problems with CF cards

wheresdavid

Sorry I don't know if this is the correct category to post this question but ...i am currently on an around the world trip. i flew back to the states to buy a canon rebil xti. i bought a few compact flash cards from different places and i have the following porblems.

1) 2 gig san isk extreme III card. it work fine for about 25 pictures and then it started to take a very long time to record a picture after it was taken. then it took forever. i tried to reformat the card in the camera but it would not format, i now get an error saying there is a problem witht he Cf card. replace the card. i am not sure if i formatted this card before i used it (oops)

2) a 1 gig san disk CF card. I formatted the card and shot photos over a period of 3 days. when the card was full i tried to upload the fotos to my laptop using a card reader. i got a messag saying. The disk in drive e is not formatted. do you want to format it now". i said no. when i tried to upload the photos to my computer via my rebel i got an error message saying, "there is a problem witht he card. replace the card".

my question is there anything i do "on the road" to make these cards useable?

thanks,

Dave

System

don't know much about these except I use them all the time and have no problems (sandisk cf cards)-

if you're having problems with two of them it's hard to imagine something is wrong with the cards-

so, at least what I'm thinking:

1) an operator malfunction-- you have not properly formatted or utilized the cards, or

2) your camera is not writing properly to the card-

you might check and see if sandisk has a troubleshooting website-


hopefully someone who has had experience with this kind of problem will come to your aid-

good luck-

Art Scott

Gotta ask this.......

Where did you buy these cards?

gus

Art Scott wrote:

Gotta ask this.......

Where did you buy these cards?

Thats a very good point...ebay specials maybe ? Its so very rare for a DSLR to have this amount of issues in this way.

Art Scott

a

gus wrote:

Thats a very good point...ebay specials maybe ? Its so very rare for a DSLR to have this amount of issues in this way.

I also would have to add: Especially Canon.....but any major DSLR.....when I saw this first thing was ebay counterfeits...which I have gotten a hold of myself..but was lucky enuff to get my money returned.

pathfinder

Not all Compact Flash is the same. I have had several CF chips form several manufacturers ( Q memory, Lexar, SanDisk ) all fail and have to be replaced.

A good CF card should format in your camera ( Canon DSLR ) without any difficulty.

If they do not, I would suspect the cards are faulty. You might try formating them with your computer to FAT 32, which is what they normally are today, but it is better to format them in the camera they will be used in. Lacking that, I would return them to the seller or the manufacturer.

gus

pathfinder wrote:

FAT 32, which is what they normally are today

I always assumed (most probably incorrectly) that fat 32 was generally 2gig + & the lower sizes (1 gig) was always fat 16

I didnt know the user could format to suit.

pathfinder

Thanks for catching that Gus, I think you are right about the 1 Gb cards. I rarely use cards that small anymore. Sorry for the confusion.

That is why I suggested formatting the card in the camera is is to be used in When I format in the camera I really have no idea what the format is, but it just works!!

gus

pathfinder wrote:

That is why I suggested formatting the card in the camera is is to be used in When I format in the camera I really have no idea what the format is, but it just works!!

Absolutely...i dont delete ..but always format in camera even if im just removing 1 photo.

wheresdavid

Art Scott wrote:

Gotta ask this.......

Where did you buy these cards?

i got the 2 gig extreme III from memory ten (?) and the 1 gig from office max.

is there anything i can do to recover the photos off of the 1gig card? i have tried to reformat the 2 gig in my camera, via a card reader two different ways and both did not work. looks like the 2 gig is dead.

Seymore

wheresdavid wrote:

i flew back to the states to buy a canon rebil xti. i bought a few compact flash cards from different places and i have the following porblems.

So Dave... are you saying that you bought a refurb XTi or a new unit?? If a refurb, I'd contact Canon right away and see when they can do for you. Really sounds like there may be issues with how the cam is writing to the card(s).

Now, I know this doesn't fix your CF card problem... but you may also want to consider buying another card out on the road and resolve the bad card(s) issue when you get back.


Good luck and hope you get this all worked out so we can see some of your shots when you get back...

gus

wheresdavid wrote:

is there anything i can do to recover the photos off of the 1gig card?

Have you tried the recovery programmes avail ? There are lots of them on google.

SloYerRoll

Here's a program for CF card recovery that I recommend:
http://www.handyrecovery.com/?gclid=CKmGrMLb44gCFSSEYAodjgGAiQ

I have had one cf card fail and one get prematurely removed from camera before writing was complete. Both times full recovery!

30 day free trial (free dload) and 30.00usd to buy.

wheresdavid

gus wrote:

Have you tried the recovery programmes avail ? There are lots of them on google.

I did try the one recommended by sandisk, photorecovery from lc technology but that did not work. Lc technology suggested that i send them the card to see if they could recover anything.

wheresdavid

Seymore wrote:

So Dave... are you saying that you bought a refurb XTi or a new unit?? If a refurb, I'd contact Canon right away and see when they can do for you. Really sounds like there may be issues with how the cam is writing to the card(s).

Now, I know this doesn't fix your CF card problem... but you may also want to consider buying another card out on the road and resolve the bad card(s) issue when you get back.


Good luck and hope you get this all worked out so we can see some of your shots when you get back...

I bought a new unit, not a refurbished. luckily I have two other CF cards with me and they havebeen working fine. I am glad now that I bought several cards. I really was looking forward to using the 2 gig extreme III but I guess that will have to wait until i get back to the states.

wheresdavid

SloYerRoll wrote:

Here's a program for CF card recovery that I recommend:
http://www.handyrecovery.com/?gclid=CKmGrMLb44gCFSSEYAodjgGAiQ

I have had one cf card fail and one get prematurely removed from camera before writing was complete. Both times full recovery!

30 day free trial (free dload) and 30.00usd to buy.

thanks, i am going to download it now and when i get back to my hostel i am going to try it!

wheresdavid

wheresdavid wrote:

thanks, i am going to download it now and when i get back to my hostel i am going to try it!

ok, loaded and tried and i wasnt able to analyse the card. it may be my card reader. will try it later with a different card reader.