| With amateur photography gaining in popularity, digital | | | | solid state technology, no moving parts and a small |
| cameras are becoming the norm. The convenience of | | | | size are perfect for active and constant transfers |
| digital cameras over traditional film cameras coupled | | | | between digital devices. |
| with recent advancements in picture quality have | | | | Initially introduced in 1998 with a capacity of 170MB, IBM |
| meant more pictures conveying happy holiday | | | | Microdrives are also now popular and have grown in |
| memories than ever before. | | | | storage size to be able to cope with 2GB. Although |
| Back in 2003 12.8 million digital cameras were owned, a | | | | solid state memory cards like CompactFlash are more |
| marginally larger number than film cameras, 33% of | | | | impact resistant, microdrives have been seen as |
| households were seen to own a digital camera by the | | | | reliable and very economic with regards to digital |
| end of the year. | | | | devices. |
| Cameras such as these in combination with other | | | | Whatever format you use, be it one of the afore |
| digital products such as Personal Digital Assistants | | | | mentioned, or some of the other varieties e.g. |
| (PDA) and MP3 players all require media on which to | | | | SecureDigital, xD Picture Card, MultiMedia Card, Mini |
| store the digital data. Flash media, memory cards and | | | | CD-R/CD-RW, more and more people are relying on |
| microdrives were designed in combination with these | | | | digital media and its associated problems, rather than |
| digital products. Unfortunately, as with computers, digital | | | | traditional film. |
| media does occasionally suffer from corruption which | | | | Gone are the cases of film overexposure and |
| in turn can cause stored information to become locked | | | | damaged film rolls, in come the hardware failures and |
| away in the storage media, supposedly inaccessible. | | | | data corruption. Data organization and storage now |
| A wide variety of digital storage media forms exist | | | | uses the FAT file system. Corruption of this filing |
| today, all with varying storage capacities dependant | | | | system results in the digital device that houses the |
| upon make and model. 8MB through to larger 6GB | | | | memory card not being able to locate the data, |
| microdrives are now possible. | | | | whatever is stored being 'lost', although still remaining |
| First placed into this market by SanDisk Corporation in | | | | on the memory card. |
| 1994, CompactFlash Memory has become the most | | | | Corruption typically occurs when a device is low on |
| popular storage media of late. This media uses flash | | | | power or when memory cards are removed whilst |
| memory semiconductor technology able to house | | | | the power is still on. Such circumstances result in the |
| audio, text, video and images on flash chips. Being | | | | file systems not pointing to the data. Hardware failure |
| non-volatile and also solid state (no battery is required | | | | tends to come from damage, e.g. by rough handling or |
| to keep the data stored and no moving parts exist) | | | | accidental breakage, to the digital media so that it is |
| has made this technology tough and reliable, just right | | | | unable to properly connect with the associated device |
| for portable digital products. | | | | which needs to read the data. |
| Sony and Toshiba created Memory Sticks and | | | | Various data recovery companies, such as Vogon, |
| SmartMedia cards, respectively, which also turned out | | | | MJM, Storagesearch, CBL-Tech and Ontrack, are |
| to be very popular. Memory Sticks have become the | | | | readily available for any of the data recovery |
| dominant storage media type for their own products, | | | | difficulties you may encounter with digital storage |
| digital cameras, Clie' handhelds and computers. Other | | | | medias and their associated devices. A wealth of |
| manufacturers also use Memory Sticks, in particular | | | | experience and data recovery innovations mean that |
| Konica. SmartMedia cards tend to be rather thin and | | | | most data that is 'lost' is in fact retrievable with the |
| fragile, and have a top capacity of 128MB. Similar to | | | | right techniques. |