FOllowup CF Reader - WTF??
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jeremy_clay
Registered: Jan 14, 2008
Total Posts: 5306
Country: N/A

So! I thought I would mention this...

As you may know, previously I was attempting ot get Nikon RAW off my Canon CF card and only had a Canon camera to use, without a CF reader. At a dead end, I sucked it up and bought one. All went well there, woo!

Today, however, I went out shooting. ALl was fine, no problem...got home, all fine, I had only shot 19 images or so. Could preview the images on my cam LCD, etc. Was going to plug the USB into the cam and do it 'old school', but decided "What the helL! I've got my shiny new Apacer card reader!" and yanked out the CF card, plugged it in. Double clicked on I: drive, my CF removable, and it timed out trying to access it. THought, 'odd', and plugged the CF back into the cam. CF error. .....wtf

Long story short, Lexar Image Rescue 3 barely saved my ass. Will never use the card reader for anything ever again if I don't have to.

PS - I don't blame anyone here, I'm sure it's just bad luck..but WTF?>!?!



moondigger
Registered: Jan 07, 2005
Total Posts: 5552
Country: United States

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/694187



jeremy_clay
Registered: Jan 14, 2008
Total Posts: 5306
Country: N/A

moondigger wrote:
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/694187


...what does that have to do with the card reader that I oh so reluctantly purchased, ironically screwing up my card..?



corndog
Registered: Sep 05, 2006
Total Posts: 1287
Country: United States

I've had similar experience with some card readers. For some reason, certain brands don't like my pc. Luckily the reader built into my monitor works like a charm.

I think moon was just trying to show you what works for other folks.



moondigger
Registered: Jan 07, 2005
Total Posts: 5552
Country: United States

jeremy_clay wrote:
moondigger wrote:
http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/694187


...what does that have to do with the card reader that I oh so reluctantly purchased, ironically screwing up my card..?


Not sure which one you purchased... but the other thread demonstrates that the vast majority of respondents like card readers and most likely have not had the problems you describe.

FWIW, you have no evidence that the card reader did anything to screw up your card. It's entirely possible you would have had problems with it even if you hadn't used the card reader. In any case, I would suggest that you do a full format of the card in question now that you have recovered the files from it that you wanted.



AuntiPode
Registered: Aug 05, 2008
Total Posts: 1741
Country: New Zealand

A couple of tips.

1) Always turn off the camera before removing the card.

2) Always unmount the card reader from your computer before unplugging card from the reader. ("Safely Remove Hardware" on a PC and File>Eject "<name>" on a MAC)

Removing a card when the camera is on or the card reader is mounted can sometimes corrupt the file directory on the card.

To be on the safe side, I reformat my cards in the camera after transfering and backing up my computer images files.



omarlyn
Registered: Feb 19, 2004
Total Posts: 1306
Country: United States

WOW Jeremy...I followed your previous thread and am quite surprised you've had such bad luck with this...Since I got my very first digital camera back in 2001, I must have removed/re-inserted my CF cards thousands of times (probably tens of thousands) and the only two times I EVER had any bad occurance was once when I pulled out a card from a computer while it was still saving data and another when I used a cheap reader and inserted the card the wrong way (nothing happened to the card but the reader was toast).

I just can't imagine your bad luck with this. Good thing your images were OK.

Omar



jeremy_clay
Registered: Jan 14, 2008
Total Posts: 5306
Country: N/A

omarlyn wrote:
WOW Jeremy...I followed your previous thread and am quite surprised you've had such bad luck with this...Since I got my very first digital camera back in 2001, I must have removed/re-inserted my CF cards thousands of times (probably tens of thousands) and the only two times I EVER had any bad occurance was once when I pulled out a card from a computer while it was still saving data and another when I used a cheap reader and inserted the card the wrong way (nothing happened to the card but the reader was toast).

I just can't imagine your bad luck with this. Good thing your images were OK.

Omar



Thanks Omar. Yes, the Lexar software saved the images (and had all of the images which were on there before the reformat, too, I was actually quite impressed) but I am super thankful it wasn't a paid gig I was transferring.

