"This memory card was burned in a GoPro that overheated" Matt Greenwood, founder of Nandoff Data Recovery, told me, as he pointed to a digital microscope to show me the remains of a MicroSD card which, to be honest, I would probably have discarded. He had been able to get all the data off it.
Matt is at The Photography and Video Show with a small booth talking to photographers about his services, but after nearly two days of the four-day event, he tells me that the majority of photographers – at least of those he has spoken to – admitted they had no idea at all that it was possible to recover data from chips so badly damaged.
Admittedly his services aren't without cost, but there are occasions any professional would find the idea of paying £420 (around $500) to have the contents of an apparently lost SD card restored invaluable after a wedding or other major gig. The money has to be weighed against not only the fee due from the client but also professional reputation (and, I joked, the prospect of holding a wedding again just for the visuals!)
Admittedly we're still talking money that would probably not make me think it worth recovering my holiday photos, but at least it is possible to put a price on sentimental value and make your own choice! (If nothing else, the sight of that burned MicroSD card should make you think about trying to push your GoPro past the point its temperature sensor wants to shut it down).
Matt also told me that the firm had even managed to recover terabytes of data from a specialist £30,000 system on one occasion, though he did warn that, if you're going to recover data, you'll need something to recover it to – a device you'll need to pay for too.
In the samples of devices (as well as traditional hard drives) were SSDs from modern laptops – even Macbooks. So while it's worrying to think platter-based and solid-state media is subject to failure, it's good to know there is a line of defence you may not have known about.
Nandoff Data Recovery are based in the UK but can serve customers around the world – having served customers from the USA, Canada, and Australia to mention a few,
You can't avoid every disaster, but you should choose the best memory card for your camera to minimise the risk.
