[HN Gopher] Recovering videos from my Sony camera that I stupidl...
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Recovering videos from my Sony camera that I stupidly deleted
Author : speckx
Score : 69 points
Date : 2025-10-23 17:38 UTC (12 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.jeffgeerling.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.jeffgeerling.com)
| brudgers wrote:
| My advice is to have "some fair number" of SD cards and when you
| are done with the card in the camera, put it aside and install
| another card that hasn't been used in awhile.
|
| Because managing files is not only error prone, deleting files
| should be avoided to the extent your budget allows...
|
| ...and if you are shooting still (and not video) there's really
| no good reason to ever delete an image off an SD card because SD
| cards are cheap (because photos don't require highest speed
| cards). SD cards can be used as "film" in a digital camera.
| geerlingguy wrote:
| Yeah, after working through this blog post, I ordered 6 more
| cards, so I can have a queue and not delete footage until
| project completion!
| philipwhiuk wrote:
| My advice is to run a script that automatically copies the
| files to the right place rather than hope you have the right
| window open at the time.
| jonhohle wrote:
| Apple was killing it with iPhoto/Photos for this use case until
| a few years ago. Put in a memory card and Photos would import
| new photos, offer to delete after import, and ignore photos
| still on the card. Photo Stream made it possible to have a
| minimal set of photos in the cloud to have on other devices,
| which could be configured to sync various albums.
|
| Then they moved to iCloud or manual sync and your forced to
| manage individual files again. Delete in iCloud, it's gone
| everywhere. Want to keep your bad shots, but not have them on
| every device? Figure out how to move photos between multiple
| libraries while only being allowed to have one open at a time.
| Someone wrote:
| > Then they moved to iCloud or manual sync and your forced to
| manage individual files again. Delete in iCloud, it's gone
| everywhere. Want to keep your bad shots, but not have them on
| every device? Figure out how to move photos between multiple
| libraries while only being allowed to have one open at a
| time.
|
| I don't understand that. If you use iCloud, the cloud is
| primary storage, and your disk caches recently accessed cloud
| data.
|
| So, just keep everything in a single library, and if your
| disk fills up iCloud will remove pictures you haven't
| accessed recently from your disk.
| dcrazy wrote:
| Some people don't want to see all their bad shots when
| scrolling through their library, but they do want to keep
| them.
| entropie wrote:
| > My advice is to have "some fair number" of SD cards and when
| you are done with the card in the camera, put it aside and
| install another card that hasn't been used in aw
|
| Yeah, a kind of rotating workflow seems necessary when you
| doing professional camera stuff.
|
| Of course, something like this can always happen; however, it's
| just as likely that an SD card will fail at some point.
|
| The camera should record redundantly, and many semi-pro cameras
| already do this if you want them to. Then you can leave the
| second card untouched and have a spare one and rotate only the
| spares.
| zten wrote:
| > because photos don't require highest speed cards
|
| That hypothesis is certainly getting tested these days in
| specific niches. With high megapixel sensors, pre-capture, and
| cameras capable of pushing between 30fps and 120fps worth of
| compressed raws or high quality JPEGs, you can obliterate your
| camera's write buffer and CFExpress write bandwidth. You can
| make many bad photos of an animal, bird, or athlete with
| extreme ease -- and hopefully find that one winner in the
| haystack.
|
| I would say the line between movies and photos is getting
| blurred, but it's unlikely you're using a shutter speed that
| allows for motion blur with these bursts of photos!
| BuildTheRobots wrote:
| Except unpowered SD cards (and SSDs for that matter) don't
| claim to hold data for more than a couple of years.
|
| I'm a big believer in thinking you have backups being worse
| than knowing you don't, so anything that encourages people to
| believe $(flash memory) is suitable as long-term cold storage
| is actually, really bad.
|
| I agree there's no need to copy & wipe cards immediately, but
| treating them as "film" is inherently flawed and setting
| yourself up for failure. The amount of people that turn up in
| data recovery forums unable to access old, important, "backed
| up" (memory card/ssd on a shelf) photos is depressingly high.
| Zak wrote:
| > _photos don 't require highest speed cards_
|
| I photograph birds in flight at 25 or 50 FPS.
