Recovering erased video

[ridon127]

O.K. I have totally screwed up here. I taped over some important video. Is there anyway to recover it? It is on a 8mm tape. I can't believe i did that.. Help me, please.. or am I just screwed?
Thanks so much!!!

[Steve Grisetti]

Sadly, I know of no way to recover erased tape, Donna. (Otherwise, Nixon would have been convicted years ago.) Sorry.

[Chuck Engels]

That's true what Steve said. It isn't like a computer hard drive where the erased/deleted stuff can still be recovered sometimes. When tape is recorded over it completely erases what was previously on the tape.

Sorry Donna

[ridon127]

i knew that was the answer before I asked..
thanks anyway guys..

[Bobby]

Theoretically the spooks (spies, etc.) have techniques that could recover some. I think they work to some degree depending on the type of erase head used, and the slight mis-alignment that always occurs in helical scan tapes. But nothing you could do yourself - sorry.

Things I do:

1) always carry plenty of extra tapes, so there is no urge to have to re-use or fill a tape
2) whenever reviewing a portion of the tape, always restore the tape back to the end of the recorded area ASAP - don't wait.
3) take an important tape out of the camera immediately and flip the write-protect tab - see (1) - don't attempt to optimize tape usage by trying to cram everything you can on a tape.

I am not sure how you did it, and not sure if this stuff is even relevant, just suggestions.

[ridon127]

Thanks Bobby.. I am not real sure how i did it either..But it is done and nothing i can do now.. Thanks for the suggestions.. I will be more careful in the future..

[Bobby]

Oh, it does happen.

In the four dozen or so family VHS and D8 tapes that I am patiently (and almost done) putting on DVD, I have found two instances where I goofed up. I think that both were victims of item (2) above - in other words we wanted to preview the tape or show it to relatives and forgot to set the tape back to the end.

One in particular was Thanksgiving at a dear and now departed aunt and uncle's house. I would have given anything to get that back, but gone now. There is about 15 seconds of it and then it shifts suddenly to later in the day.

But we move on...

[Chuck Engels]

Oh, it does happen.

I think that both were victims of item (2) above - in other words we wanted to preview the tape or show it to relatives and forgot to set the tape back to the end.

I've done the same thing sad but true.

[Wheat King]

ditto.. lost some good stuff of our oldest a few years ago.. difficult lesson...

[Peru]

I've been careless in another way:

I borrowed my wife's Canon EOS Rebel camera to take photos of my daughter's first time picking strawberries and bluberries. I was planning on making a wonderful slide show.

I'm used to point and shoot. I thought it was point and shoot. My wife had it on ISO 1600. It was a bright, sunny day. I now know what ISO 1600 means.

My wife tried to salvage the hundred or so photos in photoshop with out being able to save a single one. And so, like Bobby says, "But we move on..."