Problems downloading 10D photos

[Luis Pontes]

Hi guys
I desperately need help from someone...
I bought a Canon 10D a few days ago and I traveled to Spain for two weeks taking hundreds of pictures. I also bought two 512MB SanDisk Ultra CF cards.
Fortunately I also took my G2 with its 128MB DaneElec card and with this one I had no problems at all.
But I managed to download ONLY the first 6 or 7 pictures from any of the 512MB cards despite the fact that these were formatted on the 10D. After these I get an error from Windows.
I tried to use the 128MB card on the 10D and everything works fine!
The problem seems to be with BOTH the 512MB SanDisk Ultra cards!!!
I even tried the download on two different PCs (one with Windos 2000 and the other with XP) but the problem remains. I also tried a card reader and the direct connection of the 10D. Everything without success!!!

Can you HELP ME, ... PLEASE ???? Any sugestion would be MUCH appreciated!!!

[who10]

Oh Ouch...

You might want to try this software (they have a demo download to try out). The link is:

http://www.winutils.net/

Their product is called "Digital Picture Recovery".

I sure wish I had known about this tool when a similar thing happened to me with my D60. Unfortunately I lost a day's images. What I did learn was that it's very prudent to do a disk format (format from a PC or Mac) on new flash cards. The in-camera format does nothing more than delete existing data and create the required folders and data files needed by the camera's to store images.

Hope the link helps!

Good Luck.
______

David

[pwagner]

Yuck!

Perhaps you could locate someone with a Macintosh or a DIFFERENT version of Windows (Win 98SE, Win2000, WinME, WinXP). Take your card and your card-reader. The fact that the Mac is "different" means that the computer might not stumble on whatever problem is afflicting your CF cards.

Kinkos (or similar) might be a good place to try your CF cards.

Bring your card reader and two blank CD-R disks (so you can write your pictures to the CDs).

Let us know!
Peter

[Luis Pontes]

To whom it may interest...
After loosing hundreds of pictures taken on my two week vacation around Spain, and spending a lot of time just to recover around 40 of them, I concentrated on discovering the cause of the problem. And the problem seems to be that my card reader doesn't like the 512MB SanDisk Ultra CF cards I used on my new Canon 10D!
When I connect the camera directly to the computer the download of the pictures works, slowly, ... but IT WORKS!
Then I tried to read the very same card on my card reader... and the simple introduction of the card on the reader slot is enough to damage the card and loose all the pictures !!! Both on Windows 2000 (on the laptop I took on my trip) and on XP (at home).
I repeated this process a couple of times just to be sure (after having to reformat the card on the camera, of course), and the same thing happened everytime!
And now, "la piéce de résistance": the brand of my card reader is... SanDisk (an ImageMate Dual Reader SDDR-75) !!!
It seems that SanDisk isn't able to guarantee the compatibility of its own products as I never had any trouble downloading the pictures of a 128MB DaneElec card I used on my G2 !!!
I didn't find any reference to this problem at the SanDisk or Microsoft support sites. SanDisk has some drivers but none for the SDDR-75 as they state that XP doesn't need one!

In short: DON'T USE SANDISK READERS WITH SANDISK CARDS (at least the 512MB Ultra)

[Vince_Z]

I HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM!!!

I have a Dual Reader Sandisk SDDR-75 (CF and SM). I formatted both of my Sandisk Ultra 256 (p/n SDCFH-256-784) in my 10D but the reader can't read them. I even tried formatting the cards in Windows XP in both FAT and FAT32 and reader still won't read.

I also have a DaneElec card. The reader reads this just fine.

I had my 10D for about 3 days before I went on my Canadian Rockies vacation. I was lucky to find this bug in time. I borrowed a notebook computer and brought it with me and installed all the Canon software on it and just used the USB cable. The POS reader stayed home.

For anyone thinking of buying this dual reader for use with Sandisk Ultra cards and Windows XP, you now have two cases of incompatibility that should influence your purchase decision.

[Luis Pontes]

Well, finally I had my problem solved. The SanDisk technical support in Portugal tested one of my Ultra cards with their own SDDR-75 CF reader and got the same problem.
They tried with another model, the ImageMate CF SDDR-91 (USB 2.0) and everything went fine! They exchanged my reader by this one. The reason remains a mistery but my problem was solved!
Be sure to test the SanDisk Ultra cards with the CF readers before you buy either!

[defordphoto]

The thing that sucks about this all is that you should have not lost those photos. Lesson learned.

[ldivinag]

a few eons ago... i had similar problem.

a PCMCIA CF reader wouldnt read one CF card. but another USB one would.

i had 3 diff CF cards and it was a hit and miss..

i just learned to carry 2 readers...