[BJHx]

Hello all, im new to the forums. I signed up because i need some serious help.

About an hour ago i was transferring songs from my computer to my bb 9700. when i tried ejecting, my computer kept telling me i couldnt eject because it was in use by another program. even after closing all programs, i was still getting this message so i turned off my computer and pulled my phone out.

bad idea

Now every time i try to access my memory card, i get a message saying "a media card has been inserted that is not formatted. do you wish to format the media card now?"

what i tried doing:
i click no, and check my media folder for my music, videos, pictures, and voice notes. nothing there. i plug my phone into my pc to find the memory empty with the option to reformat the memory card.... i plug it into my mac and get the same result with the option to reformat. I pulled out my card and tried putting it in a converter and plugging that directly into my comp, disc not readable. i'm running out of options and i dont know what to do. The only reason im stressing is because i had extremely valuable pictures, unimaginably important voice recordings, and countless videos and mp3's that i want/NEED back.

im going to try bringing it to at&t and seeing what they can do, but i know they wont be able to help. never has at&t been able to solve a problem that i myself couldnt solve.

so im turning to the bb community for help. is there ANYTHING i can try? ANY recommendation ANYONE may have?

as a last resort if nothing works, im going to allow my phone to reformat the memory card. in past experiences, this has not always lead to the data being deleted, but rather it has lead to the data resurfacing. however, if im wrong about this and i do reformat, there is no turning back, so if reformatting erases everything and it turns out the data was salvageable prior to reformatting, i just xxxxed myself even harder.

so again, ANY IDEAS/RECOMMENDATIONS/SOLUTIONS you can come up with, im willing to give a shot. this is really important to me. :(

thankyou in advance

[dan.george]

Do you have access to any data recovery software? That is your safest bet if you can put the memory card in a card reader and try without formatting.

[Caledan]

I had the same issue with my 9000 & Mac, so I put it in my wife's 9700 & it worked fine in hers, she even took a picture to test saving it. Do you have access to another sim card, so try that card in your phone. I shut down my Mac & did a battery pull with Phone on & let it out a few minutes. It did work but after all that I did format it after retrieving information off the card. It's been 6 months & has not happened again.

[BJHx]

Originally Posted by dan.george

Do you have access to any data recovery software? That is your safest bet if you can put the memory card in a card reader and try without formatting.

I don't have that software, but I'm willing to give it a shot. Do you know the name of such program/any idea where i can find this? google search "blackberry data recovery software" perhaps?

@Caledan, im going to try a couple things once i get my hand on another at&t blackberry including switching memory cards and switching sim cards and doing a few prayers. I'll let you know if it works out

any other options are greatly appreciated

[habanero69]

Probably sounds like a dumb question but any chance you were backing up your device with desktop manager? How did you load the files to start with? Have you thought of any other "source" that the files may be on? I am not trying to be smart, just suggesting to rethink the obvious sometimes.

I would not bother with ATT. They are clueless (sorry if anyone on here works there, at least all near me are). Your best bet is as others suggest, trying to recover the data by putting the card in a reader and using some software.

If it is that important I would take to a data recovery center (like corporations or FBI type jobs); google or yellow pages for in your area. Their rates are very good considering you have to get it back. I dont know about flash mem, but hd's are never a problem even after formatting half a dozen times. The data is still there. If you format, you almost certainly will lose your data. Never seen that work myself. Let us know how you proceed...

[tsac]

The media card should have been formated in the BB first. and as suggested by
hababero69, use Desktop Manager to move files to the BB. So how did you do this?

[BJHx]

I managed to solve the problem (without even attempting to get help from at&t, they've never been able to solve a problem that i couldnt solve myself...no offense ofc)

I basically exhausted all options short of: reformatting my card, and asking att for help.
i even tried sticking it in other phones/switching sim cards with other phones. Nothing at all worked.

what DID work was: i found a great recovery program called ZAR. i downloaded zar 8.5, put my memory card into a converter and plugged the converter into the usb drive on my pc. I ran ZAR, located the memory card, and let the program work its magic. it located every folder and file in the ROOT folder of my memory card.
i HIGHLY recommend ZAR 8.5 for any data recovery problems.

the only inconvenience was that being a trial version, i could only recover 4 folders at a time. which is stupid on behalf of the developers because i just ran the program a few times recovering 4 folders at a time until i recovered everything.
problem solved
i have not yet attempted to reformat my memory card and then transfer all the recovered files onto it to see if it is actually successful, but my fingers are crossed.
again, for any1 experiencing similar problems, i highly recommend zar software

[BJHx]

All media files have been successfully transferred back to my BBerry in working condition, the universe is in order again

[devnull]

Cool, that is good news. You were very lucky. However, media cards do fail without notice. Make a BACKUP now!!!!!!!!!! And don't forget to do it on a regular basis.