I took 100+ pics, now camera says card is not formatted!

[roundyz]

When you first purchased the card did you format it on your computer or on your camera?

It might be formatted in FAT16 on your computer, or FAT32. Some cameras//devices likke FAT12. Some don't read oneshigher than they format.

When you quick format it only rewrites the boot sector and allocation table of the filesystem. leaving all the card intack appart from the filesystem errors. When you full format it does all of the above plus zeros out the whole disk, hence it takes longer.

once the file system has been fixed, the recover tools should pic it up.

The thing is mate, it's your risk.
Good luck. I know this post was late but I only just joined and couldn't help replying.

[kony]

I think it's a lost cause.....

I finally got up the nerve to do it. So I put the card in the camera, and turned the camera on.It came up to the blue screen that says "Memory card requires formatting",so I hit "Continue". It asked me if I was sure, and I said yes.Then it went to a blue screen that said "formatting" for about 3 seconds, then itwent right back to the screenthat says"Memory card requires formatting". Not good.

I turned off the camera and put the card in my card reader, and plugged it into the computer. It didn'tshow up under My Computer. I put the card back in the camera and formatted it again, butonce again itcame up to the "Memory card requires formatting" screen when it got done, and it still does not show up under My Computer when I put it in my card reader.

I guess that's it. I'll just have to see if I can get SanDisk to replace the card, although I'd rather not even have any more of their products. I just hope they don't need the original package, because I don't think I have it anymore....

hi HELP ME PLEASE...this case is similar to mine and i don't know what to do !!

I bought a 1 Giga memorystick Pro Duo card 4 days ago at Amazon...it worked fine during the first 4 days, and today suddenly i turned on my camera (a Sony DSC-M1) and it asks me to format...then the same scenario as above ----> i format (with the camera) , blue screen again, asking me to format again...format error...and the camera won't work with that card anymore...when camera is connected to my pc, nothing happens, the pc dooesn't even see the camera (whereas 3 days ago i could transfer files from camera to pc without a problem !)

if i put another card (the original 28 mb card sold with my camera), then it will work... so i guess the problem comme from the 1 gigabites card....i remember when i first putthe 1 giga bytes cardinto my camera 4 days ago i never had to format it even though it was brand new...but it worked...could that explain the troubles i have today ???

Anyway, contrary to Gilmoregirlz, i don't care avout saving the few datas (photos and videos) i had on that card as they were not important...but i want that card to work !! i bought it 100 $ from Amazon, and i wouldn't be pleased at all if it would turn out to be pure loss after only 4 days of use !!! I emailed Amazon in order to ask for a return and replacement, but as i don't have the original package anymore i guess they will just ignore me...

Can someone tell me how can i make that card to work again : i repeat that it's a Memory stick Pro Duo of 1 gigabytes (damn those small memory cards are they so fragile ???)...

i don't want to try the freeze test as i'm not sure how reliable this is if u want to KEEP your card....plus i don't wanna burn my 500 $ camera...that would be even more disastrous !!!

than you all for your kind help.

kony

[lbosch]

I had a similar situation with my camera and card...had great luck getting the images back using Lexar's program..Image Rescue 2.0? It came bundled with a cf card that I purchased.

Lots of Luck!

[drcorey]

Also, not all cards will work in all cameras, and not all sizes. and always do a full format in your camera so it can set it up properly. like my vivicam 3930 can only use up to a 512meg card. but my canon digital rebel xt can use up to 4 gig cards. and some cameras will only work Properly with certain cards. thats why the manufactor tests all cards to see if it works fully with it's cameras.



Dr Corey

City News Service

[sarawu]

A corrupt or missing boot sector will cause such kind of problem with the following indicates:

*Invalid media type reading drive.

*Abort, Retry, Fail?

*File system is displayed as "RAW".

*Windows may ask if you want to format the drive, such as warning "disk not formatted. Do you want to format now?"

*File names contain "weird" characters.

"Sector not found" messages.

To fix the boot sector, you may refer to
http://www.ptdd.com/fixboot.htm

If it still cannot be solved, you have to recover all the data out and then format the partition as the system indicates so that you can enter the partition again.

http://www.easeus.com/resource/recover-raw-disk.htm

[Chato]

Both Photo Recovery and Data Rescue will recognise cards not otherwise seen by the computer. As long as they can see the Reader, they can see the files. Personally, I would be very leary of formatting the card before running one of the above programs or a similar one. While most cameras do a simple surface erase, some do a deep format, and you can forget about getting anything once that takes place.

Here's a page of such software:
http://www.ultimateslr.com/memory-card-recovery.php

Now to repair the card, once you've recovered your images, you might try formatting the card in your computer, and Then try formatting in the camera.

Dave