media card problems

I don't know if this subject has been adressed, but I'm having a problem with a 2 gig card.

I can review the photos while in the camera, but when I try to download them the error message keeps poping up saying the card needs to be formatted. I've tried two different card readers, I've tried to download straight from the camera, I've tried another camera, nothing seems to work.

I format all my cards in the camera and after every download. I have purchased a recovery download by the same company as the card (Lexar) but that is not working either.

Does anyone have any suggestions besides sending the card back to Lexar?

If when you put it in your computer, the computer thinks the card needs to be formatted, then any recovery software won't help because your computer is having a hard time simply reading the file system on the card itself.

My guess is that the card itself has been damaged to some degree.

Since the camera won't be as anal as you computer about certain things, I'm not totally surprised that the cam can read the card but the computer can't.

What I'd first do is try to put it in another computer. Optimally, I'd try putting it in a different OS than your current computer. And ideally, if you're using a Mac, try a PC and vice versa. The way they handle mounting devices may be "just different enough" to let you read the pics off of it.

Now, assuming that you're able to get the pics off, the question is what to do with the card. Erring on the side of caution, you may just want to junk it. It's quite possible that simply formatting it will return it to 100%, but I would rather pony up for a new card to ensure that this doesn't happen again.

Good luck.

I've had the opposite problem: one D70 body reads my CF cards for a while, then requests a reformat. The data is still present on the card and accessible to other cameras and my laptop. I suspect that the camera is going to be junk, though Nikon have it at the moment.

"If it's broke, junk it" seems to be the mantra of the digital age. It's a good job the Wright brothers fixed bicycles instead of scrapping them... or I woyld never be able to get away and dive in warm water!

Tim

B)

"If it's broke, junk it" seems to be the mantra of the digital age. It's a good job the Wright brothers fixed bicycles instead of scrapping them... or I woyld never be able to get away and dive in warm water!

I don't think that's a wholly fair assessment. There's a sense of scale and complexity that makes the comparison of "simplistic bicycles to digital memory" a bit offbase though.

The "digital age" can also be described as the "micro age" - everything is TINY. In addition to that, the technologies are infinitely more complex then they ever used to be.

Analyzing and fixing a bicycle is a trivial task when you consider 1) how basic that technology is and 2) how much more of a "hands-on" culture we had at the end of the 19th century.

There's absolutely people with the knowledge and experience to fix things like memory cards, motherboards and other tech devices, but let's face it - most of us aren't those people.

After all of that is said and done, it's an issue of priority. For me, ensuring that the very transient digital data is preserved is a much higher priority than dealing with the potential of hardware failure. I guess it comes down to the following question: what's more important to you?