Help with a memory card that won't give up its contents

[Hobjob]

Originally Posted by Doggle Avaddit

USB card readers are very cheap, and are generally a much faster way of getting your photos from your cards to your computer, so worth having anyway. I would go and buy one tomorrow.

They also allow transfer of photos / files without any chance
or re-numbering so long as you camera is set to continuous
numbering.

Much simpler all round.

[Hobjob]

Originally Posted by sidewalkdoctor

Always format your card _after_ transferring the photos onto your PC either in camera or on PC! This will lead to less errors ocurring as there will be no overwrite of old files.

Careful here

• As long as the files are deleted there is no need to re-format
• Re-formatting on the computer can be fraught with problems as not all cameras use the usual PC default of FAT32 - some use FAT
• A quick format really does little more than deleting - the actual files remain on the card, just the file allocation table is overwritten (which is how pedophiles are caught).

[dorseteye]

I'm glad you managed to get your images into the computer. I always use a card reader.

One further point ... a suggestion was to take your card to Snappy Prints (or similar) for help in extracting its images. I recently used Tesco in-store printing for the first time. I had a few images on a memory stick but was surprised to see on screen all the images which I thought I had deleted previously. Would the same thing happen with deleted images on a memory card? I assume formatting would completely remove the images.

Also ... you said the card had treasured video files on it. It's probably good practice not to rely on the card for storage but get the files into your computer as soon as possible.

Best wishes,
David