how do I fix a corrupt card?

[crazzy88ss]

I spent all day at a NASCAR race and shot 500 pictures. My card is unrecognized by any system. The camera doesn't see the card, OSX/XP doesn't see the card.

What options do I have?

Edited June 23, 2008 by crazzy88ss

[Nicholas-c Veteran]

what make is it ? give them a ring maybe ?

if not then you could try a data recovery service thing ?

[perochan]

how come you even take 500 pictures even before your camera hasnt recognized the card?

[Geoff_Vass]

chkdsk e: /f at the cmd prompt

Also update to Windows XP SP3 as there have been numerous post-SP2 updates to support memory cards > 4Gb

[crazzy88ss]

how come you even take 500 pictures even before your camera hasnt recognized the card?

It took all of the pictures just fine. I could play them back on the camera's LCD as I drove home.

chkdsk e: /f at the cmd prompt

Also update to Windows XP SP3 as there have been numerous post-SP2 updates to support memory cards > 4Gb

It's only a 2gb card.

[Stick1968]

sometimes some of the newer cards are like sdhc or something like that check into that and make sure everything is compatable

[blake]

Does your camera have a usb interface you can connect to? You may need to use that if it is only your camera that can read the card

[markwolfe Veteran]

The Linux bootable CD RIP (Recovery Is Possible) (link) has tools to extract photos and such from drives (and this card would be a drive if you have it connected in a PCMCIA slot, or possibly even by camera).

These tools, like photorec, can even be added into a standard Ubuntu or other Linux install. And just connecting it to a Linux box may fix problems. That is what one Microsoft employee has found with a corrupted iPod.

[Marshalus Veteran]

What brand of card is it? What type of camera were you shooting with? Did you plug the camera into the computer with USB or did you use a separate card reader?

[giga Veteran]

So do the images still show on the camera?

[crazzy88ss]

Does your camera have a usb interface you can connect to? You may need to use that if it is only your camera that can read the card

Yea I tried that; no luck

So do the images still show on the camera?

Nope, it says "this card cannot be used" and it won't let me even reformat the card.

[goodcase]

is the little switch on the side of the card set to "lock"?

[markwolfe Veteran]

Yea I tried that; no luck

Nope, it says "this card cannot be used" and it won't let me even reformat the card.

Might be a good time for me to re-post my previous suggestion.

The Linux bootable CD RIP (Recovery Is Possible) (link) has tools to extract photos and such from drives (and this card would be a drive if you have it connected in a PCMCIA slot, or possibly even by camera).

These tools, like photorec, can even be added into a standard Ubuntu or other Linux install. And just connecting it to a Linux box may fix problems. That is what one Microsoft employee has found with a corrupted iPod.

[crazzy88ss]

Ok, so this doesn't make any sense to me what so ever, so don't ask me how it happened.

Today I popped the memory card into my D50 to read the exact error message that the camera was giving me, and it worked. All of the pictures were there. I sat there in stunned silence for about 15 seconds.

*shrug*

[LightIdea]

Bloody gremlins.

[Marshalus Veteran]

Get your pictures off and quit using it.

What type of card was it? Does it have any kind of warranty?