching mov file is found for the mp4, the mp4 name is printed to the console.

It may take a while but it fund (nearly) all matching 70 pairs for me in a folder with 8GB in a few minutes on a fast SSD.

Posted: **08 Jul 2021, 00:15**

EDIT: Found the solution here: https://www.cgsecurity.org/testdisk.pdf

Thank you in advance!

Hi,

I'm not sure if I have a similar issue but perhaps if not someone can point me in the right direction. I recently formatted a memory card in my Nikon Z6 camera and am trying to recover the photos and video footage. It was a brand new and health Sony G 32gb XQD card. While I was able to recover the photos easily. The videos were recovered in a way that I don't understand.

Only 2 videos were made and it seems the MOV were broken into two parts _mdat and _ftyp each X2 making 4 files for two original videos. _ftyp files are small 3mb files and has some video meta data. The _mdat files are roughly 4 gigs each and don't seem to contain any metadata.

I'm guessing I need to somehow combine these two files back together to make them usable again?

If this is not related the the OP I apologize and please point me to where I should look.

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