corrupted sd card?

sarah2890 · 10-19-09, 11:42 AM

hello everyone,

i've got a 2gb sd card that fits into my panasonic lumix camera, and up until last week worked perfectly with the sd card reader in my dell inspiron 1720 laptop. however, today when i tried to put the sd card into the laptop it firstly says that there are some problems with some files and that i have to scan and fix the device, and then once it has done that and i try to open the photo files it comes up with an error message that says: "G:/DCIM is not accessible. The file or directory is corrupted and unreadable."

is this a problem with the sd card or my laptop? the sd card still works fine in the camera, the pics are all viewable and it will take and save pictures as normal.

thanks for any help in advance.

CodeBubba · 10-19-09, 11:56 AM

This happens occasionally ... hard to say why. Bad connection to the card, sunspots.

Suggest that you offload the card, make sure it's securely seated in the I/O port on your computer and reformat it. (Not quick format, either). Whenever you move it to another device just make sure it's well seated in the device.

-CB :D

emeraldgirl08 · 10-19-09, 12:00 PM

I've found that if you are using any Windows OS you have to safely eject the SD card rather than just pulling it out.

I have had that problem w/pictures and other data as our SD card reader was faulty and had the computer thinking that the SD card was still in use. I couldn't safely eject it and when I did pull out the card I got corrupted data.

The way to safely eject is to go to My Computer and right click on the SD card Icon and there should be an option to eject. There are also little icons on the right hand bottom of the screen on the taskbar. One should be for removeable devices that you click-on. It will then show devices that can be safely removed if you choose.

sarah2890 · 10-19-09, 12:14 PM

thanks for your replies.

i have to admit i am guilty of just removing it, i never safely eject it.

how do i perform a reformat of the card, and if i do reformat it am i going to lose the pictures currently stored on it?

emeraldgirl08 · 10-19-09, 12:37 PM

Save the pics you want to keep to your computer!

Then when you are sure you have all the pictures you want to keep. Right-click on the SD Card Icon and choose format. It should be the FAT32 format. Make sure to uncheck quick format.

Then start the format.

After it is done you can just drag the pictures from your computer to the SD card.

sarah2890 · 10-19-09, 12:39 PM

but i can't open the files on the SD card on my computer to be able to save them! before i can open the picture files the message re being corrupted pops up, and the folder with the pictures in won't open..

emeraldgirl08 · 10-19-09, 12:50 PM

Oh okay.

I Googled "Corrupted SD card" and got PhotoRec as a free program that specializes recovering lost files from storage devices.

PhotoRec

A search on this program here doesn't say much but I'm under the impression that it may work for your sitch.

You may wait a little longer so people can read this and offer more guidance.

Best of luck to you :D

sarah2890 · 10-19-09, 01:18 PM

thank you very much for your help! :D

Box · 10-19-09, 01:43 PM

Whatever you do don't reformat the card until you have your pics.

Have you tried rebooting the PC.

I would be buying a new card reader to see if that works better.

spud42 · 10-20-09, 09:12 AM

if the card still works fine in the camera, do you have a lead possibly USB to hook the camera to the computer? if so then download the pictures this way . also seeing as you are on this site can you read the SD card in your Axim ? if so then save them through that...

but as Box said do not format till you have verified that the pictres are saved. a 2Gig SD card is so cheap today that it might be worth getting another?