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format a memory card

17 years ago

My husband took a day's worth of photos today and when he put the card in the computer, it says 'the card needs formatting, do you want to do it now?' We tried it on another computer and the same message came up. Is there a way to save these photos? If he formats he'll lose everything.

Thanks,

Jane

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Comments (6)

ravencajun Zone 8b TX
17 years ago
always format the card in the camera not on the pc and you are correct if you format it you will lose them. When the card is in the camera can you view the pictures there on the camera? If so you likely will have to use a cable to move the pics directly from the camera to the pc rather than from the memory card. You should have a cable for your camera or a docking station that can transfer them over.
jane__ny
Original Author
17 years ago
Thank you Raven, I will try that. You can see the pictures on the camera so I'll do the cable.

Keeping my fingers crossed,

Jane
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jane__ny
Original Author
17 years ago
Same message using the cable. What a loss, can't get those photos back. There should be some way to know this before shooting all these pictures.

Jane
owbist
17 years ago
Jane, I may be out in left field here but......... Two things come to mind. Many digital cameras have a built in memory capable of storing a few photos, is it possible this is the case with hubbies camera? Perhaps the camera read an unformated card and switched to internal memory. Remove the card and try to preview photos that may be on the camera itself. The other thought is to open the memory card in Windows Explorer and have a look. Most seem to create a folder within a folder, I know mine does and I have had as many as 4 sub folders on the card before.
jane__ny
Original Author
17 years ago
Thank you Owbist. Out of sheer desperation, he called a member of his photo club who had him download something called Digital Recovery. He is trying that now. Taking over an hour and seems most are not recoverable.

He said he did not receive any warning that the card was bad. Never had this happen before.

I'll update when I see what happens.

Jane
ravencajun Zone 8b TX
17 years ago
most camera instruction books do tell you to always format any card in the camera before using it, you might check your book for your camera instructions.

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