Images show on D800E view screen but not on computer

[david_ralph1]

<p>I took a few macro shots today with D800E with a Lexar 800x 32GB UDMA7 memory card.</p>

<p>The images can be seen on the D800E screen. However, using a Lexar USB 3.0 card reader, the computer "sees" that it is from a D800E, but it says the card is empty and that there are no files on the card. Putting the card back into the camera reveals that all the images are there, the good, bad and the ugly.</p>

<p>How can I read the files on this card?</p>

<p>By way of history, when I got the Lexar cards, my old Lexar reader could not read the cards. Truly frustrating. I had to get the updated card reader as Lexar's previous reader could not handle their own UDMA7 cards. In trying to figure out what occurred on the cards, I swapped one or two of them into my D700, where they worked fine, but also could not be read by the old card reader. I put that history out there as perhaps there is more than one directory, or maybe I flumuxed the formatting in one camera or not the other.</p>

<p>I use Photomechanic to download and preview images, and it will not ingest the files, though it senses the D800E on the card. When I use Win7's Explorere/My Computer, the machine reports the empty card with a DCIM folder/directory, which it reports as empty.</p>

<p>I have not yet tried the cable for the camera, buried in the box somewhere, and I am having thoughts about downloading Lexar's file recovery software.</p>

<p>I have avoided formating as that elminates all images, unless, of course, they can be dragged out using file recovery software.</p>

<p>Ideas cheerfully considered, but not necessary adopted. TIA<br /> Dave Ralph</p>

[dan_south]

<p>What kind of computer? What operating system and release?</p>

<p>Can you open the card as a folder on the desktop of the computer instead of using software to try to read the images?</p>

<p>Are you sure that the card reader is compatible with the card that you are using? Does it work with older cards?</p>

<p>If I were asking for help publicly, I wouldn't use that signature line. </p>

[Matt Laur]

And what happens when you use the D800 as a card reader and hook the camera body up to the computer with the

supplied USB cable?

[Wouter Willemse]

<p>And just a really silly idea, but better safe than sorry: there isn't a second memory card in the camera by any chance?</p>

[mike_halliwell]

<p>Wouter, I like your thinking! The SD slot, if occupied, looks almost invisible compared to the very obvious edge-on view of a honking great CF Card!</p>

[Andrew Garrard]

<p>I'd been wondering about the SD card slot as well, but it doesn't explain the D700 behaviour. For what it's worth, I'm using a Lexar 32GB UDMA 7 card (though a 1000x one) and a Lexar USB3 card reader with no problems, though with a Mac (I think I've tried Linux successfully as well). In fact, this combination works much better than my previous USB3 reader, which took forever to get data off a fast CF card. (This was a change - surprisingly recent SD readers can't do SDHC, so my problem has usually been with SD cards. With the exception of cards deliberately put into funny modes, I've not had an issue with a CF card flat out refusing to work, though.)</p>

[pge]

<blockquote>

<p>I have not yet tried the cable for the camera<br>

&<br /> And what happens when you use the D800 as a card reader</p>

</blockquote>

<p>I think this is the answer.</p>

[Wouter Willemse]

<p>Missed the D700 bit (reading too fast) - Andrew is right that the SD card won't make the answer. Indeed try to transfer directly via the camera, once done, try to format the card once via the card reader just to see if your PC and cardreader can do that trick (and afterwards, as always, format in the camera again).<br>

Basically, for the PC there should be no issue between UDMA7 CF cards versus others, but possibly the cardreader doesn't get along with these new cards well.</p>

[michael_bradtke]

<p>I keep a copy of imagerescue 4 on my computer just in case of a problem. I would download it and run it on the card. Also check and make sure you did not record to the SD card by mistake.</p>

[mike_halliwell]

<blockquote>

<p>I swapped one or two of them into my D700, where they worked fine..<br>

</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Does the D700 'see' the D800E's images on the LEXAR Card OK? and does the D800E see the D700's images? They may be in a different folder but if View All Folders (or whatever it's called) in the PLAYBACK menu is ticked it should see them all.</p>

<p>Usually if the computer sees a card or memory stick as EMPTY, in my experience, it really is. If it can't read it or it thinks it's corrupted, it offers to FORMAT it for you!! In Windows, it should give you the total capacity of the card and the space remaining. If they they both say ~ 32GB it sounds true.</p>

<p>Definitely try the USB cable to try and download the images, then reformat everything in camera.</p>

<p>RE.....SD Card, unless it's been made to mirror the CF contents and the LEXAR CF's have somehow been corrupted by the reader? The D800 would (might?) then show the SD contents.</p>

