Let’s face it…you will lose your digital photos at some point. Unfortunately, it may be at the worse time. I routinely get desperate phone calls from a newlywed couple that just lost their honeymoon pictures from the beach or a contractor that lost important photos from a client’s site. LUCKILY, there are some things that you can do to prevent data loss and recover your lost digital photos. Here are my top 10 tips for photo recovery that I have expanded on from a previous list:

1.  The Golden Rule - back up your digital photos frequently.  You can backup to a hard drive, an online service, using a kiosk to burn to a DVD or even to another digital media device.

2. After data loss, immediately stop using your digital media. The worse thing you can do is to continue taking new pictures…potentially overwriting your lost photos.

3. Do NOT attempt to format or initialize your media. Even if your camera is telling you to format, resist the instructions. Performing a format may write over your lost data. Some camera models will even completely wipe the digital media!

4.  Do NOT try to open your device. This is the checking-under-the-hood syndrome.  The inside of your digital media is extremely sensitive. There is no need to open the device as there are no moving parts.

5. Do NOT expose your digital media to extreme temperatures. Most digital media is rated at 32° F to 140° F (0° C to 60° C) during operation or -4° F to 185° F (-20° C to 85° C) during storage. Any extreme conditions can cause permanent damage and lost photos.

6. Keep your media card away from magnets!  Similar to credit cards, magnets can quickly scramble the data on your media card.

7. Store your digital media in your camera or a padded case. Shock damage to your digital media can quickly ruin your vacation!!

8.  Use photo recovery software or services to get your files back. A good quality, highly-rated software or service should be able to quickly retrieve your files.

9.  After your files have been recovered perform a wipe to the media card.  This will completely clean the card from old, fragmented data giving you a fresh start. Next, initialize the media card in your camera to take new photos.

10. Be cautious! Understanding your camera’s functions goes a long way towards preventing data loss. Read up on the format/initialize functions and how to properly delete single frames versus entire card deletion.

I hope these tips help! Data loss is not fun…using the proper precautions, your digital photos should be secured and enjoyed for the future.

An article on News.com states that a large manufacturer (read: Dell) is getting a return rate “an order of magnitude higher” on flash based notebooks versus standard HDD notebooks. The return rates are between 10-20% compared to 1-2% for traditional hard drives. It seems that a Samsung SSD drive is to blame for lackluster performance.

The price to add on a SSD drive - $900!

As this nascent industry grows up these problems will dissipate. More demand will create better products at lower cost.

The best fact of this article: current flash sells for around $3/GB…a 50% decline from last quarter of last year.

Amazing video showing the power of SSD when launching 17 applications simultaneously.

Here at MediaRECOVER we routinely hear horror stories about customers mishandling their data.  Generally, it goes like this - we accidentally deleted x amount of pictures from our secure digital card and then took 125 new pictures.  Can we get the old pictures back? The answer is always a hopeful “maybe”.

The premise behind data recovery software is that once a file is deleted by a camera or computer the camera/computer sees the space occupied by the file as “empty”.  The picture data still occupies that space until a new picture is taken and fills that “empty” space.  Data recovery software can then go in at a low level and pull off that picture data from the “empty” space.

Therefore here are some tips that we hope everyone follows when using their secure digital media.

Tips

• Please backup!!
• After a data loss please, please, please stop using your secure digital card! This helps prevent further data loss.
• DO NOT write any files to the media.
• Use recovery software or send your secure digital card to an expert recovery service.
• Do not subject the secure digital card to extreme temperatures.

Bonus Tip

• X-Ray scans at airports do not damage media cards.

Many new announcements in the solid state hard drive world from CES. Samsung is touting their new 128gb SSD drive. OQO stuffs a 64gb drive into their 02 model. BiTMICRO is launching an 832gb solid state drive!!  Ritek releases SSD drives in 32gb, 64gb and 128gb capacities. Sandisk shows of a 72gb drive only available to OEM’s. The Asus U2E 32gb SSD high-end notebook. Lexar internal/external 32gb and 64gb drives. Imation and Mtron partner to release 2 new drives.

Toshiba announced today their entry into NAND-flash-based solid state drives.  Set to preview at CES, the drives will be available towards the end of the 2nd quarter of 2008.  Drives will be available in 32gb to 128gb capacities. Toshiba expects the launch to drum up excitement for the burgeoning SSD market.  Let’s hope for some great pricing.

Seagate continues to rapidly expand their channel for data recovery services.  Previously in 14,000 stores…now adds another 1,400 through Staples.  Interestingly, it seems that all recovery is done in house at Staples stores.  I doubt this highly. Most likely a problem hard drive is sent off to a central location for recovery.

Great article on how to easily install a new hard drive.

As pricing comes down for online data backup, adoption rates have risen. Mozy and Carbonite both offer unlimted storage for about $50/yr. That is a great rate! Mozy currently has about 350,000 customers, Carbonite over 100,000. The only downside is that data takes a long time to upload. As a second or third option it is hard to beat.

“The strategies will be implemented from next year and they aim to be the leader of the market by 2010.”

This would put Samsung at #3 behind Canon at 20 million and Sony at 16 digital cameras sold.

Article can be found here.