Devices · memory & camera cards
Cards pick their moment. They go on day three of the trip, or during the one transfer meant to make a second copy. Card work is the steadiest line here in Milton Keynes, and a card reading blank, locked or damaged usually gives nearly everything back — provided nobody formats it first.
Run the problem past an engineer
0800 6890668
| What appears | What's behind it | First move |
|---|---|---|
| Canon: Cannot access the memory card — Memory card error | The file system has gone unreadable to the body | Eject it and stop shooting |
| Canon: Card cannot be accessed. Reinsert/change the card | Dirty contacts — or a controller on the way out | Do not format it in hope |
| Nikon: This memory card cannot be used. Card may be damaged | Corrupt, or no longer recognised | Skip the in-camera format |
| Card is write-protected / Card locked | Either the little side switch, or a controller sealing itself as it fails | Switch already up? Then it's the card |
| You need to format the disk in drive X: | Windows reads it as RAW; the pictures underneath are untouched | Decline the offer |
| No memory card (with a card inserted) | The controller has died, or its pads have | Chip-level reading from here |
Every item gets its own case number on the day it lands here. An engineer traces the fault, gives you a plain assessment of what is realistically recoverable, and puts one fixed price in writing. The diagnosis is free, you are under no obligation, and chargeable work starts only when you say go.
A bit-for-bit clone comes first. The original then sits untouched in its sleeve, and no software of ours goes near it again.
The clone takes the repair work. If the file tables come back, folder names come with them. If not, each frame is lifted out by header signature — RAW as well as JPEG.
A file count proves nothing. We open the recovered shoot image by image and check that every one displays whole, at its full size.
You get the full list of recovered files first, and nothing is charged until you approve it. Data goes back on fresh media, return postage paid, and the job stays open on our side until you confirm every file opens at your end.
The statistic nobody has: the share of cards on sale that are counterfeit has never been measured reliably. Labs and manufacturers alike describe it as widespread, fakes reach this bench regularly, and any exact percentage you read was invented by whoever wrote it. One thing holds regardless — whatever was written past a fake's true size is beyond the reach of any lab.
A 512GB SanDisk carried an entire wedding at midnight and read empty by breakfast. We cloned it first, rebuilt the file system on that copy, then ran a deep carve for anything left orphaned. The couple got every shot, and the photographer kept the client.
Please don't. Formatting lays fresh file tables over the very structures that let us rebuild your folders and filenames. Leave the card alone and you get back more, in better order.
Yes. NEF, CR3, DNG, ARW, RAF — each RAW format carries its own signature to carve against, and video is no different. Plenty of the cards here belong to working photographers.
Not always. Everything on a monolith card sits in one die, so if the crack missed it, chip-level reading still works — the card is scrap either way.
Cards move through faster than anything else here: two to three working days covers most of them, and less when a date is bearing down. Give us the date you work to and we will aim for it.
Switch a failing device on again and you lose a little more. Open a case before you do — the diagnosis is free, whatever it finds.