damaged SD card

<p>Dear all,</p>

<p>I've asked this question last year in September supposingly as well.<br>

Then my SD card, which had been previously in a card reader, which wasn't the best, couldn't be read anymore - it showed, in both camera and reader, that it needs to be formatted.<br>

Now I have the same problem with a card bought last month, 5 years guarantee, from Hamburg, Germany, the department store Karstadt. The name is Formel 1.<br>

I found on CHIP.de that PhotoRec would read the images, and was happy. I bought a new card reader (ACME) for this. However, 0 file recovery.<br>

Any ideas?<br>

The camera is a Nikon D3000, bought February 2011, and the Nikon seller sais that I should use compatible cards, like SanDisk and Lexar. And that then at least it will not happen again.<br>

But with the FujiFilm (XD cards) I never had problems, over many years.<br>

thank you and kind regards<br>

Maria</p>

<p>PS: for a photo salon no image I took with the Nikon was accepted, but FujiFilm ones yes (yes, FujiFilm is digital) - maybe I should get back to the old camera?</p>

 

<p>How old was your card?<br>

Did you format it regularly instead of simply deleting images?<br>

Was this a Fuji then, or one of the cards your dealer has recommended? </p>

<p>Thank you.<br>

The card was 1 month old (bought 18th of July 2012) and used to its full capacity 2 or 3 times, yes, with deleting images.<br>

But my problem is not getting a new card from the provider according to guarantee as I bought today morning a Sandisk. My problem is how to get the images back (about 180 images on it).<br>

The other card, in September, was bought in February same year.<br>

At the Fuji I used the same card 3 or 4 years long with just deleting images as well.</p>

<p>Just so I understand your issue - you bought a new card last month, brand-name Formel 1, which has 180 Nikon images on it that you cannot read. You bought a new card reader and a product called PhotoRec, and those are not recovering any of the images?</p>

<p>If that is correct, then I would wonder if you accidentally formatted the card in your camera, or when you mounted the card reader on your computer. Not good news, of course but this feels like something else is wrong beside the card and software.</p>

<p>Yes, I bought a new card last month, brand name Formel 1, and used it to take photos with my Nikon camera. Since the story last year in September when I had the same thing: I had a card in my Nikon camera (bought February 2011) and I was taking photos at 7 am in Poland. At once, the camera told me that the card has to be formatted (it was the card delivered by the shop with the camera). Since then I used that camera a few times, and in recent times always took it out from the camera to download with a card reader, which has been cheap, I thought that the card reader damaged the card, maybe scratched it, and this might be the reason. I was lucky enough that a shop in Poland sold me a Lexar card, by coincidence, as I knew no brand names. But the light of early morning was gone.<br>

Now I was in Hamburg after Dublin, and had no space left, so I bought a card in a shop there, brand-name Formel 1, 5 years guarantee. I made it full 2 or 3 times, and last week I was in the mountains in Romania. Given the experience last year I did not take it out from the camera, not to damage it, as I thought this was the good thing with the Fuji, that I always downloaded with their software (which BTW puts the date in the file name). As I was saying, I was high on the mountain, took photos, and all at once, when pressing to take a second photo after one which was OK, it said that the card is not formatted. It was just pressing twice consecutevely, I even haven' switched off the camera.<br>

I looked on the internet (after writing to some people who could say nothing) and found this<br>

<a href="http://forum.chip.de/cpu-board-speicher/sd-karte-speicherproblem-formatierungsproblem-1519311.html">http://forum.chip.de/cpu-board-speicher/sd-karte-speicherproblem-formatierungsproblem-1519311.html</a><br>

a guy who had the same problem with a Formel 1 card in a Canon compact camera, the camera was then showing "saving problem" and only the computer that it's not formatted. But he managed to save his photos with PhotoRec, which for me doesn't work. The guy sais he found on the internet more people having the same problem.</p>

<p>OK, that sounds like a problem with the card, or with the camera if you have had multiple occurences in less than a year. If PhotoRec is not recovering photos on the card, I'd have both checked I think.</p>

<p>I have had problems in the past with sd cards and thumb drives in the past. If you have access to a Mac, try running disk utility on the device. It does not corrupt the data, just repairs the boot block which allows the device to be read. Just a thought.</p>

<p>Thank you, William.<br>

Our dean has a Mac, I will try to talk to him.</p>

<p>@David<br>

thanks.<br>

Yes, I was afraid that the camera might damage more cards, but the Nikon reseller is saying it's my fault because the damaged cards are not listed in the users' manual as compatible, and that with SanDisk and Lexar it will not happen. Fingers crossed!<br>

Luckily it happened in a place which is just 2 h distance from my home, so I can go there again, but what would I do should it happen like overseas, where I never travel again?</p>

<p>That is a scar thought, Maria. Most of us haven't experienced card failure at all, or at least very rarely. I think you have to go with the idea that if you are using high quality cards that your chance of this happening again is low. </p>

<p>I assume you carry multiple cards, and if you see a problem you can slip in a new card?</p>

<p>Thank you.<br>

No, actually it was only now on the mountains that I had a second card with me. <br>

When it happened in Poland I had only one card, and I had to wait from 7am to 10am for the shop to open to buy a new one, which was bad, because I was only 2 days in Poland and consequently I had so much walk on the second day to do it again that on the airport I could not walk anymore, I left the rolling floor carry me ...<br>

Then in Hamburg I bought a second card as I had no space left on my computer to download photos. At the first trip after this I forgot the old one at home; luckily I had it in the mountains.<br>

But changing to the new card when the old doesn't cannot do anything about the photos on the old card, which I cannot access (in fact this is the question). I've lost all the photos at my relatives, and that in the capital city of the county, and actually I was happy not to walk to the monastery 1,7 km to take photos before the card failed; I did it on the way back with the other card. When I notice failure, it is too late. And the sellers have the tendency to sell bigger and bigger cards, like yesterday they wanted a 32 gb or such - when even the 8 GB was too big, as I haven't downloaded in the evening and the second day it failed.</p>

<p>Since you have repeated roblems with your cards, card readers, ... why don't you try picture transfer method that is described in your camera manual ?</p>

<p>Just use an USB cable, and get problem free pictures. It is slower, but more reliable, and blessed by Nikon. Your card will not get subjected to mishandling, static electricity discharges, mechanical bending, computer viruses, etc, since it will always sit in the safest place, and that is inside your camera.</p>

<p>Listen to Nikon.</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I had only last year problems with the card reader and this is why since then I have downloaded with the USB cable.<br>

It is not so good, it downloads about 50 images then I have to stop and start again. <br>

But this 1 month old card got damaged with images downloaded only 3 times over the USB cable, not taken out from the camera.<br>

The new card reader I bought yesterday to try out PhotoRec to save the images, and nobody tells me another software to save them, just what to do in the future :(</p>