Sandisk CF card ERROR - please help...

[mabhz]

Hi all...

I have a Canon A70 purchased back in 2003 (with the help of this very forum!) and i use a SanDIsk 256Mb compact flash card type I (i guess) with it.

Last week, i had my first serious problem with this camera and this card.

Im using what seems to be a fake pack of Sony rechargeable batteries, because after only 8 months they already die too quickly (compared to my old Powerex set that lasted 3 years with honnor!!), and usually when i get the "replace the battery pack" i turn the camera on again and try to take a few more pics, and this battle goes on until the camera dies completelly, usually leaving the lenses out...

Last week, unfortunately, something different must have happened, because in the middle of this "struggle" (camera dies, i turn it on again, it dies, i turn it on again,.... yeah, i know its silly and childish...), i suddenly got a "memory card error" message, maybe a "E80" message also, and the camera died completelly on me.

After replacing the battery set, i could not read the memory card again. All i would get is a "Memory Card error" message. The camera wont even allow me to format it. I replaced it with the 16Mb card that came with the camera and all went fine....

Terrified with the idea of losing my kids pics that were in there, i went out and purchased a internal memory card reader for my PC (the one on the left: http://www.datatecheurope.com/cardreaders.php (http://www.datatecheurope.com/cardreaders.php)), so i could connect it as a removable drive and try some data recovery software on it, like EasyRecovery Professional.

To my despair, whenever i inserted the card into the reader, the green light would only blink and then turn off. Whenever i clicked on the according letter to the drive reader, Windows Explorer would freeze and after a few minutes, crash. Sometimes i would get that window where XP tries to read the contents of a media, it would go on for a while, lights would blink, but it would stop with no update on windows explorer. If i tried to click on the drive letter, it would hand and then crash windows explorer.

If i did the same with the 16mb card, it would get a green light constantly on, the same "reading" small window and another window with cards contents would pop up.

Looks like my 256 mb card had serious problems....

Tried to access it with Easy Recovery Pro, latest version, but it also would hang and them crash.....

So, to shorten the story, i decided to format the card in Windows (XP Home)... It started the formating proccess, but after a while i got the "WIndows was unable to complete the format"... but after doing this, the light became green all the time on the drive. If i try to read the card in windows explorer, i get a message telling its not formated, asking if i want to format it... if i do, i got back to the first message (WIndows was unable to complete the format)....

HEEEEEEEEEEELP!!!

PLLLLLLEEEEAAAAASSSSEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!

What can i do????????

Can i recover the pics (about 50) that were in the card????

Is this card definitely DEAD????



thanks, thanks, and thanks A LOT For any help!!

[mabhz]

Anyone?? Help, please!!

[Jon]

It sounds like your efforts to eke out "just one more shot" have killed off an innocent bystander; your card. You might try picking up an external USB card reader - they're anywhere from $15 on up for name brands. If you can't reformat it in your computer or in the camera, if the photos are especially valuable to you you might try a data recovery service. But I'd just write it off, and get a new card (or two) and two new sets of camera batteries.

[mabhz]

Is it possible? Is it possible that i have damaged the memory card turning the camera on when the batteries were almost dead??

and I already bought an internal card reader, do i need to purchase the EXTERNAL one?? would it be better??? why? any difference in the reading process of the cards??

yeah, i will purchase another card for sure, i just would like to get my pics back, but since the computer cant even format the card, what a recovery service would do that i cant?? actually, im a computer professional, and i know quite a bit about recovering that. If i cant manage it, doubt someone else can!

[Jon]

Yeah - it's possible. If it was trying to write when it died, you've doubtless got a corrupted cluster or two, in the directory, FAT or boot record area. So you're trying to figure how to get past that.

The internals of the different readers shouldn't be, but often are, just that little bit different. This will be especially pronounced if you buy an external unit that's strictly CF, with no provisions for SD, MMC, MS, SM, or any of the other alphabet soup of card types running around.

Data recovery services will go into the card and bypass the controller interface. It's expensive, but can get otherwise unrecoverable data. I'm an IT pro as well, but I don't have the tools (nor could I afford them) to get beyond what PhotoRescue Pro can do. That's one of the best user-oriented tools out there.

[mabhz]

Jon, thank you very much for taking the time and patience to answer my questions! I strongly appreciated it!