recoverPhotos 0.5

recoverPhotos is a program that recovers digital images from camera memory cards that have been formatted or damaged.
This program relies on the fact that most photos are composed of contiguous sectors. If you tend to delete a lot of photos before a format, then you might not have very good success. But if you are like me: who reformats every time) then you fill get most of your pictures back.
This program has only been tested with a 20d. Any success stories are welcome.
HOW TO USE
To run this program I recommend you first copy the contents of the card to a file in your machine. The easiest way is to use the dd command.
Instructions:
- Connect the camera or the flashcard to the computer.
- Check what is the mount point for your camera or the flashcard. You can use the mount command for this. For example in my computer the flashcard is mounted as device /dev/sdc1
dmg@platinum recoverPhotos]$ mount
[...]
/dev/sdc1 on /media/EOS_DIGITAL type vfat ...
[...]
Now, use dd to copy the flashcard to a file. For example, this command copies the contents of my memory card to a file called /tmp/card.bytes (You might need to run this command as root).
dd if=/dev/sdc1 of=/tmp/card.bytes
Make sure the device name (in this case /dev/sdc1) is correct!
The resulting file should have the same size as the flashcard.
./recoverPhotos /tmp/card.bytes
and check the output. Hopefully you will have a bunch of photos in the current directory. Run the program without parameters to see all the options available.
CANON USERS
If you use a camera that uses the custom function "Add Decision Data" (CF18 in the D20), and you are 100% sure it was on when you took the photos, then make sure you specify the --canonADD option. The option is not critical (it is not part of the photo), but the data is there if you want to recover it.
Enhancements:
- JPEG and Canon CR2 files are supported.