Recovered CR2 files, but many won’t open. Any recovery options?
Last weekend my camera SD card suddenly showed an error. I used a recovery program and managed to get most of the files back, which was a huge relief. The problem is that a lot of the recovered CR2 files either won’t open at all or show an error in Lightroom and Windows Photos.
A few images are fine, but some of the important ones from the trip are broken. Has anyone managed to repair recovered RAW files, or does this usually mean the data is gone for good?
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Agreed. Also, if the files came from the same camera and were shot around the same time, some photo repair software can use healthy CR2 files as references when rebuilding damaged ones. I’ve recovered a few important shots that way.
One thing worth checking: can you see thumbnails or previews anywhere? Sometimes the embedded JPEG preview survives even when the RAW file itself is damaged. If that’s the case, you may still be able to extract something useful.
Good point. Just made a backup folder so I don’t accidentally mess with the originals.
Before doing anything else, make a backup of every recovered file. Don’t edit or overwrite the originals. If you end up testing repair tools, work on copies only
I’ve had something similar happen after a corrupted SD card. A few RAW files were completely lost, but several were recoverable with photo repair software because the image data was still present. It really depends on how badly the file headers were damaged.
I tried Lightroom, Photoshop, and Canon’s software. Same result on all three.
If some are full size, that’s actually a good sign. Sometimes the file structure gets damaged during recovery even though most of the image data is still there.
Have you tried opening them in a different RAW editor just to rule out a software issue?
I checked. The working ones are around 25-30MB. Some of the broken ones are only 2-4MB, but others are full size and still won’t open
Do the broken CR2 files have normal file sizes, or are they much smaller than the ones that open? That can give a clue whether the recovery was incomplete
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Quick update: I tested a couple of the full-size CR2 files with a repair tool and managed to recover previews from some of them. A few are still completely dead, but at least several important photos seem salvageable. Looks like the smaller files are probably gone, but the full-size ones may still have a chance. Thanks everyone for the suggestions!