Bug 141313

Summary: Recover lost images from flash memory / camera.
Product: [Applications] digikam Reporter: Louis Roederer <louis.roederer>
Component: Import-MainViewAssignee: Digikam Developers <digikam-bugs-null>
Status: RESOLVED INTENTIONAL    
Severity: wishlist    
Priority: NOR    
Version: 0.9.0   
Target Milestone: ---   
Platform: openSUSE   
OS: Linux   
Latest Commit: Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Louis Roederer 2007-02-07 05:59:32 UTC
Version:           0.9.0 (using KDE KDE 3.5.6)
Installed from:    SuSE RPMs

It would be great if Digikam had a tool to recover lost/deleted pictures from flash memory.  I currently use testdisk/photorec to do it, but it's command line (yuck).  Maybe code can be borrowed from them?  I would also appreciate any info regarding any GUI-based linux apps that can do this already, but I'm really hoping Digikam will someday do it for me.
Comment 1 caulier.gilles 2007-08-30 12:42:36 UTC
Arnd, Gerhard, Mik, Fabien, etc...

I would to have your viewpoints about this feature. Is really a good idea to include this tool in digiKam ? And somebody have any experience with this tool ?

Gilles
Comment 2 Arnd Baecker 2007-08-30 13:19:51 UTC
I am pretty much against it: just stick to one tool for one job.
If really a gui is needed, this should be done directly
for these programms.
Also it would mean to keep track of changes of that code.

(Still it is handy to have these programms installed for the case it 
should ever happen ...;-)

So in my opinion: WONTFIX.
Comment 3 Mikolaj Machowski 2007-08-30 14:37:51 UTC
Recovering of images is very broad and complicated subject - its size
begs for separate application. Definitely task not for Digikam.
Comment 4 Louis Roederer 2007-08-30 15:15:20 UTC
Looks like I'm in the minority.  Too bad.  I've lost and accidentally deleted pics from various memory cards several times, and it sucks not having a good linux program to recover them.  The Digikam camera interface seemed like a natural place to do this type of job.  I still love you guys (sheds a tear).
Comment 5 Marcus Meissner 2007-08-30 15:17:11 UTC
check out:

http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec

while it has a text ui, it works very nicely.
Comment 6 Arnd Baecker 2007-08-30 15:36:35 UTC
Louis, thanks a lot for your understanding! 
(Should I add an entry to the FAQ about undeleting files, so that
the information is not lost and filing this bug had at least one
consequence? ;-)

closing this bug as WONTFIX.
Comment 7 Louis Roederer 2007-08-30 16:38:47 UTC
Marcus: In my original request, I did mention that I used PhotoRec to do this, but CLI is so 1970's.  All the memory cards I buy have cool GUI recovery tools, but only for Windows.  Thanks for the tip, though.

Arnd: Not necessary.  Just being able to have a conversation with the developers is enough, even when the answer is not the one I was hoping for.  At least it was openly considered.
Comment 8 Mikolaj Machowski 2007-08-30 17:14:49 UTC
Louis - file it as a new wish for new kipi-plugin. This is more sensible
IMO. 
Comment 9 Louis Roederer 2007-08-30 17:21:47 UTC
Mikolaj: Great idea.  I will do it.  Thanks.
Comment 10 Gerhard Kulzer 2007-08-30 20:02:22 UTC
I have quite some experience with the team testdisk/photorec, they are just perfect tools. I recovered even an iPod hfsplus partition entirely with it (even Diskwarrior for Mac couldn't achieve that). 
I also find they are easy enough to use for somebody inexperienced, their only drawback is that one recovers the whole lot, not just the three files one accidentally deleted.

I would follow the advice of Arnd and stick to this great tool set. If you like a GUI, write to kde-apps, maybe somebody takes up the challenge to wrap photorec in a kommander script.

Gerhard
Comment 11 Fabien 2007-08-31 10:32:42 UTC
I also tested it recently. It works really great and can recover everything possible from a device.
If I remember correctly, the tool needs read access to the block device, so it may need some additional privileges (not just user, depending on distributions).
And I agree with Gerhard, you can only recover everything, not just a few files. In my case, it took 20 minutes (because my CF reader is very very slow)...
So, I'm not sure it's a good idea to embedded a frontend in digiKam or kipi-plugins. It would be better to have a standalone GUI for that.