Memory Card error?

[dmo580]

I was shooting pics tonight in Benihana and after my meal I tried to power on my camera and I got a memory card error.

I read this thread:

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=670801

and it sounds very similar to what I've had to do before when my RAID-0 array crashed.

Now, the next part I want to ask to be sure because apparently right now I value the shots I took the past 2 nights more than my RAID array, but back when my RAID array crashed I formatted the 2 drives (quick format) and then just used GetDataBack to recover. It worked on me for another incident when a HD just flat out disappeared in my computer.

So, should I do a quick format of my card or what?

I'm struggling right now because my card reader is older so it only accepts SD cards and so SDHC will not work. It won't show up in My Computer as a drive. I suppose I should work with it in my camera? Will it show up as a drive letter on my computer (I've never really noticed) or should I buy a cheapo USB SDHC card reader to do the trick?

[DDCSD]

You'll need a card reader to get it to show up as a drive.

Can't help you much beyond that.

[dmo580]

WOW epic fail.

I bought a card reader from Fry's and it couldnt read my card AT ALL. That's typical. You think it needs a format? Well it can't even access the drive. My computer just locks up. I can't even format it. I have HD recovery software and it just locks up trying to scan that drive.

I gave up and said well what if we do a quick format in the camera? My T1i says "Cannot format card." wow this means PHYSICALLY the drive is royally SCREWED?

I've never had this. Magnetic drives don't just die like that. You usually can recover data especially after a format because cleaning up the boot record usually allows the drive a clean slate and you can recover as much data as oyu want before you hit damaged clusters.

I'm just shocked....

BTW I have a 2nd 16GB SDHC card that I popped into my card reader and it reads just fine, so it's not because I bought a cheapo $7 USB card reader at Fry's.

Edit: Aghhhh the frustration. Is Transcend just a bad brand? Should I really shell out for Sandisk?