Okay, I hope someone can help...

I recorded my disney vacation videos on the internal memory. I plugged it into my computer, pressed playlist on the camcorder, picked computer.

I saw a D: drive in Disk Manager as RAW, but I left it alone.

I couldn't get the computer to read it at all, so I unplugged the camcorder.

Now the camcorder won't even let me record to internal memory.

What happened? I'm sure the videos are still there, is there any way I can get to them?

HELP! I can't lose these! This is our first big family vacation with my 5-year old daughter!

I'm freaking out!

PLEASE READ IF YOU HAVE THIS PROBLEM AS WELL!

I tried everything with the camera to no avail, I simply couldn't get the videos off the internal memory, and the camera couldn't read the internal memory.

I was obviously in a panic all night... So I went to Download.com, and found the top downloaded app they recommend for fixing damaged disks.

It worked!

I created a virtual disk image first on my local hard drive, since the camera only has 32GB. Then it scanned the image, and found every single file...

I'm thrilled I was able to recover everything.

For anyone else who has this problem:

1) I would strongly recommend you *don't plug the camera into Windows for the internal memory*, for videos or pictures. (The first thing I did was try to copy a few pictures on there from weeks ago, and it hung - perhaps that was the root cause?)

2) Use an SD card for everything! 16GB class 4 cards are pretty cheap nowadays.

3) If you must use the internal memory, copy all internal memory videos to an external SD card first using the built-in camera copy function (it only goes from internal to SD, not the other way around).

4) Pop out the external SD card from the camera and then into your computer directly - don't go through the camera!

I've been using the SD card for everything, but this was a long trip, so I had to switch to the internal memory after a few days. The SD card has always been fine, it was the internal memory that got messed up.

Anyway, all is good. Thank goodness!!!!

Is the internal flash still operational?

Could you please share the recovery link with us?

Thanks

__________________
Lou Bruno
MODERATOR

It appears to be - I needed to do a full initialization, twice, and I had to reboot the camera before it would recognize the internal memory again. I did some test recordings and plugged it into the computer again to see, and it seems fine now.

So it's either:
1) I didn't initialize it on purchase, and maybe it was slightly screwy to begin with and I just hit a bad spot.
2) Multiple airport security scans took their toll.
3) A weird one-off hiccup with Windows and the camera
4) It's just sketchy

Whatever the cause, I'll be avoiding using the internal memory at all, and if I happen to need to use it for some reason, I'll copy to an SD card before doing any transfers. I won't be plugging the camera into my computer ever again!

Here's the link to the software:
- Virtual Lab by Binary Biz - http://www.binarybiz.com/vlab/windows.html

It's more expensive than I'd like - you pay for a "quota" of what you recover, but it's so highly rated that I decided it was safe. You get to see what it thinks it can recover first, and if the files are small enough (like pictures) you can even see a preview of the file. I purchased 100GB, and only used 9GB (the rest lasts forever, or at least as long as the company is around). A small price to pay for irreplacable videos!

Features of the software that I liked:
- Super highly rated on download.com
- You can copy the entire failed disk image to a file, and then work from the file, reducing the chance that something else will go wrong (since the memory is only 32GB, that's small enough to pop on my PC hard drive)
- It scans the entire disk (image) showing you what it finds, including partitions and directories and files, in an easy-to-use interface
- You get previews of files if they are small enough (like pictures)
- It clearly shows you any potential issues with the files, like cross-links or bad sectors - or no issues at all
- The quota you purchase is "banked" forever/the life of their company
- It worked perfectly and saved my vacation videos!

Anyway, I have nothing to gain by posting this, I just hope it can help someone else someday.

Is this a Windows-only thing? I have seen quite a few discussions elsewhere online talking about file corruption on built-in flash memory when hooked up to a Windows computer. I have yet to find one related to a Mac hook-up. I myself haven't had any issues in over a year that I had used my Vixia with various Macs. Has anyone here with a Mac had file corruption problems that don't allow them to see any files at all?

This seems to be the one single disadvantage of flash (or any other kind of) memory over tape. Even with drop-outs, you can still play back tape. Then again, leave tape on a sub-woofer (or any other larger speaker), TV or similar magnetic appliance and your tape is as good as that corrupted flash memory, if not even worse (with flash memory, at least some forensic software can recover files; with a dead tape, it's dead).