CF Card Won't Format

[dsze]

...anybody ever have a CF card that wouldn't format? It seems to format fine in camera, but then my PC tells me it is not formatted and when the PC tries to format I get a message saying that it can't be done. Its this CF card done for good? Anything I can try?

-daniel

[defense_team]

What camera? What card? What operating system? What file system are you trying to format? NTFS, fat32, fat16 ?

[dsze]

Well, I'm not sure why it matters, but:

10D
Generic 64MB Card
WinXP
Fat32

....same as all the other 3.5GB of cards that I have, but this is the first time I've ever, ever had a CF card completely fail. ...strange. I don't know that I've ever even heard about more than 2 or 3 cards going bad.

-daniel

[RichardtheSane]

I have had a card fail

Would format fine in camera and the camera would even firmly believe it was writing to it. Not a good thing to believe because windows would believe it was blank unformatted then fail when formatting it.

[dsze]

hmm? Yes, my situation sounds very much the same. I formatted in-camera (worked) and shot some portraits for the newspaper (worked), but then PC doesn't think anything is there and will not format either. Oh well, its probably my oldest card and a genaric little 64Mb one that I use in my PDA for backups, but had to pull it and use it today after realizing ALL my other cards were in my other bag at home. I can get these 2 shots again tomorrow. No real loss, except time.

Richard, did you just toss the card? Any chance or rescusitating it? :)

-daniel

[Jon]

Try using a file recovery program. I use Software Shelf's File Rescue Plus. It works, so I haven't looked any further. But after that, if the card has further problems, pitch it, or demote it to non-critical requirements.

[davidwegs]

some do go bad. did you try to start shooting again and see what happens?

[dsze]

Yes, I formatted in camera again several times and tried shooting again, but I get the same error message on my PC. I reformatted in my PDA and it works fine for storing and backing up files. But then back in the PC and no luck. Oh well....not the biggest deal. If it were one of my Ultra II 512's I'd be a little more upset, but its not and I didn't lose any shots that I can't replace tomorrow...its just annoying and a little frightening. If this had been a wedding today and I was shooting with my 512's, I could be without ALOT of important shots right now.

I'll try photorescue recovery software when I get home...

thanks,
daniel

[Jon]

If you've reformatted more than once since the loss occurred, your chances are slim-to-none of recovering anything, especially if you've written anything to it in the mean time. If a card starts acting flaky, stop using it for anything, run your recovery utility, and only then try to make it work again.

[dsze]

Jon

...like I said, the images are gone. I was never worried about them. The were just two head shots for the paper that can easily be re-done tomorrow.... It would be nice to get the card to work again though if possible. If not, oh well. I'm more concerned with WHY this happened and HOW I can prevent it in the future, when the photos may be much more important.

-daniel

[CyberDyneSystems]

You could try to format to FAT (not 32) jsut to see if it jogs its memory a bit.. 64MB is awfull small for a FAT 32 volume..

But in the long run.. with a card that old and that small .. I'd not want to take the risk even if I did get it working :(

[dsze]

yeah, you're right...I won't use it for anything important, but it would be an ok card for my PDA or my wife's P&S. It is super small and old, and off-brand and I don't even know where I got it. But how do I know this isn't going to happen to my 512MB cards at just the wrong moment?

-daniel

[ExPOSED]

Not to go too far off topic but....are the Hitachi 2GB microdrives CF card a good card, or should I stick to the SanDisk Ultra II? Just wondering cause a local retailer has them on sale. Thanks.

[davidwegs]

I have and use 10Gigs of Hitachi brand Md's. they are the best of that kind (IMO). I have used them for well over 20k shots and no faliures to date. 1-4gig 3-2gigs at my last count.

I also use 16 gigs of CFs. All name brand and no faliures in several years. I also replace them about every 2+ years due to write speeds and new cams needing more space.

[davidwegs]

http://store.yahoo.com/erwincomputers/sa4gbuliico6.html

$339. is a great price for the size and stability. :)

[stuartf287]

It may not help you decide what to do, but 64MB CF cards are going for $12-$16 these days. Rather than risk losing a shot I'd buy a new card. Good luck with the old one, though.

[richpix]

Daniel, did you try it with a different computer to rule out a problem there?

[dsze]

I'm just not sure about putting 4GB of photos on ONE CARD! Thats crazy in my opinion. These cards do occassionally get corrupted and/or go bad, as we've learned, why take the chance of putting an entire event on one card? I prefer to break up my images into 512MB cards....That means that I use about 4-6 cards for a weddign, 2-3 for most portrait sessions. Thats not that much changing of cards, and then if one card fails miserably, I haven't lost ALL the files. I don't know, maybe I'm just paranoid. Having one card to keep track of probably would be easier.

-daniel

[dsze]

Hmm? Well, I just tried the card on my home computer and it formatted!??!! I don't know. It formatted FAT32 with no problems. Strange that it wouldn't format at work...

Although, I did put the card back into my PDA, formatted in there and saved some files to it, then put it in my home desktop PC and it formatted...my guess would be that pulling it out of my PDA and trying to format in camera without a PC format first was the problem.

-daniel

[RichardtheSane]

Richard, did you just toss the card? Any chance or rescusitating it? :)

-daniel

I sent it back to crucial and got a new one because of the lifetime warranty

If I hadn't of done that it as only 128Mb so I would have tossed it.