Most likely the card is not ruined, but its formatting may be fouled. When you had the card in the computer port, did you do anything tha would cause a "write" to the card? If so, this could have compromised the proprietary format of the card. For example, if you processed an image and wrote it back to the card, this may have fouled its format. Never do a "save" or "save as" back to the card. Always copy the card's images to other storage devices of your computer and do your processing there.

Do you have access to the camera's instructions? If so, it may tell you how to recover a misbehaving card.

Try this: With the card in the camera, delete all images, then see if it will permit re-formatting.

If this fails, put the card back into the card port of your computer and delete all the images. If your camera has the capability to create sub-directories (folders) on the card, delete these also. Return the card to the camera and see if it is able to format the card.

There is alway a possibility that a static charge could have messed up the card. When a card is removed from its port, its a good policy not to touch its contacts.

Some cameras are persnicky about their memory cards. If it sees a card condition that its software can not interpert, it may refuse to deal with the card and return an error message. I suspect that the camera's error message list is limited and does not have messages to cover a variety of situations, therefore, one gets a generic message, ERROR, which isn't very helpful in diagnosing the problem.

Good luck and let us know how the problem was solved.

Cards also go bad sometimes - even new ones. I ordered a game camera last fall for DH, and it came with a card. It worked once and then quit. I emailed the guy I got it from, and he said they buy them in bulk and had some that were bad from the beginning. Sent it in and he replaced it. Most cards come with some kind of warranty...if you keep the papers.

I've heard (and think I read in my camera manual?) that you should reformat the card periodically to clean it up, which is sort of like doing a "defrag" on your computer. I don't do mine but should.

I reformat mine with every use. I always upload my pictures after each event, then reformat in my camera, before taking new pictures.

1G cards are cheap - you can easily find them for $10 or less. Great to have an extra on hand.

Thanks....Jendandy I did all of that and it still says error. I have deleted everything when it was in my computer because it wouldn't let me do it in her camera. When I went to look at her pictures all I did was drag the folder from the camera to a file in my documents, it transferred all but about maybe 15 pictures she said. Once the pictures were transferred I couldn't open the last 10-15 with my normal process....had to open them in photoshop and then they only open enough that I could see that they were a few of the same pictures, in other words I think it did start writng back to the card and copied over the few last pictures on her card, the ones I can't recover! I didn't "save as" or "save" at all...I always just drag the folder from the camera to a folder then do my organizing and editing from the folder. I don't know what happened. I will buy her another card, her's says type H and I noticed when I looked at them on Ebay that the type m's are a less expensive...what's the difference in the types?

My old camera, which used a floppy, always created some sort of second file for each image. To completely get rid of them, I had to somehow tell it to "show hidden files" or something? OK, I'm rambling now but maybe it will spark an idea from someone else of something you can try.

If you are buying cards on eBay - make sure you are getting what you pay for. I have heard of fake cards that aren't so great.

Wal-Mart, Target, Walgreens all have inexpensive cards.

I bought a few on ebay and so far have got them all from one company....so far they are all good, but thanks for the info. I would hate for my pictures to be ruined due to a fake card!

Try cleaning the contacts with alcohol. If that doesn't help, try gently rubbing the contacts with a pencil eraser.

Jodi-

I really hate to try anything like that because it's not my camera....I'd hate it to ruin the camera too. I am going to leave well enough alone at this point! LOL.....My luck I'll end up buying her a new camera too! I just bought her a new card. She said not to, but I feel like it was I was the last person to touch the card, I should replace it. I was just happy to be able to recover her pictures she had in there. She keeps pictures in her camera forever and there was some as far back as Feb. in there. A lot of them were of Austin, his birthday party, Easter, etc. She doesn't have a cd burner on her computer so she can only save them on her camera or on the computer. I told her neither one are for safe keeping and she need to have them put onto cd's before she loses them all. Then this happens while was looking at her pictures! LOL...I am so happy to have recovered them for her, I was so afraid I lost them. There were a few of the last few days that I couldn't recover, but she said they are no big deal. She hasn't had the card out of the camera in a year because she uses the cables to transfer them to her computer. First time out and I'm the one who took it out...and it screws up! It figures!

1 more tip: Try to avoid formating memory cards with a computer; always use the camera to format it.

Here's some info about type M vs. type H cards.

Here is a link that might be useful: type M vs. type H

Thanks...I always format in the camera too....I read that a long time ago! Thanks for the info on the types......that's good to know. I didn't even know there was 2 types! I did get her the type H because that's what she had.