SD card formatting issues

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Tony wrote:
> There's been various discussion about SD card formatting problems, including
> a thread in this group a year ago, but I haven't seen any definitive
> information. Can anyone give a pointer to this? Google finds only lots of
> personal experiences and "this should happen".
>
> My own experience is that I put a new SD card in a Panasonic FZ3 and took
> some test shots without remembering to format the card first. The card
> worked fine in the camera and in Jessop's card slot but would not read in a
> card reader on my PC running Win XP. In fact the PC did eventually find
> folders and files but could not do anything useful with them. I formatted
> the card as FAT32 in the PC (knowing no better at the time) and it then
> worked fine in the PC. But then the Panasonic FZ3 did not recognise the
> card at all and would not even re-format it. However another camera
> re-formatted it without problems and it would then work in the FZ3 and also
> in my card reader.
>
> So, given that the card was formatted wrongly for the camera, why should
> this stop it being re-formatted correctly? This seems to be a fairly common
> problem with SD cards but does not usually happen with disk drives etc. It
> seems to me that SD is rather fussy. I don't remember having this problem
> with CF.
>

I have had trouble with new SD cards and getting them to read in a card
reader. However, this problem seemed to disappear after a few
insertions. I suspect there may be a preservative coating on the card
which a not quite tight enough slot isn't penetrating the first few
times. Try slotting troublesome cards in and out a few times.


--
Ron Hunter rphunter@charter.net

Archived from groups: rec.photo.digital (More info?)

Tony wrote:
> "Ron Hunter" <rphunter@charter.net> wrote in message
> news:RAFDd.3468$v15.1700@fe07.lga...
>
>
>>I have had trouble with new SD cards and getting them to read in a card
>>reader. However, this problem seemed to disappear after a few insertions.
>>I suspect there may be a preservative coating on the card which a not
>>quite tight enough slot isn't penetrating the first few times. Try
>>slotting troublesome cards in and out a few times.
>
>
> I don't think that was the trouble in this case. The card worked perfectly
> in the camera and a card slot in another PC. Also it worked as soon as I
> re-formatted it with my PC. Then in the FZ3 it worked as soon as it had
> been re-formatted in another camera. The symptoms clearly point to a
> software "feature".
>
It may seem that way, but I had similar problems with a new card some
time ago, and a few insertions in devices with tight slots, such as my
camera, and the card reader built into my wife's computer. Soon it
worked find on my card reader with a much less tight slot. As long as
it is now working, I guess it doesn't matter much.