Sandisk RescuePRO Software
© 2006 KenRockwell.com

SanDisk Extreme IV CF Card and Reader

Pro Tip: Always format every card in your camera (not your computer) every time you use it. This prevents the possibility of data errors and corruption.

INTRODUCTION

My friend, Humanitarian Photojournalist Karl Grobl, just got the SanDisk Extreme IV card and reader and loaned it to me to try.

RescuePRO 3.0 software comes bundled free with SanDisk Extreme IV cards to recover lost files. It's also available separately.

PERFORMANCE

It's a little weird to install on Mac. I got it to install by dragging the .BIN file onto Stuffit Expander, which created the installer on my desktop. Double click the installer and you AOK. All I get were errors clicking the .BIN file on the CD.

On Windows it ought to come up automatically when you insert the CD.

Once installed, it works GREAT!

Plug in a card reader or camera that works as an external drive.

Start the program.

Point it to the card.

Click Start.

It scans and downloads everything on the card. It puts it in a folder called Recovered in your home directory, on Mac. Beats me what it does on Windows. Unless the card is brand new, the size of this folder will be the size of your card.

This will take minutes to hours depending on the speed and size of your card and the speed of the connection between the card and your computer.

It takes 5 minutes to scan a SanDisk Extreme III 2GB CF card on my Quad G5, as read through the Extreme IV Firewire reader.

On Mac, when it's done it will bounce the RescuePRO icon in your dock.

You're done. Everything on your card, deleted, formatted, ort not, is now on your computer. All the files are renamed as file123.JPG or file123.CR2, etc, not their original file names.

Sort through this folder like any other and your images are all there.

RECOMMENDATIONS

If you goof and delete or format over an image important enough to wait around quite a while for this to sort out, it works great.

I tried it because I was stupid enough to format over all my cards for my Real World Memory Tests. I had forgotten to download all the shots I had made on those cards the night before!

PLUG

If you find this as helpful as a book you might have had to buy or a workshop you may have had to take, feel free to help me write more with a donation.

Thanks for reading!

Ken