|
| Even if I didn't do something that demands fast cards and fills
| them up quickly, I don't see much reason to keep photos on SD
| cards rather than my laptop's SSD with an external HDD as
| backup. I import and cull the photos, run a backup, and
| reformat the cards.
| Arainach wrote:
| >and if you are shooting still (and not video) there's really
| no good reason to ever delete an image off an SD card
|
| There are tons of good reasons.
|
| When downloading images off the card, software has to read all
| the files on it - which can take a very long time if the card
| is full of photos you've already processed in a previous
| session.
|
| Then there's that you shouldn't be keeping most of the shots
| you take. Unless you're a still life artiste, most people
| (including professionals) take multiple pictures to account for
| blinking, moving objects, slightly different angles, etc. You
| should keep the best shots and delete the rest - storage is
| cheap but having to go back through all the garbage to find the
| good shots in the future is pointless.
|
| Modern cameras have large sensors that produce large files.
| It's wasteful to keep buying more and more SSD cards. Just
| build a NAS or pay for cloud storage.
| BolexNOLA wrote:
| Nothing worse than getting footage ingest underway and
| discovering the card has all kinds of stuff on it already
| that you now need to audit
| entropie wrote:
| Honestly hat read for me as "Disk Drill" ad.
| perfmode wrote:
| Disk Drill saved me last year when file corruption hit one of my
| SDs.
|
| I also have a policy where I don't delete the files on the SD
| card until the very last moment when new files need to be written
| again. This gives me a window of time in which there is an extra
| backup in case of issues with replication from my initial local
| storage on my computer, to an external drive, to the RAID array,
| or to the cloud.
|
| rm -rf after the initial copy from the SD card onto the computer
| is a bad idea, especially if the card isn't immediately needed
| for new footage.
| dcrazy wrote:
| Oof, so free software didn't do the job despite a ton of effort
| and leveraging a boatload of past experience, and the paid
| software gave a misleading impression of success _before_
| accepting Jeff's money, only for the actual fix to be buried in a
| submenu somewhere.
|
| My inner product manager is screaming.
| tripdout wrote:
| Fairly unsatisfying conclusion. I'd be interested in knowing what
| that proprietary program does, how it works so well, how Sony
| stores video files, etc.
| Damogran6 wrote:
| I've found when you have a file with stops and starts, it's
| because the extraction process is not familiar with how the
| data is laid down on the storage media. So it sees 'I have a
| file'...and if it's better it sees 'the name of the file is
| here' and then 'it's this big' and then 'here's the linked list
| of clusters for that file'....or it starts at the first cluster
| and gets as far as it can before it runs off the tracks.
| kccqzy wrote:
| The proprietary program has this blog post:
| https://www.cleverfiles.com/help/advanced-camera-recovery-in...
|
| I think the key point is that cameras don't write the video
| files in one long contiguous block on disk. They internally
| split it up and write in an interleaved fashion. It even
| mentions low-level tricks like manipulating the FAT table so
| the moov atom which is written last appears at the beginning of
| the file.
| cyberax wrote:
| Camera makers: please just use Android and allow us to sync
| photos automatically.
| kalaksi wrote:
| You don't need Android for that (thank god).
| cyberax wrote:
| How would you upload to Immich?
| dghlsakjg wrote:
| Using their extensively documented restful API is the most
| obvious option to me: https://api.immich.app/endpoints
| cyberax wrote:
| I mean, yes. But how would you put the code that utilizes
| this API onto the camera?
| Jaxan wrote:
| There were cameras with FTP or WebDAV support, when connected
| to WiFi. I guess it's just not really popular?
| cyberax wrote:
| I don't think I've seen one that actually worked. The closest
| one was a third-party app for a Sony camera that used the
| Picassa/Google Photos API.
| numpad0 wrote:
| Those always existed but I suspect it's for some highly
| specific business use cases, something like fashion magazine
| photo studios or some R&D facility infra. They're not for
| reliably syncing photos over the Internet.
|
| Or maybe it's just the matter of someone writing a single
| executable installer to set up the host for those but I don't
| know...
| numpad0 wrote:
| First part hell no second part hell yeah. I wouldn't want to
| deal with current equivalent of Android 2.3 or 4.0.4 or eMMC
| failures or 5 minute bootup delay from battery insertion to
| first shutters with high end $1.5k cameras.
