Sony Cybershot/Memory Stick Help!!!

[Pooh_Girl]

Ok, so my DSIL called me today to ask me a question about her camera, and I had to tell her "I don't know." So I thought I would come ask everyone here for help!! She has a Sony Cybershot camera and today she went to check it out because they are going on the Panama Cruise in May and she was looking to see if she still had pictures on the memory stick or not. When she went to look at them, most of her pictures were ok, but there were a few that just showed up as a blue screen and said 'File Error'. Has anyone ever heard about this or dealt with this?? TIA for any help!!! (And PLEASE toss your input in here!! )

 

[Groucho]

Well, either the data is slightly scrambled or the Stick itself is going bad.

If it's the former, you can use a recovery program to pull off all the good pictures, format the Stick, and you'll be fine.

If it's the latter, then you'll still want to use a recovery program, but you'll need to get the Stick replaced if it's still under warranty.

 

[Pooh_Girl]

Well, either the data is slightly scrambled or the Stick itself is going bad.

If it's the former, you can use a recovery program to pull off all the good pictures, format the Stick, and you'll be fine.

If it's the latter, then you'll still want to use a recovery program, but you'll need to get the Stick replaced if it's still under warranty.

Is there any way to tell which it is?? Or should I just tell my DSIL to go ahead and get a new card? The main thing we were hoping is that it wasn't the camera itself. They just bought it about a year and a half ago, so that was our biggest concern. But if it's as simple as reformatting the card or getting a new card, that's GREAT!! I just don't know how much faith to put into this old card now.

 

[Groucho]

Well, it's probably not the camera.

One way to tell if the card is good is to (once you've gotten everything off it you want) is to format it in the camera then fill the card (taking photos of anything, or just the same photo over and over) then see if any of the photos are corrupted. Or take a video and let it run until the card if full, and see if it plays back OK. Those are kind of messy ways but will probably work. I think you should be able to scan it for errors from Windows but I haven't tried (and I don't think I have any bad cards to tell for sure.)

One thing to make sure they're doing in the future is not taking the card out until it's definitely safe to do so - if you pop out the card from the camera or the computer when it's being written to, you may get a slightly corrupted filesystem, and some later shots might get scrambled like the ones they're seeing. Such corruption is cleared when the card is formatted.