Compact Flash Card Problem

[MikeO]

Any ideas? I was using my Canon S50 Powershot in Bryce Canyon the other day when, after taking an unknown number of pics (I’d estimate 40ish) it went ‘beep’ and the display came up with ‘Memory Card Error’. The card is a Integral Memory 256Mb Compact Flash.

I downloaded PhotoRescue V2.0.0.648 and ran it, but it a) can’t see the card and b) when I fool it into checking the card (by inserting a ‘good’ card first, then substituting the bad one), it cannot recover any pictures.

Anybody out there got any ideas on where to go from here? I managed to re-take most of the photos from Bryce Canyon, but it would be a shame to lose the stuff I took earlier that day…

Mike

 

[Cheesy Mike]

I've had this happen before. The only way that I was able to recover the card (but lose the data) was to tell the camera to reformat it.

Mike

 

[Paul Wakefield]

I don't have any experience with a CF card in a camera. However, when I have hit major problems running ine in my Psion, I found running Windows Scandisk cured it.

You need a CF adapter either for a USB or PCMCIA port. These are normally cheapish (~£10 - should be cheaper in the States) and available from any half decent computer store.

The CF card is treated as just another drive. I have found that just connecting it to the PC can resolve this.

I have no idea whether a camera uses the same formatting but it may help. Nothing to be lost if there is no other way to recover the pictures. Good luck - I know how frutrating it is.

Paul

 

[finglonga]

This is a known problem on some pc's.

(The problem is that there is a voltage fluctuation on the USB port attached to the motherboard.
A patch is be available from the manufacturer.)

But as it happend in the camera I am not sure if the same thing caused it (ie: A voltage fluctuation).

But try using a different USB Port to download your pics it may work.

Good luck

 

[Fitzdangle]

Had the same problem with a SD card in my Canon Ixus

The camera wouldn't let me format the card

Got back home and put it in the card reader and all the pics were still on it !

The card turned out to be faulty

 

[AdamZ]

Image Rescue

If you have a Lexus CF card plug into your card reader on the PC (must be a USB) and you will find a directory called "PC". There is a "setup.exe" application which will install the image rescue software (for those with MAC's there is an equivalent directrory).

I believe that this software only works with Lexus CF cards.

Also try a Forum search using "rescue" on Rob Galbraith Digital Photograph Insights there is a sub section "Storage Media, Readers and Photo Recovery" in the "Professional Digital Equipment Discussion" section of the forum which deals with most areas like this.