8 GB Mag is Corrupted with Yesterdays Shots

[Joe Taylor]

This evening after wrapping a commercial, the producer, director and I were re-playing the shots we had just finished. Everything played back fine and we "were" happy. We had viewed several takes multiple times-- THIS STUFF WAS THERE!! We get to Media Works and downloaded the files for this mag onto the editor's computer. The first several shots had errors. The rest, however, are all shots we had shot yesterday. Nothing from this evening. Panic ensued because this is the second time this has happened. The techs at RED do not seem to believe this is possible and quite responding. I call this phenomenon "ghosting."

I then made a disk image hoping that I might be able to retrieve out work this way but everything is corrupt. Tonight's work is now nowhere to be found. I then put the Mag back in the camera to see if our shots could still be played back on the camera, just as they had when we wrapped. Now the camera does not recognize the mag as formatted.

Has anybody out there had this happen to them? Is there anyway to save the footage on this disk?

There are several very unhappy people here in St. Paul. PLEASE HELP!!!

 

[Jarred Land]

Hey Joe... might be best to send the card back to us ASAP so we can take a look at it.. one question.. were you using Compact flash cards mixed with Hard drives?

 

[Joe Taylor]

Hello Jarred

No, on this project we are only using 8 GB Flash Cards (RED brand). The first time this happened was with another card. The card used today is relatively new. I doubt if it is the cards.

On another note, the editor on this project just called and he was able to open the first file from the corrupt mag from its disk image in Final Cut.

 

[Jarred Land]

ok... it up to you then.

If you don't want to send the card back to see if we can recover the files because you don't think its the cards that's up to you.. if your editor can struggle through and recover all the files that would be awesome.. but we are here to help if that doesn't work out... just try not to delete or move stuff around on the card as that will make it more difficult.

if its happening on more than one card the card reader could be the culprit.. are you comfortable sending that back to us?

 

[Joe Taylor]

Jarred,

My fault. Misunderstanding. "No" was my answer when you asked about using both Flash cards with hard drives. Media Works still has the other card, but they will Fed Ex first thing in the AM. Thanks.

 

[Jarred Land]

no worries man.. you should probably send the card reader along with it if you can afford the down time.. if your still shooting, we can advance ship a writer to you.

 

[Joe Taylor]

no worries man.. you should probably send the card reader along with it if you can afford the down time.. if your still shooting, we can advance ship a writer to you.

Thanks, Jarred. This all sounds good. Who should I contact about all of this in the morning before I send these items out? I will probably need reference numbers.

 

[Jarred Land]

brent or brian can help you out... brent @ red.com

 

[gbalaji]

It would be nice when you have taken backup onset. Isn't it. Try the card with other camera body. We face different sets of problems with different camera body.

 

[Jannard]

Flash cards are pretty bulletproof. Card readers aren't.

Jim

 

[Brent Carter]

Also, one other thing to consider is the card reader you are using to download the files from the card to the computer. From talking to Joe, looks like the media was playing back fine in-camera so I am guessing the card reader attached the the editor's computer might be the smoking gun. Please make sure you are using a UDMA-approved card reader like http://www.lexar.com/readers/pro_udma_reader.html . A low-end card reader can corrupt files - have seen it happen too many times.

BC

 

[Vladimir Eugene]

I had a similar problem a while ago- 2007. The media played well in camera, then on the computer with the CF reader. But it would not eject the CF card, I made the mistake of pulling it out without ejecting and everything was corrupt afterwards. On camera, on reader. No files were read. A card recovery place got all the files back. Upgraded my CF reader. No more problems.

 

[Tico Llaurador]

You see what you may have just gotten into, Jim? Now some fool out there is going to feel compelled to fire a bullet through one of your CF cards, just to prove you wrong.

I tell y'a...

:wink:

 

[Brent Carter]

Vladimir, also an excellent point, always eject your media properly.

BC

 

[Casey Green]

I had a similar problem a while ago- 2007. The media played well in camera, then on the computer with the CF reader. But it would not eject the CF card, I made the mistake of pulling it out without ejecting and everything was corrupt afterwards. On camera, on reader. No files were read. A card recovery place got all the files back. Upgraded my CF reader. No more problems.

which recovery place was it? ...for others having that issue.

 

[davidtorres]

Corrupted Frames

Corrupted Frames

Hola I have this problem constantly whit all my 5 RED 8GB CARDS and RED DRIVE.
The camera is Firm Build 17

Many frames like this normally 1 per clip

...Thanks your help David Torres

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

David. frames like that are usually indicative of a bad CF module and not the cards themselves. If you are also seeing it with the RED Drive, then I'm pretty sure your camera needs to be sent in for service.

 

[davidtorres]

Jeff gracias for your answer, I in process to contact RED TEAM ... David Torres
Do you work for RED?

 

[Jochen Schmidt-Hambrock]

Whups, just got this from a rental client. Plus a few clips with dropped frames. The DoP swears the dropped frame indicator in camera showed a zero count.

My old 8gb card module was perfect. This one maybe isnt.

Will contact Brent.

Cheers, Jochen

 

[Jeff Kilgroe]

Jeff gracias for your answer.

No problem.

Do you work for RED?

No, I do not.