recover pictures from corrupt memory card

If you took some unique photos and then your photo camera starts acting strangely, telling you something about "no pictures", "file corrupt", "no card inserted" or similiar errors, or if you realize it later when coping on your PC, that images files are corrupt, there might be a way to save your pics. When you google, you'll find lots of expensive commercial programs.

PhotoRec is an excellent command line freeware running on all major operating systems.
I successfully retrieved all photos of a corrupt xD-Card.
It may be also used to generally recover data from corrupt media!

thanks and credits to Christophe Grenier