Why suddenly "card error" on digital?

[kangaroodle]

Earlier this week I was taking some pictures of my DD and her friends when we went out to dinner for her birthday. I was taking pictures just fine, when all of a sudden I couldn't take any more pictures because "card error" came up on the screen. I changed batteries thinking maybe they were running low. I took the card out and cleaned it...but it still wouldn't work. I took the card to Target and put it in the machine to print the pictures, and the machine can't "read" the card either! It is a "Smart Media" card...which isn't very SMART right now! I only had a bout 20 pitures on the card so I know it wasn't full.

Any ideas? Kathy

 

[milkabum]

Sorry about the problems.. but I'm not sure what could be wrong. Hope you get your pictures soon!

 

[MarkBarbieri]

It sounds to me like the card went bad. It could have failed physically, which probably means that you are hosed. It may have failed because the master index got buggered up. In that case, you might be able to save some pictures with speciality software and a computer. If you can live without the pictures, you might be able to fix it by formatting it with your camera. As cheap as memory is these days, my inclination would be to pitch it and by a new card. Why take a chance that the problem will recur?

 

[Groucho]

If you have a card reader on your PC, try sticking it in there and see if it can read anything. (Or hook it in using your normal method, whatever that is - USB cable to camera or whatever.) You can try to do a scandisk/chkdsk on it (right-click the drive, Properties, Tools, "Check Now" button), that may help.

If it can't be read at all, see if you can format it. If so, take a full card's worth of useless pictures and verify that you can read them all onto your PC again. If so, you may be OK again. But like Mark says, I'm not sure if I'd trust it that much.

If you can't format it... dig a little hole in the backyard and give it a nice funeral.

Actually, check the warranty. Many manufacturers offer long (3-5 years or lifetime) warranties on flash memory. Usually you don't need any proof of purchase, you just give them the serial number.

 

[seashoreCM]

It has been said that formatting the card again (each time you download all of the pictures off of it and onto a computer) reduces the chance of card errors.

Whereas deleting a few pictures here and there and then taking more pictures and then deleting a few pictures again here and there while keeping several pictures for a long time to carry with the camera and show to friends, increases the chances of card errors. This problem really should not happen but it does. It has to do with "fragmentation". When a picture is deleted and another picture is taken, the new picture does not always exactly fill the space just vacated. Instead a small slice of that picture is put somewhere else on the card or a small slice of yet another picture is filled in a gap left behind.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[SplshMtn99]

It has been said that formatting the card again (each time you download all of the pictures off of it and onto a computer) reduces the chance of card errors.

Whereas deleting a few pictures here and there and then taking more pictures and then deleting a few pictures again here and there while keeping several pictures for a long time to carry with the camera and show to friends, increases the chances of card errors. This problem really should not happen but it does. It has to do with "fragmentation". When a picture is deleted and another picture is taken, the new picture does not always exactly fill the space just vacated. Instead a small slice of that picture is put somewhere else on the card or a small slice of yet another picture is filled in a gap left behind.

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

Wow, people do that? Never even entered my mind to do that.
For 6 years now, I've been downloading pictures at end of day & ALWAYS formating the card again in the camera. Knock on wood, never had a card problem -- except for a card that came with a Canon that was faulty from the start. Ended up returning the camera anyone, so I really didn't care about the faulty card.