Memory card issues???

JIP · Nov 17, 2007

I am having a problem I have 2 Lexar professional 80x compact flash cards. The problem I am having is this, on one of the cards whenever I try to access it with my computer I get "Card is not formatted" and I cannot access the images. I am able to see them on my camera but I cannot download them I'm still not totally sure the issue is not my camera but what i wanted to know is the pictures on the card are sort of important and I wanted to know if anyone can recommend somewhere to go to get someone to retrieve the cameas off of my card. As I said I could just format the card and it might fix it but that is not the issue I really want to get the images off of the card.

JIP · Nov 17, 2007

And before anyone asks after my post I did just try to hook the camera directly to mu computer and it gave me the same message "the card is not formatted would you like to format it now?".

Sw1tchFX · Nov 17, 2007

JIP said:
And before anyone asks after my post I did just try to hook the camera directly to mu computer and it gave me the same message "the card is not formatted would you like to format it now?".

That's what I was going to say.

I have no idea, I've never had problems like that before, I always format the card in the camera before I shoot, never format it on the computer.

odd..

Garbz · Nov 17, 2007

This will be sound strange but could be an OS error. Do any of your friends use Linux MacOSX or some other UNIX variant? Those operating systems are much more tolerant of file system errors. If that works, after you recover I highly suggest reformatting.

JIP · Nov 17, 2007

First of al I also never format on the computer I always use my camera. Next one of my cards worked but the other one did not so I don't think it is an OS error. Lastly there are some very special images on the card of my baby so re-formating is not an option.

Garbz · Nov 17, 2007

No I think you mis-understood. If windows is reporting you need to format it then it can't read some important file system information, but clearly the camera can so windows is in error. I'm not saying your windows is screwing up, just that the memory card is screwed just enough so windows can't read it.

See if you can try it in another OS which is far less fussy and more tolerant of errors and copy the files off through that. AFTER getting the images off reformat the card, and if it does it again bin the card.

Some memory card recovery software may work too.

BAB · Nov 17, 2007

Garbz raises a good point and a possible solution... worth a try. I too had the same issue, as you, 2x in fact, and I finally solved it in one case by going to another Mac and in the second case, a different camera. This won't help you now, but may prevent a problem in the future and that is to never delete images in your camera through the delete function. Instead format the card when you are ready to trash the images on the card. I am told by better minds than myself, that the deleting function can transfer an electrical impulse to the card that can cause screw-ups with the card. This is somewhat theoretical, but since I was told about this I figured it was worth a try and so far after thousands of images, I have (knock on the proverbial wood) not had a card failure. Good luck and let us know what happens.