Photos lost in LOST.DIR as raw files after transfer from internal storage to SD card

[eggbeater]

Long story short, my SD card filled up a while ago, so my phone's been saving pictures to internal storage while I waited to get a new SD card to throw everything on. So the SD card came in and I put it in my phone. By this point, I had already backed up all the existing pictures both on the old SD card and internal storage to my external hard drive. I will confess, I was so excited to put in the old card that I never safely ejected the old one before I yanked it out. I'm fearing that's where some corruption came into play. Once the new card was in, the options popped up to move existing media files from internal storage to the SD card. I started the transfer process and lo and behold...none of the pictures showed up on the card, but the LOST.DIR folder filled up fast, but the files in there are not listed as pictures...they're just raw files.

tl;dr I moved pictures from internal storage to my SD card and they're obliterated, save for new files in the LOST.DIR folder.

So the question is: is there any way to recover the pictures/decrypt them? There are plenty of memories in them, and it'd be hard if they all disappeared because of my carelessness. If that is the case, I consider it a lesson (re)learned.

Further, some of those pictures backed up on my hard drive are corrupted as well.

I'm running a Moto X Pure with Android 6.0.0

 

[Leon Marco]

Raw is an image format. Do you have a raw file viewer in your of or mobile to check these images.

Sorry I didn't understand what you meant. The images are on the new SD card right? And is it  the old one you took out safely?

 

[eggbeater]

Raw is an image format. Do you have a raw file viewer in your of or mobile to check these images.

Sorry I didn't understand what you meant. The images are on the new SD card right? And is it  the old one you took out safely?

I'm sorry, I did forget to specify some things: 1) the old SD card was the one I neglected to eject safely; 2) the files aren't .RAW files, they're files with no file extension whatsoever; and 3) yes, the images in LOST.DIR are hiding on the new SD card.

I apologize for the lack of clarity there! I hope that clears it up some. Thank you for your reply

 

[Leon Marco]

I'm sorry, I did forget to specify some things: 1) the old SD card was the one I neglected to eject safely; 2) the files aren't .RAW files, they're files with no file extension whatsoever; and 3) yes, the images in LOST.DIR are hiding on the new SD card.

I apologize for the lack of clarity there! I hope that clears it up some. Thank you for your reply

In that case what I feel should have happened was that the data on the old card should have got corrupted.
Try opening those images with a browser. If one does not work try another. And if none of them work we'll have to think of something else.

 

[Telyx]

See if you can copy the files to your PC and then "rename" the files by adding the .jpg file extension to each file name.

 

[eggbeater]

Libraries on Windows 10 doesn't open them. It claims there is no program to open them. I shall try the .jpg extension method as soon as a time is available to me, and I will report back the result as well.

 

[eggbeater]

In that case what I feel should have happened was that the data on the old card should have got corrupted.
Try opening those images with a browser. If one does not work try another. And if none of them work we'll have to think of something else.

Libraries on Windows 10 doesn't open them. It claims there is no program to open them.

See if you can copy the files to your PC and then "rename" the files by adding the .jpg file extension to each file name.

I shall try the .jpg extension method as soon as a time is available to me, and I will report back the result as well.

 

[mikedt]

Your new SD, are you certain it's alright, and isn't fake or duff? Have you checked it's integrity?

 

[mikedt]

Libraries on Windows 10 doesn't open them. It claims there is no program to open them.



I shall try the .jpg extension method as soon as a time is available to me, and I will report back the result as well.

Windows won't open raw unless you got something like Photoshop installed. And renaming to jpg won't work, because raw isn't jpg.

What phone have you actually got there? Because phone cameras don't usually take raw format by default, and many phones just won't shoot in raw at all?

 

[svim]

Have you tried to run the Win10 'chkdsk' utility on that card?
http://www.drivethelife.com/windows-10/fix-a-corrupt-sd-card-windows-10.html

The default file system for removable microSD cards is Microsoft's outdated FAT (possibly FAT32 or probably exFAT). FAT has an advantage of being compatible with most modern operating systems, but a huge disadvantage in also being dated, easily corruptible, and because it's proprietary, no longer supported. As you've discovered, that 'easily corruptible' aspect is a pretty serious one. While there is a chance chkdsk might fix things, odds are it won't be able to, but it's worth trying, even multiple times if it does encounter a problem.

 

[eggbeater]

Hello, I'm sorry for the extended absence. I was transitioning back into university and I had some family matters arise as well.

Your new SD, are you certain it's alright, and isn't fake or duff? Have you checked it's integrity?

I am very certain it's all right.

Windows won't open raw unless you got something like Photoshop installed. And renaming to jpg won't work, because raw isn't jpg.

What phone have you actually got there? Because phone cameras don't usually take raw format by default, and many phones just won't shoot in raw at all?

They aren't .RAW files, they just don't have a file extension after their names. The names have also changed to strings of numbers. I have a Moto X Pure that captures .JPG

 

[eggbeater]

See if you can copy the files to your PC and then "rename" the files by adding the .jpg file extension to each file name.

This did not work

 

[eggbeater]

I'm also running into another problem: The camera is having a hard time saving pictures that I have taken. The gallery on the SD card just has dark thumbnails and the pictures don't show up. Any thoughts as to how to go about this?

 

[efflandt]

What Android version do you have? Newer Android versions (like 6.0.1 that I have) have the option of making the microSD an extension of internal storage using a logical volume (lvm), but that can be a problem if you do that and remove or swap out the microSD card. So Samsung and LG specifically chose not to implement that.

Or are you sure that your phone supports the type and size of memory card you got. For example my Samsung S3 only supported SDHC up to 32 GB (the maximum for SDHC). My J7 supports SDXC up to 128 GB (I currently have 64 GB microSD). So if you got 64 GB or larger microSD, maybe it is not compatible with your phone, even though earlier Android versions like 4.3 supported exFAT file system which they used for their internal storage.

 

[eggbeater]

What Android version do you have? Newer Android versions (like 6.0.1 that I have) have the option of making the microSD an extension of internal storage using a logical volume (lvm), but that can be a problem if you do that and remove or swap out the microSD card. So Samsung and LG specifically chose not to implement that.
Or are you sure that your phone supports the type and size of memory card you got. For example my Samsung S3 only supported SDHC up to 32 GB (the maximum for SDHC). My J7 supports SDXC up to 128 GB (I currently have 64 GB microSD). So if you got 64 GB or larger microSD, maybe it is not compatible with your phone, even though earlier Android versions like 4.3 supported exFAT file system which they used for their internal storage.

I have Android 6.0, but soon to update to 7.0 if the OTA comes soon. My phone does have that ability, but I've always had it set to be external storage, not an extension of internal storage. I did some research and my phone does indeed handle 128GB cards.

 

[eggbeater]

I reformatted the card and it seems to be working better. However, I'm concerned about its legitimacy.