# SD Card Issues



## Garnoc

I have an SD card that I use in my digital camera. I can also use it in the SD card reader on my laptop and my PC. I have purchased new SD cards but they only work in my digital camera. Digging a little further I discovered my original card is formatted FAT but the new cards come formatted in DCF (I think that is right). I have not been able to format the cards in FAT. My Laptop and PC refuse to read them. My camera uses them ok but it's format process only formats in DCF. Is there a program I can download to help me get these cards formatted in FAT?


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## Garnoc

Did I post this in the wrong section?


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## Garnoc

Does anyone have a suggestion?


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## DonaldG

Garnoc said:


> Did I post this in the wrong section?


Yes - I will move the thread to the Photographer's Corner...

However, try formatting the cards in your camera.


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## Done_Fishin

In windows you may find that you'll need to delete the partition before creating a new partition and formatting in FAT.

If they are more than 2GB then you'll probably have to create a 2 GB partition .. unless you know that your camera can handle the larger size.


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## Garnoc

Very good suggestions. However in reply to
DonaldG - My camera only formats in DCF. It will READ a FAT card and write to it but if I format it with the camera it converts it to DCF

Done_fishing - disk manager in windows shows the card as being unallocated and when I try to create a partition it fails. On windows 7 the error is "the server threw an exception"

I was thinking a bad card BUT the darn things work fine in the camera.


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## Done_Fishin

Try using *PartEd Magic Live CD*. Boot from the Live CD with the SD card inserted then open the partition Editor .. look for your SD CARD by its size and current SDF format .. hopefully it will see it and you'll be able to delete the partition & reformat it.


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## Garnoc

I tried to download that software but the ISO link gave me a 404 error. However that gave me a thought. I have a copy of Partition Magic somewhere - I will try that and see what happens.


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## Done_Fishin

Just go carefully, we don't want the wrong drive losing the partition and being formatted ..

Look forward to hearing your news. Unfortunately I have no equipment that uses DCF format so can't try this myself ..


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## Garnoc

Well that was a fail. My copy of partition magic is old and it didn't recognize the SD card so I have made no more progress. I am going to try and find an app that will do it. I will follow up when I have some more news.


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## Garnoc

Apparantly Symantec bought partition magic and has discontinued it. Any other programs you guys know about?


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## Done_Fishin

I only downloaded the latest version the other day .. Monday I think ..


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## Garnoc

Latest version of what? Partition magic?


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## Garnoc

I just found PartEd Magic on cnet's download.com. Gonna try it out and see how it works


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## Garnoc

Wow what an awesome program. Unfortunately it doesn't solve my issue. Here are my findings.

Partition Editor shows the SD card as unallocated with a triangle that has a ! inside it. When I try to create a partition is says there is no partition table and to create one by selecting Device ---> create partition table

I do as instructed, select an msdos tabel type and click apply

the system sits there (I assume trying to complete the operation) and finally after a few minutes pops up an error saying Error while creating partition table. After that the software can't read the card.

If I take the card out of the PC and place it in my camera the camera says the card needs to be formatted before use - I tell it to format and it does and works fine in the camera. Removing the card from the camera and tryiing the above directions again leads me to the same error.


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## DonaldG

Just a thought - do you have another card reader that you can try? A few years back I had a card reader that would read some cards but not others. 

Another thought - with all the time spent trying to get it sorted, would it not now be the ttime to call it a day and buy another card? ...Or is that too easy. I often flog my guts out trying to fix something that a couple of pounds could have had it sorted! :grin:


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## Garnoc

I thought the same thing. I have tried this on three different systems with the same results. The first time I said forget it and ordered a new card. Same results so my vendor send me a free one of another brand - same results. Though - all three of those card readers are over 3 years old. Could there be a compatibality issue there???


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## DonaldG

I am getting into 3D action photography and just bought another second hand Canon A610 - I came with a 2gig card that the camera reads & writes to with no problems at all but my card reader does not recognise it. If I connect the camera to the computer via the camera's USB cable, I can read the card with the camera... 

As they say: Go figure!?!


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## Garnoc

There ya go is right!! Exactly what mine is doing. Ggrrrrrrr


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## DonaldG

DonaldG said:


> ..... If I connect the camera to the computer via the camera's USB cable, I can read the card with the camera...
> 
> As they say: Go figure!?!


Correction:
..... If I connect the camera to the computer via the camera's USB cable, I can read the card *IN the camera WITH the computer*!


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## Garnoc

Right - but the card won't read in the same computer without the camera.


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## DonaldG

Yup!,

In fact, I am going to ditch it and buy a couple of 4gigs for the 3D stereo rig I am building...


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