|
| What's needed is USB-C host on iPhone. Then USB MTP or MSC to
| extract and upload. Which, is arguably already there. I think
| what's really missing is iOS/Android side willingness to ingest
| offline _files_.
| stavros wrote:
| I think the main problem here was that there wasn't a single
| script that:
|
| 1. Accepts no parameters.
|
| 2. Looks for an SD card with a bunch of Sony-structured folders.
|
| 3. Copies the media from that to the NAS folder directly and
| fsyncs.
|
| 4. Checks that the files are there and look ok.
|
| 5. Maybe triggers a ZFS snapshot? Why not.
|
| 6. Only then deletes the files from the source.
| jewel wrote:
| My neighbor just did the exact same thing. The way FAT
| filesystems work is they change the first byte of the filename to
| an invalid character to make them a tombstone.
|
| Since he hadn't used the SD card yet, we were able to restore the
| files with "TestDisk", a companion tool that ships with PhotoRec.
| Under "Advanced" there is an "Undelete" tool. This will let you
| browse the filesystem, find your missing files, and copy them to
| another drive.
|
| For those old enough to remember, MSDOS came with undelete.exe
| which worked the same way.
| toast0 wrote:
| > For those old enough to remember, MSDOS came with
| undelete.exe which worked the same way.
|
| Available in MS-DOS >= 5.0. If you had MS-DOS 3.3, you didn't
| get any cool stuff like that. Couldn't even see hidden files!
| LeoPanthera wrote:
| Which is why Norton Utilities was so popular.
| riffraff wrote:
| Years ago, I recovered some pics from my honeymoon this way
| after we accidentally deleted them because I knew FAT worked
| this way so I just went looking for them.
|
| I've never felt so happy to be a techie.
| 1970-01-01 wrote:
| Lucky for him it was a Sony. Thanks to Android 10 and file
| encryption on every file, it is now impossible to restore deleted
| videos/pictures/files on any Android device:
|
| https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/264642/are-andr...
| kn0where wrote:
| Considering the amount of personal data on people's phones,
| plus how commonly people lose them in public, I would say that
| encryption by default is unambiguously a good thing, and it's
| incredible that it took Google until Android 10.
| Retric wrote:
| Encryption by default doesn't require disabling undelete.
| leovander wrote:
| I had never seen Jeff's posts pop up on HN prior to this year and
| only learned of him via YouTube r/homelab content. Scrolling
| through the hn search his domain has had plenty of posts over the
| years, but his content has now become stickier and/or the
| audience has changed?
| aj_hackman wrote:
| He shares the title of "SBC Guy" with ExplainingComputers. Any
| time a new single-board computer comes out, especially a
| Raspberry Pi, they make videos with benchmarks etc. etc.
| Nexxxeh wrote:
| I took too long to write my comment, you beat me to the
| punch. I didn't plagiarise your comment, but I do largely
| agree!
| Nexxxeh wrote:
| He's definitely got brand recognition. He's THE guy for
| Raspberry Pi and SBC stuff. I'd suspect more people would
| recognise him then Ebon Upton nowadays. Not ignoring the other
| stuff he's done, but anyone into Pi/SBC will know him.
|
| Honourable mentions to ExplainingComputers and "Platima
| Tinkers".
| wyday wrote:
| Search his blog for his views on abortion, contraception,
| women, and gay people. You don't even need to look at archived
| versions. He keeps that shit up.
|
| He's a freaky little neo-nazi religious nut who views women as
| owned by the man of the house and hates gays.
|
| But he plays "normal guy" or "quirky nerd" on youtube.
| umlaut-expert wrote:
| Woah I had no idea he was such a nut job. I really enjoyed
| his YouTube content but after going through his blogs I have
| to reconsider his position in my "for fun" content
| consumption.
|
| Fascinating comments here:
| https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2012/changes-nothing-
| contr...
| tredre3 wrote:
| He's a former minister who graduated college in Bible
| studies. As unpalatable it might be to you, his views are
| perfectly in line with a strong christian believer from the
| midwest. So I don't really see a need to bring that up when
| we're discussing his technical videos. It's not like he
| lectures you about abortion at the end of a raspberry pi
| video...