I'm not saying card readers are super terrible, just that, especially based on my previous luck, this had to happen



hans7451
Registered: May 18, 2005
Total Posts: 71
Country: United States

I just had a thought pop into my head. Was this card the same card that was used in the Nikon? If so, did you re-format the card in the Canon before you shot the photos? I've had problems between my 30D and 5D if I don't format it so I would think you could have problems between Nikon and Canon if you didn't reformat.

Just a thought.






jeremy_clay
Registered: Jan 14, 2008
Total Posts: 5306
Country: N/A

hans7451 wrote:
I just had a thought pop into my head. Was this card the same card that was used in the Nikon? If so, did you re-format the card in the Canon before you shot the photos? I've had problems between my 30D and 5D if I don't format it so I would think you could have problems between Nikon and Canon if you didn't reformat.

Just a thought.







Nope. Those cards are seperate, as I do not do a reformat of wedding cards until the backup is backed up - it was a freshly formatted Lexar 4GB Platinum II 80x. Never has seen a Nikon cam a day in it's life.



bigbearbear
Registered: Sep 18, 2008
Total Posts: 89
Country: United States

Hello Jeremy, sorry to hear that you are having troubles with the CF card reader and CF cards. Interestingly enough, another FM member had problems when using the same cards you're using: http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/viewtopic_archives.php?TopicID=151440&page=0#1227604

From what you have described, I will be very careful with the Lexar card you are currently using. I am assuming that you ran the card recovery software using the same Apacer card reader and the images were recovered alright? If so, chances are that the Lexar card is starting to go bad or has some defect that did not show up until you tried moving it from the camera to the reader.

The way CF cards work is like your computer hard drive. It has a file system (FAT32 for high capacity CF cards) which uses a look up table (File Allocation Table - FAT) to remember where the various files are stored. Typically when you do a format on your CF card, the camera or computer simply deletes the old FAT and creates a new one. This way, newer images simply overwrites regions on the card that used to hold older images and the new location recorded in FAT.

In your case, it sounds like the FAT was corrupted and hence your images were not showing up. When you run the recovery software, it bypasses the FAT and went hunting for the files on card, which were still there. For this to work, the card reader has to work properly or you would have hosed the CF card.

Good luck!


Bigbear.

jeremy_clay wrote:
So! I thought I would mention this...

As you may know, previously I was attempting ot get Nikon RAW off my Canon CF card and only had a Canon camera to use, without a CF reader. At a dead end, I sucked it up and bought one. All went well there, woo!

Today, however, I went out shooting. ALl was fine, no problem...got home, all fine, I had only shot 19 images or so. Could preview the images on my cam LCD, etc. Was going to plug the USB into the cam and do it 'old school', but decided "What the helL! I've got my shiny new Apacer card reader!" and yanked out the CF card, plugged it in. Double clicked on I: drive, my CF removable, and it timed out trying to access it. THought, 'odd', and plugged the CF back into the cam. CF error. .....wtf

Long story short, Lexar Image Rescue 3 barely saved my ass. Will never use the card reader for anything ever again if I don't have to.

PS - I don't blame anyone here, I'm sure it's just bad luck..but WTF?>!?!



Colin Key
Registered: Jul 08, 2007
Total Posts: 590
Country: Portugal

jeremy_clay wrote:
So! I thought I would mention this...

As you may know, previously I was attempting ot get Nikon RAW off my Canon CF card and only had a Canon camera to use, without a CF reader. At a dead end, I sucked it up and bought one. All went well there, woo!

Today, however, I went out shooting. ALl was fine, no problem...got home, all fine, I had only shot 19 images or so. Could preview the images on my cam LCD, etc. Was going to plug the USB into the cam and do it 'old school', but decided "What the helL! I've got my shiny new Apacer card reader!" and yanked out the CF card, plugged it in. Double clicked on I: drive, my CF removable, and it timed out trying to access it. THought, 'odd', and plugged the CF back into the cam. CF error. .....wtf

Long story short, Lexar Image Rescue 3 barely saved my ass. Will never use the card reader for anything ever again if I don't have to.

PS - I don't blame anyone here, I'm sure it's just bad luck..but WTF?>!?!



Colin Key
Registered: Jul 08, 2007
Total Posts: 590
Country: Portugal

jeremy_clay wrote:
So! I thought I would mention this...

