[Alina Ionitoaia]

Hello,

I have a memory stick that was usually in my Nikon camera that recently came up with the message "Eject Ignore Initialise".
I tried every single one of them and still no result. I have over 1000 photos on this card that aren't available to view. How can I recover them? I have licence for another 5 months for "Recoverit" program to recover lost photos. I've done it in the past, but without the card being damaged, they were just erased by mistake.
Now it's different and I am desperate to find a way to recover my photos (I am not willing to pay for another program since I already paid £70 for this one), but I'm sure there is a way, it's just me who doesn't know which one...

Please help me!!!!!!

Thank you in advance!

Have a great day!

 

[Corday]

Moved from Introductions.

 

[SpywareDr]

Recuva is free but doesn't always work depending on the damage.

Ontrack, Flashback Data and DriveSavers are three well-known companies that may be able to help. Pricing typically runs between a few hundred to a couple of thousand dollars (US).

 

[johnwill]

It's somewhat likely that they're actually gone for good. This is an excellent argument for having backup copies of anything you care about.

 

[SpywareDr]

FWIW, I wholeheartedly agree. And more than one copy. And in case of a disaster at least one copy not stored locally.

 

[johnwill]

There are only two types of computer users in the world. Those that have lost data, and those that will lose data in the future.

 

[SpywareDr]

No bout a doubt it.

 

[Papertape]

I have a memory stick that was usually in my Nikon camera that recently came up with the message "Eject Ignore Initialise".
I tried every single one of them and still no result.

Let's fill in gaps.
By "came up with the message "Eject Ignore Initialise" I assume you mean you put the stick in a reader on your computer, and then something happened to produce a dialog window with three buttons labeled "Eject Ignore Initialise".
Is that right? What exactly did you do after putting the stick into the reader?
By "I tried every single one of them" I assume you tried clicking on each button. Ouch! Clicking on a button labeled "Initialise" invites disaster. Same for "Format".
I don't know about memory sticks... Does the stick have a way to set it read-only? If it does, do that.
If your photos are valuable, you might be able to find a "forensic recovery" company that can get bits off the stick.
And prepare yourself: your photos might be gone.
By the way, you might carry two or three memory sticks. Make photos on one, but switch to another before filling the first stick. If a stick fails, you will lose less.
Finally, BACKUP. Don't wait to fill a stick before backing up.

 

[johnwill]

I simply have to add, it boggles my mind the number of people that never give a thought to backup until after the horse has left the barn! I have multiple copies of all the data that matters to me on different types of media.

 

[Papertape]

I have multiple copies of all the data that matters to me on different types of media.

What different types of media do you use?
I use five external USB disks, going back to 2018.
I ping-pong over three of them at my computer, and occasionally copy a backup file to one of the other two, which I keep in my basement. Not perfect, what with having all the stuff in my house.

 

[johnwill]

I have an SSD backup drive in this machine that gets automated daily data backups and weekly boot image backups. Every two weeks I get a prompt to fire up my USB backup drive and backup all that data, then disconnect that drive. My daily backup drive is automatically backed up to a Synology NAS with mirrored drives. The Synology also has a USB drive attached that does a backup of the mirrored drives. Finally, all my important data is backed up in the cloud, I'm currently using MEGA for that service.

I have a Netgear ReadyNAS with Mirrored 3TB drives that I haven't yet pressed into service.

All the data is also on my laptop, that gets refreshed every week or two, and of course updated whenever I travel and take the laptop.

Since all of this is on a house-wide network, I can keep the NAS boxes in diversified locations to minimize the possibility of physical damage.