SD Card problem

At college we took lots of photos on a canon 60D fitted with a Sandisk 8GB SD HC card. I put the card into the card reader on the macs at college and it couldnt read it. I then put the card back in the camera, the pics are there, along with some others we didnt take, complete with date and time info. i then tried attaching the camera to the mac with a USB lead, and it stopped transferring part way through.

So I brought the card home but now my Windows Vista laptop tells me the card needs formatting, when it doesnt! The pics are there but I cant get to em.
What on earth has happened! Its a new card that one of the students just bought!

Formatting the card 1st puts images on the card in a readable protcol your camera can access.

Joe Ravenstein wrote in post #16327026
Formatting the card 1st puts images on the card in a readable protcol your camera can access.

The card was already formatted, it was used, full of photos. I know what formatting is!
It is sorted now, the guy had taken the card home and used it in a different digital camera which messed up the file system, but thanks.