retrieve deleted photos from cameras internal memory

[vengap99]

Hello. I did something silly by deleting my videos/photos from my digital camera's internal memory, I have been trying to find software that will get them back but there is nothing.

I know there is no such thing as "deleted", but the problem is that in my world: the OS X and Vista platforms, I cannot get the OS to see the camera (when plugged in via USB) as a drive like an external USB drive and so 3rd party data retrieval software will not work.

When I plug the camera into OS X Aperture/iPhoto (graphics programs) loads to import the remaining images that were protected and didn't get mass deleted, but I cannot find head nor tail of the actual way it gets into the camera.

Under Vista the camera does show up, but like a webcam or scanner when plugged in its a virtual like representation and again not like an external drive, it has no drive letter.. so I can't scan it with undelete software.

But, somebody told me to use Linux to bypass the EasyShare software, my camera is a Kodak V610, but Kodak do not make their software for Linux. So I hope with all the control Linux gives that I can get access to the cameras internal memory and retrieve the photos.

Can this bedone and how please.

[Freston]

Welcome to the forums!

I dunno about Kodak and their software. But in my experience using vendor software in Linux is unnecessary. My Canon memory card is just a vfat file system. I know in Windows it brings up all kinds of fancy interfaces, but in Linux it's just another mounted filesystem. The same applies to build in memory in camera's and MP3 players.

If I where you, I'd first make an image of the disk. That way you have *oh irony* a backup of your deleted files


Plug in the device and wait for the automounter to recognize the device and act upon it. It will mount it somewhere in your file system.


Use a terminal/console/konsole and ...
Type:

dmesg|tail

you get output comparable to this:

mmc0: new MMC card at address 0001
mmcblk0: mmc0:0001 16M    15680KiB
 mmcblk0: p1

Now compare your output of the above command with the output of the following command:

mount

This will give output similar to

/dev/sda2 on / type reiserfs (rw)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw)
usbfs on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
/dev/sda4 on /home type reiserfs (rw)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/mmcblk0p1 on /mnt/hd type vfat (rw)

By comparing the outputs of the above two commands you can sort of see which device is the camera. In this case, the device name is /dev/mmcblk0p1



Now type this:

dd if=/dev/mmcblk0p1 of=./photo.img

!!! where /dev/mmcblk0p1 is the device name of your camera !!! Adjust above accordingly !!!

You now have an image of the entire disk of the camera. If you want you can mount it like this:

mkdir /mnt/loop
mount -o loop photo.img /mnt/loop

You now have a fighting chance of pointing a FAT undelete tool at the directory /mnt/loop, where your files reside in all their deleted glory. Or something similar.


Remember: you don't have your pictures back at this moment. You just have a backup image of the disk. You have mounted your image under your file system. How to proceed from here for another day.

Good luck!

[vengap99]

Just joined it say, thanks for the welcome!

Oh well, torrent is so slow with this d/l of Linux I'm going to have to wait 10hrs! but all this info is great, I can't wait to try it and then make a video of how to and blast all those nah sayers who say that files are deleted for good! fools.

If it works, which I hope it will. Will let you know...

[Freston]

Maybe the same can be done in OSX, because OSX is build on FreeBSD. Also, OSX uses the same BASH shell as Linux (OSX is a bit of a Hydra).

Take good care though. FreeBSD uses different arguments than GNU, and confusion (=trouble!) may ensue. I'm not proficient enough to explain all the differences between OSX, FreeBSD, GNU, Darwin and Linux... and how this affects BASH arguments to commands.

But it may just be that it''s technically possible to do the above on an Apple as well. I wouldn't want to miss the Linux video though

[vengap99]

Thats interesting, I think I will explore the Linux offering first as it would be scandalous not to, quite an achievement in my book too. After I can create a workaround for OS X user, I'll probably skip Windows.

Then I will have to find some offering of a video record app, because I spent about £100 on ScreenFlow for the Mac, and that's the difference between Mac and Linux.

[vengap99]

Okay I got Linux working! When I inserted the camera via usb it said it did not recognise the camera, error. I dont know if that will affect the commands, before I go forther I will show you what "mount" threw up:

/dev/root on / type ext2 (rw)
/dev/sda1 on /cdrom type fuseblk (ro,nosuid,nodev,noatime,allow_other,blksize=4096)
/dev/sda2 on /cdrom type fuseblk (ro,nosuid,nodev,noatime,allow_other,blksize=4096)
/ramdisk on /ramdisk type tmpfs (rw,size=1652292k,mode=755)
/UNIONFS on /UNIONFS type aufs (rw,br:/ramdisk:/KNOPPIX)
/dev/sdb1 on /cdrom type vfat (ro,nodev,fmask=0022,dmask=0022,codepage=cp437,ioc harset=iso8859-1)
/dev/cloop on /KNOPPIX type iso9660 (ro)
/proc/bus/usb on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw,devmode=0666)
/dev/pts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw)


Is this the camera: /dev/pts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw) ??

Thanks

[Jonathan183]

/dev/pts is not the camera ... can you post the output of

sudo fdisk -l

the l is a small L ... also what output do you get for the other commands Freston listed in post #2

[vengap99]

knoppix@Knoppix:~$ sudo fdisk -1
fdisk: invalid option -- 1

Usage: fdisk [-b SSZ] [-u] DISK Change partition table
fdisk -l [-b SSZ] [-u] DISK List partition table(s)
fdisk -s PARTITION Give partition size(s) in blocks
fdisk -v Give fdisk version
Here DISK is something like /dev/hdb or /dev/sda
and PARTITION is something like /dev/hda7
-u: give Start and End in sector (instead of cylinder) units
-b 2048: (for certain MO disks) use 2048-byte sectors


knoppix@Knoppix:~$ dmesg|tail
lo: Disabled Privacy Extensions
ADDRCONF(NETDEV_UP): eth1: link is not ready
Mobile IPv6
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:02.0[A] -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 17
[drm] Initialized i915 1.5.0 20060119 on minor 0
usb 3-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 2
usb 3-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
usb 3-1: USB disconnect, address 2
usb 3-1: new full speed USB device using uhci_hcd and address 3
usb 3-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice


I don't want to do anymore until I know what the camera drive is called, I don't think there is anything else to do until then anyway. What did you mean by "l is a small L" thanks.

[oz]

knoppix@Knoppix:~$ sudo fdisk -1
fdisk: invalid option -- 1

The command should be executed with a lower-case letter L, and not a number 1.

[Jonathan183]

sudo fdisk -L .... but a small L (l) should be used in the command ... you appear to have used a one (1)

Ed: the idea of the fdisk command is that we can see partition structure and also know how your system is refering to the device ...
If you post the output of the command with and without the camera connected we should be able to determine the device reference.