As you may know, previously I was attempting ot get Nikon RAW off my Canon CF card and only had a Canon camera to use, without a CF reader. At a dead end, I sucked it up and bought one. All went well there, woo!

Today, however, I went out shooting. ALl was fine, no problem...got home, all fine, I had only shot 19 images or so. Could preview the images on my cam LCD, etc. Was going to plug the USB into the cam and do it 'old school', but decided "What the helL! I've got my shiny new Apacer card reader!" and yanked out the CF card, plugged it in. Double clicked on I: drive, my CF removable, and it timed out trying to access it. THought, 'odd', and plugged the CF back into the cam. CF error. .....wtf

Long story short, Lexar Image Rescue 3 barely saved my ass. Will never use the card reader for anything ever again if I don't have to.

PS - I don't blame anyone here, I'm sure it's just bad luck..but WTF?>!?!



Colin Key
Registered: Jul 08, 2007
Total Posts: 590
Country: Portugal

jeremy_clay wrote:
So! I thought I would mention this...

As you may know, previously I was attempting ot get Nikon RAW off my Canon CF card and only had a Canon camera to use, without a CF reader. At a dead end, I sucked it up and bought one. All went well there, woo!

Today, however, I went out shooting. ALl was fine, no problem...got home, all fine, I had only shot 19 images or so. Could preview the images on my cam LCD, etc. Was going to plug the USB into the cam and do it 'old school', but decided "What the helL! I've got my shiny new Apacer card reader!" and yanked out the CF card, plugged it in. Double clicked on I: drive, my CF removable, and it timed out trying to access it. THought, 'odd', and plugged the CF back into the cam. CF error. .....wtf

Long story short, Lexar Image Rescue 3 barely saved my ass. Will never use the card reader for anything ever again if I don't have to.

PS - I don't blame anyone here, I'm sure it's just bad luck..but WTF?>!?!


I have to be honest and say, that after reading this several times, I do not have a clue what you are talking about - is this written in the English language?

Colin



joezasada
Registered: Feb 25, 2005
Total Posts: 2494
Country: Canada

I ALWAYS format the card in the camera after dumping the images on a computer. That is a good way to avoid problems... especially if you use multiple bodies and such...



jeremy_clay
Registered: Jan 14, 2008
Total Posts: 5306
Country: N/A

Colin Key wrote:

I have to be honest and say, that after reading this several times, I do not have a clue what you are talking about - is this written in the English language?

Colin


Seeing as it took you 3 times to correctly reply to the thread at all, I'd worry about your skills with a keyboard before passing judgement on others. Everyone else had no problems understanding the topic, for what it's worth.



jerryci
Registered: Jan 06, 2004
Total Posts: 65
Country: United States

Jeremy,

Colin exaggerated his point, but is correct in that your post was not well written. However, you got your point across and trying to correct grammar or writing on the internet is folly.

Jerry C.



dhphoto
Registered: Feb 16, 2003
Total Posts: 6516
Country: United Kingdom

I have a similar problem with a 16 GB Kingston card, which works and downloads perfectly in my Dell desktop but is quite unseen by my HP Pavillion laptop. I don't know why, it just won't work. I put it down to simple incompatibility.

As for Antipodes comment about switching off the camera, it's quite unnecessary as the camera circuitry instantly switches off the camera when you open the CF door.

David



Gochugogi
Registered: Jun 25, 2003
Total Posts: 4925
Country: United States

I've used two SanDisk FW readers since 2003 and I have never--not once--had a corrupt file or any other problem. I recently bought a Ritz "DIgital Concepts" USB reader to carry with my MacBook Pro (it's a much smaller reader) and it often doesn't mount. What a turd. So I'm back to my 6 year old SanDisk FW and it works every time.

I never heard of an Apacer reader but hopefully it's not made in the same factory as Ritz "DIgital Concepts." Shit happens once in a while...



pjbishop
Registered: Oct 12, 2003
Total Posts: 1629
Country: United States

You can download image files directly from camera to computer but you do need a card reader to carry out firmware updates on the camera. I assume you're following correct procedure about turning camera off before unplugging cable and all that when camera is connected directly, and when using card reader, dismounting card volume correctly before switching it off.



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