Memory Card help...

[TLC371]

I have had no problems with my digital camera (Sony Alpha A200k) or the memory card (SanDisk Extreme, 4gb card) and have been able to download pictures to my computer in the past, but over the weekend I took some pictures and went to download them to my desktop computer and then when that didn't work, tried to download them to my laptop, which also did not work. I tried to put the memory card into the card reader on the desktop, and then went up to Circuit City and purchased a memory card reader, and it didn't work on those either, all we got was a message saying that my card was corrupt and/or not readable. However the camera can still read the pictures/card on the camera and continues to take pictures on the card, so I don't know how it would be corrupt and not able to be read if the camera can still read it.

Can anyone help me out here? I emailed FireDog at Circuit City and she just told me to go to my local Circuit City and have them help me out, which I will probably do, but I'd like to try and figure out the problem myself before I have to do that. I really don't want to lose my pictures, they are really important to me!

 

[dr_zero]

I have had no problems with my digital camera (Sony Alpha A200k) or the memory card (SanDisk Extreme, 4gb card) and have been able to download pictures to my computer in the past, but over the weekend I took some pictures and went to download them to my desktop computer and then when that didn't work, tried to download them to my laptop, which also did not work. I tried to put the memory card into the card reader on the desktop, and then went up to Circuit City and purchased a memory card reader, and it didn't work on those either, all we got was a message saying that my card was corrupt and/or not readable. However the camera can still read the pictures/card on the camera and continues to take pictures on the card, so I don't know how it would be corrupt and not able to be read if the camera can still read it.

Can anyone help me out here? I emailed FireDog at Circuit City and she just told me to go to my local Circuit City and have them help me out, which I will probably do, but I'd like to try and figure out the problem myself before I have to do that. I really don't want to lose my pictures, they are really important to me!

When you plug the USB cable in to the camera and to the pc does the camera show up under MY COMPUTER?

If so then double click the camera and look for a folder in the camera

Try opening the folder on the camera just like a regular windows folder sometimes there are two or more and drag the whole group of folders over to the desktop.

Once it's over to the desktop look inside and see if the pics made it over.

 

[drcandon]

Agree with dr_zero - plug a USB cable ( usually supplied with camera) into the computer directly and quickly get them off the media.

Solid state media can corrupt just as easily as any other media...a common cause is folks formatting the media in the camera, but not waiting until a few seconds ( I wait a bit longer) after the format is complete - or trying to exit the menu as soon as they select format...or even pulling the media before completed...

Try to remember the old days of the floppy drive...hit the eject button before the format is completed and the drive lights goes out and you have a corrupt floppy

You have to remember the interal buffers, memory , processor on some cameras is very good at some things and very crappy at others..formatting, initializing and writing the folder structure is usually not as good as doing it on a computer..

Also remember that a camera does basically a quick format ( deletes the root folder - changes a few pointers ) so the disk appears clear to you and I ..in reality the data is still there and can be recovered...if you continuously write over this you will eventually get corruption..

My personal choice is to stick the media in a good quality (not the $10 cheapy units) card reader and do a full format each time after you copy the pictures over...

Oh yea another source of corruption on solid state media is the move command from media to your computer - and then reuse the media without formatting...do yourself a favour - COPY the files then full reformat


Oh yea one more word of warning - for the PC ( intel users) do not format in NTFS..only Fat or if you camera can handle it Fat32.

 

[TLC371]

Thanks for the great advice! I wasn't able to get the computer to read the camera using the USB cord either and kept getting the corrupt message. I ended up downloading a recovery program and got the pictures off the card that way. I lost a few pictures, but at least I have almost all of them, which is better than nothing.

I am assuming that because the card is corrupt that I don't want to use it anymore, even after formatting it? I ordered a few new cards last night and will make sure that I am formatting them correctly so hopefully it won't happen again!

Thank you both again so much!

 

[dr_zero]

Thanks for the great advice! I wasn't able to get the computer to read the camera using the USB cord either and kept getting the corrupt message. I ended up downloading a recovery program and got the pictures off the card that way. I lost a few pictures, but at least I have almost all of them, which is better than nothing.

I am assuming that because the card is corrupt that I don't want to use it anymore, even after formatting it? I ordered a few new cards last night and will make sure that I am formatting them correctly so hopefully it won't happen again!

Thank you both again so much!

Your welcome Im glad you were able to save your pics! Good Job!

As far as the card goes I would mark it with a sharpie as a test only card and don't use it for anything serious anymore. I had one that got flaky and then I recovered it and formatted it and it worked most of the time then it just died on me.

Just had a thought depending on the maker they may send you another if its still under warranty might be worth checking out.

If you want some more cards check out Newegg.com they have some on sale.

 

[tiger95]

You mentioned that this was a 4GB card. This gets into the realm of SDHC or high capacity cards. You may need a special reader to read the card on your computer. I recently bought 2 4GB Sandisk Ultra II's that came with a reader of their own.

Just a thought...
JD