Cannot download images...asks to format card

[ancientart]

Aloha all from Maui...

I just bought a new DSLR to take on a river trip through the Grand Canyon. I took extra CF cards, but only used the 16 GB ATA Card.

I happily took about 500 pictures and they all showed up fine on the camera on playback. I DID NOT format the card before use and the images neatly ordered themselves as I took the pictures.

I connected the camera to both an XP computer, as well as a different one (running Vista) via the USB cable and both install the appropriate drivers, but each say, when I try to view the drive, that the disk needs to be formatted.

I don't want to lose the images from my week's river trip, so I have not formatted the CF card (assuming that I'll lose these images).

What to do?
Get a card reader and hope it works with that since direct connection through USB doesn't seem to work?
Use some recovery software?
Or??

Thanks guys and gals...apologies for being such a newbie.

[Patrick]

Re: Cannot download images...asks to format card

Aloha all from Maui...

I just bought a new DSLR to take on a river trip through the Grand Canyon. I took extra CF cards, but only used the 16 GB ATA Card.

I happily took about 500 pictures and they all showed up fine on the camera on playback. I DID NOT format the card before use and the images neatly ordered themselves as I took the pictures.

I connected the camera to both an XP computer, as well as a different one (running Vista) via the USB cable and both install the appropriate drivers, but each say, when I try to view the drive, that the disk needs to be formatted.

I don't want to lose the images from my week's river trip, so I have not formatted the CF card (assuming that I'll lose these images).

What to do?
Get a card reader and hope it works with that since direct connection through USB doesn't seem to work?
Use some recovery software?
Or??

Thanks guys and gals...apologies for being such a newbie.

I personalty would get a card reader, I always have used one and never downloaded direct from the camera, (mine is built into the computer). They are these days cheap enough at least they are here in the UK.

The other thing your problem highlights is all your images on one card, far better to have four separate 4gb cards than one 16gb, a failure like this and everything is lost.
Formatting the card now will loose all your pictures.

Recovery software may work but in this case I have my doubts.

When you do resolve the issue, format the card in camera, don't use delete to clear any card its always best to format. Just use the delete feature to remove unwanted images when taking pictures.

Patrick

[ancientart]

Re: Cannot download images...asks to format card

I personalty would get a card reader, I always have used one and never downloaded direct from the camera, (mine is built into the computer). They are these days cheap enough at least they are here in the UK.

The other thing your problem highlights is all your images on one card, far better to have four separate 4gb cards than one 16gb, a failure like this and everything is lost.
Formatting the card now will loose all your pictures.

Recovery software may work but in this case I have my doubts.

When you do resolve the issue, format the card in camera, don't use delete to clear any card its always best to format. Just use the delete feature to remove unwanted images when taking pictures.

Patrick

Thanks alot Patrick....quick question...my CF card is one of the newer cards, will it work with any generic reader? Most of the literature on the packaging for the exiting readers mentions older versions of the Cards being compatible, but perhaps not the newer ones?

Thanks again for the help....trust me, if I can save these pics, I will not forget the lessons from this learning curve. Hey....should have some images to post as well.

[ancientart]

Re: Cannot download images...asks to format card

Aloha all from Maui...

I just bought a new DSLR to take on a river trip through the Grand Canyon. I took extra CF cards, but only used the 16 GB ATA Card.

I happily took about 500 pictures and they all showed up fine on the camera on playback. I DID NOT format the card before use and the images neatly ordered themselves as I took the pictures.

I connected the camera to both an XP computer, as well as a different one (running Vista) via the USB cable and both install the appropriate drivers, but each say, when I try to view the drive, that the disk needs to be formatted.

I don't want to lose the images from my week's river trip, so I have not formatted the CF card (assuming that I'll lose these images).

What to do?
Get a card reader and hope it works with that since direct connection through USB doesn't seem to work?
Use some recovery software?
Or??

Thanks guys and gals...apologies for being such a newbie.

At the end of the day, using a card reader solved my problem. Thanks a lot!

[Patrick]

Re: Cannot download images...asks to format card

At the end of the day, using a card reader solved my problem. Thanks a lot!

Glad investing in a card reader solved your problem.

I only once tried downloading direct from the camera when I had the Olympus E10 and that gave me problems, never had any trouble with a reader.

Patrick