| wyday wrote:
| I disagree. Someone with these views on humanity should not
| have a platform. They should be shamed and shunned. They
| should _not_ be an "influencer" (however minor).
|
| Look, I grew up in a cult too (the Baptist flavor). I also
| grew out of it mostly unscathed. He's a grown-ass man that
| still believes these truly heinous things. He has not grown
| as person. Or addressed his ignorance. And he's never
| retracted or apologized for his hateful views.
|
| Which... it's his right. He can be an asshole. But people
| should be informed and, like I said, he should be shunned
| and shamed.
| skylurk wrote:
| No one should be shunned and shamed for their worldview.
|
| As wrong as they may be, shunning and shaming are also
| wrong-headed (in my worldview).
|
| Edit: I think it's fine to respectfully share your
| concerns about him though.
| wyday wrote:
| I'd say read some history on effective non-carceral and
| non-violent ways to deal with hateful people: shunning
| and shaming is the best option. It lets hateful people
| live their lives in a bubble if that's what they want.
| But also gives them a chance to address their abhorrent
| views, make amends, and become part of a large community
| again.
|
| But you have to understand history to know that.
| skylurk wrote:
| Hmm, it never worked well for me. People just get more
| entrenched and resentful? What I have found works is to
| try and find some common ground and build up some level
| of mutual respect from there.
|
| For example, I also grew up in a cult of southern baptist
| flavour. I've seen some fucked up shit too. Where the
| cult was a majority, they did a lot of shunning and
| shaming and that sucked. I just don't think that's right.
| hobs wrote:
| You cannot find common ground with someone whose world
| view is you are a subhuman worthy of slavery or death.
| numpad0 wrote:
| yelling at idiots idiots never work. Doing so imprint a
| snapshot of whatever they were doing deeper into their
| brains. Our brains take intersections of the zipped
| archives of situation logs and turn that into
| reproducible scripted acts. Negative emotions associated
| with the memory won't help the brain unlearn undesired
| behaviors, it just makes us sadder or angrier at scripted
| points.
|
| A better, but painful, way is to somehow break the chain
| of undesired acts until they would be obsessed with
| better things to do.
|
| Maybe there are even better ways at it and I'm mostly
| wrong about this - I had never taken any training to be a
| behavioral scientist - but my point is, point-and-
| screaming wrong things someone did never goes well.
| panzagl wrote:
| How did shunning and shaming 40% of the US population
| over the last 4 years work out?
| teekert wrote:
| It's the new reality. CEO of proton says something nice
| about Trump? Facist! Framework is interested in DHH's
| work? Cancelled! And there are countless of these example
| (ie in the Nix community).
|
| As if nothing good they did matters anymore.
|
| There seem to be a lot of people just digging to find
| dirt on anyone and shame anyone in their vicinity. People
| that don't do anything good themselves often.
| hobs wrote:
| There are lines you should not cross if you want to not
| support Nazis. It's actually a really bright line, and
| supporting Trump or DHH given his recent very public
| posts about his white supremacy shows that you are
| basically not a person who is affected by the problems
| both of those people create when you say "as if nothing
| good they did matters anymore" - simply put once you
| throw in with a white supremacist your reputation is
| going to be exploded into tatters, there's no "oopsie"
| about it.
| bigstrat2003 wrote:
| This is completely uncalled for even if you disagree with his
| views. It's barely on topic at best (probably best avoided
| altogether because there's unlikely to be productive
| discussion here), but if you _must_ then the correct way to
| do it is to say what his views are, and explain why you think
| they are wrong. It 's not ok to call someone "a freaky little
| neo-nazi religious nut".
| wyday wrote:
| > but if you must then the correct way to do it is to say
| what his views are
|
| I did. Read the end of the sentence you quoted. It's a
| snapshot of his hateful views. There is, however, breadth
| and depth to his hate. Which is I directed you a few good
| keywords to search his own words in context to get a taste.
|
| I'd say take my word for it and don't waste your time. But
| it's your time, bud.
| dillutedfixer wrote:
| Fun and useful fact - if you ever buy a Sandisk SD card, there is
| a license key for RescuePRO Deluxe inside if you peel apart the
| two pieces of the cardboard that make the packaging! The software
| works for any type of drive and I have had great luck with it
| recovering some of my students projects.
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