Hi All, I need some advice - like where to send this card? Here’s the Story——SD Card Recovery Attempt - Step-by-Step History: 1 Camera used: Sony A7R III. 2 Camera firmware version: 3.10. 3 SD card used in Slot 1 of the camera. 4 SD card type: New SanDisk Extreme PRO SDXC UHS-II V90 U3 (bought last month at Bestbuy store) 5 SD card batch code: ( seems legit because Sandisk let me register and download their recovery software)2541 TVNN004273xxx (last 3 digits left off on purpose) 6 Images on the SD card were viewable in-camera before insertion into a computer card reader. 7 The SD card was inserted into a Belkin F4U044 USB multi-card reader connected to a new Alienware Area 51 desk top w/Windows 11 pro via USB 8 The SD card was initially inserted into the CF slot by accident before being placed into the SD card slot. 9 Dropbox presented a prompt offering to import/copy images from the card to cloud storage. 10 The Dropbox import/copy prompt was dismissed. 11 After insertion into the PC/card reader, the DCIM folder and image files were no longer viewable in Windows File Explorer. 12 Windows File Explorer continued to recognize the SD card and reported the card capacity as approximately 75% utilized. 13 The SD card was removed from the reader and reinserted into the camera. 14 The camera displayed: “Image Database File Error Not Found” 15 The camera's Recover Image DB function was attempted and did not restore image visibility. 16 The SD card was then reinserted into the same Belkin F4U044 card reader connected to the Windows PC. 17 At the time of use, there was no reason to believe the Belkin reader was malfunctioning, as it had been used fairly recently without known issue. 18 A small Dropbox-related file later appeared within the mounted image structure. 19 A full .img image backup of the SD card was created using Win32 Disk Imager. 20 The resulting image file size was approximately 119GB. 21 The .img file was mounted using OSFMount as virtual drive J:. 22 The mounted image displayed folders including DCIM, PRIVATE, and AVF_INFO. 23 No viewable image files were visible within those folders after mounting the image. 24 Recovery attempts were performed using Recuva, PhotoRec, DMDE, RescuePRO Deluxe, Disk Drill, Klennet Carver, and Sony Memory Card File Rescue. 25 Disk Drill identified approximately 499 orphaned files with naming format similar to: \deleted partition name]\Orphans\lostchain_100xxx.bin. 26 The Disk Drill orphaned .bin files alternated in approximate size between ~80MB and ~4MB (correct for .arw & jpg) 27 One orphan .bin file was recovered and manually renamed to .tif and .arw, but it could not be opened by image software. 28 Klennet Carver evaluation scans did not produce recoverable image results. 29 Sony Memory Card File Rescue later found and saved over 2,000 files from the disk image 30 The Sony-recovered files were automatically named sequentially with .dat file extensions. 31 The Sony-recovered .dat files alternated in approximate size between ~80MB and ~4MB. 32 Several larger .dat files were manually renamed to .arw. 33 The renamed .arw files could not be opened in Photoshop Camera Raw, Lightroom, or Sony Imaging Edge Desktop Viewer. 34 Sony Imaging Edge Desktop Viewer reported: The file format is not supported. 35 No thumbnails were shown by any of the attempted RAW photo software. 36 Two recovered .dat files were opened in HxD/hex view. 37 The checked files appeared to contain all 00 bytes at the inspected locations. 38 The original .img file was also opened/inspected and appeared to contain all 00 bytes. 39 The original SD card has been preserved.
I believe I have to send the card somewhere. I called a Cali pro recovery just N of SanFran and they quoted $700-$3900. Way too vague and way to expensive. I also chatted with Sandisk and they suggest I send it to their lab in Florida (LC Tech). Any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated!