Luminous Landscape Forum
Raw & Post Processing, Printing => Adobe Camera Raw Q&A => Topic started by: Kimber on August 17, 2011, 07:42:55 pm
-
I have been experiencing major deterioration of original CRS files. Some of the photos that are ruined are new, some old. Some are on one hard drive, others on another. What the heck is going on? I have attached an example
-
File corruption due to a potential large list of reasons...bad ram, bad HD, bad motherboard, bad cards, bad cables...without a whole lot more info–like the basics of platform, OS, HD and how you are working, I don't have any advice other than to figure it out fast and make/have lots of backups...
-
First thing I'd try is to copy one of those files and try it on another computer.
-
Ok - I tried it on my laptop (also a Mac) and it was the same corruption as on my G4 Mac OS X version 10.5.8
I am using CS5, canon camera, Maxtor hard drive, 16 GB various cards - no way to know if the corrupt ones came from the same card or not but not likely since I normally use two cameras.
-
The corruption seems to be random. Not all files are damaged - a few in each folder
-
The corruption seems to be random. Not all files are damaged - a few in each folder
Which makes it even more critical that you narrow down the variables and figure out what component in the system is failing...this kind of stuff never fixes itself. Do some very specific tests to see if you can narrow down that's failing where. This sort of stuff needs to be fixed ASAP...
-
I now remember a similar thing that happened to me many years ago when trying to use small memory compact flash cards. I believe that the camera I had at the time didn't sense that the card was full or nearly so and tried to write with a similar result as to your example.
-
I now remember a similar thing that happened to me many years ago when trying to use small memory compact flash cards.
Yeah, ya know, I don't think this is relevant...if image corruption is occurring on images stored on an HD, I'm thinking it's not related to the flash card but the HD, ram or motherboard...
-
But I have two separate hard drives with some corrupt files. They appear to be the same ones on both drives in at least two cases but then I have another big shoot and the back up is fine even though my working file has a bunch of corruption. So I evidently copied the problem when I backed up in some cases but not in others. So what do I do to check the RAM and motherboard?
-
Got another computer to test against?
The bottom line here is that somewhere, somehow, you've got a hardware problem...files don't just disintegrate on their own...normally. I'm sorry it's happening to you but so far, there's simply not enough info to go on...
-
I have a MacPro laptop but I am not sure how you mean to test it.
-
what info should I be looking for? how do you propose I test it?
-
Try copying the same files that show corruption to the laptop...see if the files look corrupt on the laptop. Same deal wor the external drives.
-
Same corrupt files show up corrupt on the lap top. I also noticed that given a bit of time all copies (different hard drives) eventually show corruption. I am thinking it had to be a bad card or a bad card reader. The files that are deteriorating seem to be from fall 2010 time frame. Thanks for the help and let me know if you have any other ideas.
-
Same corrupt files show up corrupt on the lap top. I also noticed that given a bit of time all copies (different hard drives) eventually show corruption. I am thinking it had to be a bad card or a bad card reader. The files that are deteriorating seem to be from fall 2010 time frame. Thanks for the help and let me know if you have any other ideas.
"Deteriorating" implies that files that were once okay on the disk have somehow become not okay even though nothing was done to otherwise touch them. A bad card in the camera or a bad card reader wouldn't account for that sort of behaviour ... that would possibly cause a file that looked okay in the camera to get corrupted when it was copied over to the hard drive but once on the hard drive it wouldn't change further unless something else was going on. Other than copying them once and leaving them sit on the disk, what else are you doing with them?
-
That is correct - the image files (CR2) used to be fine but are now deteriorating. I have hooked the hard drive up to a different computer and the same files are corrupt.
I have them stored on the hard drive - I add new image folders. I sometimes go back and work on a file or pull one if I need something but other than that the files simply sit on the hard drive. I checked a copy on another hard drive and the same files are deteriorating on that hard drive as well which makes me think it is not the hard drive. Could it be something in the file download that just took a while to show up?
I did a shoot in March 2010 and some of those images are deteriorating- others from a trip in Aug 2010 as well. In Oct 2010 I had a card go bad and I lost a whole shoot. I of course threw that card away and got a new one. It is possible that these images from March and Aug were also taken on that card - could that be why I am getting some deterioration? nothing that I have taken recently shows signs of deterioration - at least not yet.
-
Files on a disk don't just change spontaneoulsy unless the disk itself is developing bad sectors or otherwise deteriorating. It's highly unlikely that two totally separate disks would simultaneously deteriorate in such as way as to affect the same files on both and only those files. Something else in your environment has changed. Have you upgraded the software you are using to view them, installed any new software or codecs, updated the OS, etc?
-
Yes
I updated Camera Raw to 6.2. I recently purchased a 60D which wasn't supported unless updated. I believe there was also an OS update not too long ago.
-
Yes
I updated Camera Raw to 6.2. I recently purchased a 60D which wasn't supported unless updated. I believe there was also an OS update not too long ago.
Are you opening the files in ACR when you see the 'corruption?' What about other viewing software, perhaps Canon's own viewer, that is able to open RAW files?
If you have the files on an external drive or can copy them to one or to a jump drive, see if you can locate a system with your old version of ACR on it and see if the files still appear corrupt or revert back to being okay.
The current version of ACR is 6.4.1 You might want to consider further updating from 6.2 to the most current. It's just a shot in the dark but it's possible it could be some glitch for those files in ACR 6.2 or maybe even some hiccup occured when you installed it that would be remedied with a fresh install of new ACR files.
-
Ok,
I tried importing into LR on the same computer - same files still corrupt. Next I will try opening on my laptop with CS4. All of my files automatically open in Bridge. I can see the corrupted files in Bridge and when I open in Camera raw they are still messed up.
-
That is correct - the image files (CR2) used to be fine but are now deteriorating. I have hooked the hard drive up to a different computer and the same files are corrupt.
I have them stored on the hard drive - I add new image folders. I sometimes go back and work on a file or pull one if I need something but other than that the files simply sit on the hard drive. I checked a copy on another hard drive and the same files are deteriorating on that hard drive as well which makes me think it is not the hard drive. Could it be something in the file download that just took a while to show up?
I did a shoot in March 2010 and some of those images are deteriorating- others from a trip in Aug 2010 as well. In Oct 2010 I had a card go bad and I lost a whole shoot. I of course threw that card away and got a new one. It is possible that these images from March and Aug were also taken on that card - could that be why I am getting some deterioration? nothing that I have taken recently shows signs of deterioration - at least not yet.
If that card went bad in Oct 2010 I would think that's your problem. I would also think that it could easily have been ruining images before then on a sporadic basis. I know that I seldom open all images from a shoot, just the ones I want to work with. So maybe you hadn't opened those until recently. I know that for me it would seem to have recent deterioration rather than problems from long before. It would help to know if you can see those "corrupted" images okay in Bridge. If they look bad there maybe you can look at the image dates and determine if they all were taken after you discarded the bad card.
-
I can see the corrupted files in Bridge and when I open in Camera raw they are still messed up.
The odds are real good those captures originally were corrupted...either by the card (or some card) or in the transfer. Images sitting on a hard drive won't go bad by themselves...something had to corrupt the files and if you've got multiple copies on multiple hard drives that are bad, it's not the hard drives...
Also, to be clear, depending on your Bridge preferences, the corrupted images might be viewable due to the embedded EXIF JPEGs in the file. The file itself could be corrupt but the JPEGs ok...which unless you actually go into the raw file, you wouldn't know. If you have your Bridge preview preferences set to Always High Quality, Bridge has Camera Raw render the previews from the raw file, not the embedded JPEGs...that's critical when you want to make sure images are readable at the raw level.
-
I had a similar problem, and do not have an answer.
What I have done is label the cards, and create an import preset with the keyword of the card label.
When I import, I have to remember to change the preset to the card, or keyword my images with the label.
I can then see if it is one card in particular or something else that may be causing the problem.
Since I started it I have not had any corrupt images (not that this would solve the problem).
-
Are all your HDs external? If so are you using the same cables when you switch computers and hard drives?
-
The example in the OP seems to show that elements of the original image remain in place across the whole image, but the colors are changed in various blocks of the image. Is all of the corruption of this nature?
If so, then this was not some component or process that might randomly corrupt bits (e.g. memory cards, hard drives, motherboards, cables, etc.). Instead, this was some component that was aware of the format of the image files, such as the camera, image processing software, etc. I don't know the CR2 file format, but it is also logically possible that simple file truncation might cause this effect for some file formats. In this case, it would be some component or process that was able to preserve the integrity of the file system, but change the file lengths, such software that moves files between locations, etc.
If some of the corruption is of another kind, then some more examples might be useful in narrowing things down.
--Milt--
-
If so, then this was not some component or process that might randomly corrupt bits (e.g. memory cards, hard drives, motherboards, cables, etc.). Instead, this was some component that was aware of the format of the image files, such as the camera, image processing software, etc. I don't know the CR2 file format, but it is also logically possible that simple file truncation might cause this effect for some file formats. In this case, it would be some component or process that was able to preserve the integrity of the file system, but change the file lengths, such software that moves files between locations, etc.
I believe that CR2 is variable length compressed. That being the case, it is pretty hard to predict the visual effects of file corruption.
-h
-
The .cr2 file format contains a lossless .jpg - is the .jpg preview also corrupted?
http://lclevy.free.fr/cr2/#key_info