Memory card formatted in Laptop

[manish_bajpai]

I had formatted my memory card(which I had recieved with my digital camera) in

my laptop. Now my camera doesnt recognise it,but works fine in my Laptop.

 

Can you please suggest what should I do?

 

Thanks

[yves_jalbert]

I can understand that the camera will probably no longer allow you to see the content or save new pictures on it but you mean that it clearly tells you that it doesn't see a memory card at all? Try going through the camera menu anyway and select the format option. It should work by recreating the format table.

 

If that doesn't work you might tell us which memory card it is. Sandisk offers Rescue Pro which comes which the purchase of their Extreme III cards. It's been known to save the day.

 

Other than that I wouldn't know. Maybe somebody else will offer other suggestions.

[Uhooru]

So you can't put the memory stick back in the camera and use the camera to format it back into its format? The card should have some instructions re formatting, check the web at the manufacturers site.

[james_c._turner]

Format the memory card IN CAMERA ONLY. Even if a camera recognizes a memory card that has been formated in a PC, Mac, or laptop, and you take photographs, it may be corrupted in some manner, and not be able to access the files? Again, format memory cards in the camera you are using it in.

[beauh44]

What James said. I never use my PC to format CF cards and format the cards, in camera, after copying the data off as opposed to erasing the card. CF cards can become fragmented just like disk drives and a fresh, in-camera format fixes that. You didn't mention what kind of camera but it's possible the PC formatted it in FAT 32 and your camera can only deal with FAT 16. Again, an in-camera format should fix things. Good luck!

[Ed_Ingold]

Format the card as FAT32 and the camera should recognize it. It's not a bad idea to format the card in the computer on occasion, to check for bad cells and to map them out automatically. Most of the time, you want to format in the camera (a quick-format process) since this sets up the directory structure needed for use. You can't format in the camera unless the camera can recognize the card, however.

[yves_jalbert]

I don't know why so many people recommend to format the memory cards in the computer once in a while or even everytime (no offence intended Edward, many people will recommend the same thing that you did).

 

But -every- single memory card manufacturer will say that it's not a wise thing to do, and that it should -not- be done. The manufacturers go as far as putting it in their manuals (camera manufacturers) and on their web sites, in addition to the small manuals that come with the higher end cards.

 

Long story short, the reason is that the computer will often create an allocation table that is a little bit larger than the actual space of the card. Doesn't mean the camera won't be able to read it (sometimes it can, sometimes it can't), but filling up the cards to the max with pictures could create big surprises.

 

Again no offence intended, I know many people do it. I'm just trying to understand. You wouldn't format your computer hard drive with your camera to install the OS on it after if you could, would you? Why do the opposite? The card is the hard drive of the camera, why not format it in there?

 

I reply to so many people who say "all was going well but I have like 20 something corrupted images on my card and can't figure why". Not always the case but many many times this happens after the card was formatted with something else than the camera. It's only an opinion.