[rnt]

<p>Certainly try the USB cable. And check to see if the images have been inadvertently saved to the second card (the one you're not looking at).</p>

[Rod Sorensen]

<p>There isn't quite enough detail in your original post to fulkly understand what you have troubleshot, but I have a few suggestions. Don't format the card or try for file recovery until you get some easier possibilities figured out. I would guess your images might be on an SD card in your D800e. A second thought is that your card reader is not compatible with your CF card. If neither of those, unbury the camera cable and try it.</p>

[david_ralph1]

<p>One wants the solution to a problem to be the simple one, even if it turns out to be embarrassing. Most of you got it. The camera came with an SD card, which I did not want to deal with, preferring the CF cards. At some point I must have put it back in the camera as an emergency backup or for lack of a better place to keep it. And, as Mike Halliwell noted, the SD card is nearly invisble. The camera must have defaulted back to to the SD card when I put it back in.</p>

<p>So, all is well. Although it took slightly longer than forever for the SD card to copy to my machine.</p>

<p>I apologize to everyone whose time I burdened. Though, it was not wasted. I was prepared to go ahead first with the cable, and then to try to the recovery software. Reminding me about the SD card was the solution.</p>

<p>No excuse, but every digital camera I have used from the get go, a Canon point and shoot from 10 years ago or so, to the D70s up through the recent D800E all used Compact Flash cards. I really never wanted to deal with SD cards (and still do not), in part because I shoot a lot of landscape and in the woods, and SD cares are just too easy to lose, drop in the grass or whatever, and so the blinkety blink thing was totally out of my mind. Then, there is that slow download too.</p>

<p>Again, sorry to have taken up folks' time, although do not think that I am not grateful for the responses as I am. This site is a great resource.</p>

<p>Dave Ralph</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>Way to go Wouter. It is like another question we had concerning the Df's manual ISO and exposure compensation dials a couple of months ago. The owner thought two cameras were both wrong, but in fact the owner was reading from the wrong markings. I am so familiar with the Df and D800 and would probably never figure out these human errors, as I always use both memory cards in the "backup" mode on the D800.</p>

<p>

And to David the OP, I am sure most of us have done similar things every now and then. I certainly have but don't usually share it with others. I am just glad that this forum can help.

</P>

[rodeo_joe1]

<p>If you ever do need to scrape image files from a faulty card, try RecoveRX from Transcend's website. It's a free, quick and easy to use recovery program that'll work with any make of card. I have quite a few Transcend cards, so don't feel at all guilty about using their software for free, even though I've never lost an image from a Transcend card. However your own conscience should be your guide in this respect.</p>

<p>http://www.transcend-info.com/support/DlCenter/DLSoftware.asp?SID=4</p>

[keirst]

<p>FYI, I was just using Xbench to measure the read/write speeds on a Lexar 1000x 16GB CF card versus a Sandisk Extreme Pro 16 GB 95MB/s card using a Lexar USB3 Dual Slot Reader and the internal SD card reader on my Retina MacBook Pro. The CF card is a bit faster than the SD card in either device on read speeds, ranging from nearly the same to about 2x the SD card rates of transfer. Not all SD cards are as fast as the Extreme Pro, most are slower, especially older cards that might be kicking around from older cameras.<br /><br />Rob Galbraith did a good analysis of cards that were available when the D800 was released that I found helpful in deciding what cards to buy: http://www.robgalbraith.com/camera_wb_multi_page9ec1.html?cid=6007-12451<br /><br />There probably are some newer, faster cards that have come to the market since this was written that may be an even better fit for the D800 series cameras’ large files.<br /><br />I use the SD card in my D800E as an internal copy backup, and often download off the Sandisk SD card when I don’t have the external dual card reader with me.</p>

[michael_mccarthy2]

<p>I found that it was always my card reader that was causing the problem, When i used to transfer my photos from my D3 using the card reader i used to get corrupt images, be it unable to open images, blank cards, corupted images, at first i assumed that it was the card 8Gb Sandisk, being a new card, i returned it and got an exchange, the new card did exactly the same. (I've always formatted the cards in the camera before use.)<br />Being adept to fault finding, i proved that it was the card reader that was causing the problems and not the card. New card reader ordered, Exactly the same problem, although it only happened on 8Gb or larger cards. Now i never use any form of external card reader, I just plug the camera in and run a small script to copy over all of the images to the computer, Takes a little bit longer but i've not lost an image since.<br /><br />Mac</p>