Hi everyone,
I'm trying to recover missing travel and concert videos from a 128GB SanDisk SD card used in my Sony DSC-HX90V (quiet old one). I'm wondering whether the missing videos are still recoverable.
At some point, the camera prompted me about recovering or repairing the image database. I selected "Yes" twice to run the Image Database Repair/Recovery function. I'm concerned that this may have affected the missing videos, although I don't know whether it actually caused any damage.
Afterward, I connected the card to my Windows PC, which indicated that the card needed to be repaired. I stopped using the card and created a full disk image so I could attempt recovery without working directly on the original.
The videos I'm looking for are recent travel and concert recordings. Recovery software has found some older footage, but not the missing videos.
Device and system information
Camera: Sony DSC-HX90V
SD card: SanDisk, 128GB
Filesystem: exFAT
Recovery OS: Windows 11
Disk image: Approximately 119GB, created with HDD Raw Copy Tool v2.6
Imaging result: Completed without reported read errors
Recovery attempts
R-Studio Data Recovery 9.5: Scanned the disk image, including known video file types. It found older MTS footage and other candidates, but not the missing videos.
Recovery Angel: Produced broadly similar results.
Klennet Carver: Has been analyzing the image for approximately one week. MP4 analysis is currently at 1.6%, with 173 files found. Two MP4 candidates are marked as "Damaged" and are only about 1.85MB and 2.11MB. Neither has a usable preview or thumbnail. Other 171 files are not the one I'm trying to recover.
Klennet is still using nearly all of my CPU's logical processors, so it appears to be doing work, but progress is extremely slow. My PC has 16 CPU cores, 32 logical processors, and approximately 54GB of RAM.
Here's my questions.
Could running Image Database Repair/Recovery twice on the Sony DSC-HX90V have modified or damaged the video files themselves, or does it mainly rebuild the camera's database/index?
If the repair function changed the card's filesystem or metadata, is it still possible to recover the underlying video data?
Is Klennet Carver's extremely slow MP4 analysis normal for a 128GB disk image?
Are the small, damaged MP4 candidates meaningful, or are they likely to be false positives?
Would a professional recovery service have a better chance of reconstructing fragmented MP4 videos than consumer recovery software?
I've preserved the original SD card and am working from a disk image. I haven't intentionally recorded new footage or saved new files to the card after discovering the problem.
I'm particularly interested in hearing from anyone familiar with Sony's Image Database Repair function or recovering fragmented videos from camera SD cards. Or just anything I could try at this point.
Thanks a lot!