Here are some safety tips on protecting digital images. The tips come from one of DriveSavers’s recent newsletters. DriveSavers is a top tier data recovery company.

With the advent of digital photography and flash memory, a whole new set of potential problems has evolved for photographers. DriveSavers Data Recovery Engineer, Chris Bross, has assembled the following list of tips on how to handle flash memory cards properly and help prevent the potential loss of precious photographs.

Protect Your Flash Memory Cards - Use the plastic holder when carrying them around. Simple static buildup can zap the card and make it unreadable. There are other dangers as well, such as breaking a card in your pocket or putting the card, along with your clothing, in the wash.

Avoid Extreme Temperatures - Heat, cold and humidity can wreak havoc with digital equipment, especially flash memory.

Replace Your Flash Memory Cards - Typically, flash memory cards can be used about 1,000 times before they start to wear out.

Transfer Your Photos - Copy the image files from the camera’s flash memory to a computer’s hard drive a soon as you can. We recommend not deleting images or reformatting the memory card while it is still in the camera. Wait until all photos are transferred and verified.

Verify the Transfer – Open the images on the hard drive before reformatting the card.

Back Up Your Images – Protect yourself and your irreplaceable images by backing up onto CD, DVDs, tapes, online storage or an external hard drive. This will help guard against data loss when (not if) your hard drive crashes unexpectedly.

Make More then One Backup Copy – Back up your backup media and keep a duplicate offsite in a secure location.

Follow Instructions – Take care when removing flash memory from the camera or card reader. Avoid deleting or corrupting images by using the eject command on the computer or moving the card icon from the desktop to the trash/recycle bin before physically removing the card.

[Excerpt information from Drive Savers newsletter, © 2011 DriveSavers Data Recovery, Inc.]

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If you need to try to recover digital photos from your camera’s compact flash (CF) or secure digital (SD) card you should know about Glazer’s Camera’s data recovery services.

Recently, a client needed this service and Glazer’s was able to recover over 1200 RAW and JPEG images from 3 compact flash cards which my client had erased (reformatted) in her camera. My client had already copied the RAW and JPEG images onto an external hard drive but they mysteriously disappeared. Upon discovering that the images were not on the external hard drive I recommended a professional data recovery service which would have cost hundreds of dollars. A friend of my client came up with a faster and much less costly option.

My client took her compact flash cards to Glazer’s where they were able to successfully recover all of the missing images. They charged $30 per card and then copied the recovered images onto her external hard drive. So, if you live in the greater Seattle area and you ever need this service, keep Glazer’s in mind. Of course, to reduce the likelihood that you ever need this service please follow these tips for protecting digital images provided by DriveSavers in one of their recent newsletters.

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