Flash card problems

[Stephenaweiss]

FYI, I have several Lexar 1gig cards. At various times I have had problems downloading to my computer from them, the files can't be found or appear corrupted. I spoke with their tech support, they say if you don't do a secure erase and reformat every few uses, this can happen. They sent me the latest copy of their free software imagerescue, and with it I recovered my files, plus about 100 more that I thought had been erased. Trouble free after that. But it happens occasionally, so I get in the habit of doing a secure erase ever¥ few uses.

Does anyone else have the same issues?

thanks, s

[DarkPenguin]

Calling Boku!  Calling Boku!

[61Dynamic]

Yes, this is common with flash cards. It is a good habit to format the card in the camera after all the images have been transfered and backed up.

[boku]

Calling Boku!  Calling Boku!
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Yeah - saw this yesterday but I had a New Year resolution to stop bashing Lexar. Three months is good enough.

I have a serious question for you Stephenaweiss...

Do you really think the remedy that Lexar told you is anything you want to have to do to "hopefully" not loose any images? Frankly, I want to be assured that my memory performs as it is supposed to. You need to do three things...

1) Dump everything Lexar. They make trash - major league trash. I had your problems and more. Move on. I suggest Sandisk.

2) Always transfer files from the card in a card reader. Never erase files in a card reader or the camera.

3) Once you have safely backed up your files in your computer, format the card IN THE CAMERA (only) before using it.

Do those things and life will be very sweet.

[Stephenaweiss]

Yeah - saw this yesterday but I had a New Year resolution to stop bashing Lexar. Three months is  Never erase files in a card reader or the camera.

3) Once you have safely backed up your files in your computer, format the card IN THE CAMERA (only) before using it.

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Bob, Thanks, can you explain the problems with erasing in a card reader, and the advantage of formating only in the camera? thanks, stephen

[boku]

Bob, Thanks, can you explain the problems with erasing in a card reader, and the advantage of formating only in the camera? thanks, stephen
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The explanation relates to technical reasons I do not understand. It has to do with operating system file system data structures.

My advice to you is common knowledge.

Perhaps others can get into the intriacies - I follow this religiously - I know of no professionals that do anything different.

[wolfnowl]

Well, if you go back enough into computer history you'll find that even floppy disks often had to be formatted in the computer they were going to be used in and would sometimes be considered 'unreadable' by other drives.  A part of it had to do with the alignment of the read/write heads on the drive itself.

Of course flash cards don't have read/write heads, but anyway... sometimes one will find a similar 'technological inconsistency' between cameras - flash cards are physical, mass-produced manufactured items, as are hard drives, motherboards and everything else in computer hardware.  Better built equipment has better tolerances in every field...  Another reason offered as to why it's usually considered best to format the cards in the camera is that many cameras use an FAT16 format and most computers use FAt32 or even 64 bit processing.  If you don't know what that means it's not that easy to explain, but suffice to say that newer technology can often read older formats but older formats are often loathe to read newer ones.

Camera to computer transfer is generally slower than using a card reader; it's a camera, not a card reader afterall.  It can also mean plugging the camera in to an outlet (some cameras will won't transfer files under battery power).  There are others, but follow Boku's advice (can't speak to the Lexar issue), and you'll do fine.

Mike.

[oldcsar]

The advice given is completely sound. I'm not too sure about the unreliability of Lexar cards in general, because from my own experience they're as data reliable as Sandisk. I've grown up using a PC, and am used to formatting drives. Even though I download my pictures onto my computer with a card reader, I ALWAYS format my card with my camera after the transfer is done. Downloading pictures with a card reader's fine, you're only transferring data... it's just the deletion/formatting that's a problem, since you're mixing two devices which have different ways of creating a data structure. That's my understanding at least, I AM NOT an expert.

I use a Digital Rebel, and Formatting a card is actually many times faster than simply deleting everything on the card through the camera. I guess I got used to Formatting drives after my many Windows reinstallations  , it's a more thorough cleaning. With that said, I HAVE NEVER had my Lexar card (1GB, 80x) crap out on me after 8000 clicks on my Rebel, and several hundred more using it with my old powershot S50. However, that doesn't mean that issues are nonexistent with their cards.

[61Dynamic]

Lexar isn't that bad really. I use Lexar 80x cards all the time and had no issues (it was my SanDisk that crapped out on me actually). I also know of many other photogs using Lexar cards without issue too. That doesn't mean Boku didn't have bad luck or it's not possible to have many issues with Lexar cards. As Mike pointed out, flash cards are mass-produced items and from time-to time there will be issues. Based off my experience with tech, I'd say Boku could have just as easily had the same issues with SanDisk rather than Lexar just as how some people have issues with one hard drive maker over another compared to someone else who has never had issues with said company. It's just the nature of the beast.

That all being said, habitual re-formating (and redundancy) will go along way in reducing any chance of problems. Then you'll only have to worry about finding the receipts to prove the cards are still under warranty. :)

[DarkPenguin]

Formatting in camera also gives you a backup of files until you need that card again.

I use sandisk and kingston.

[jliechty]

This is pure speculation, so feel free to set me straight if I'm way off, but I suppose that the reason why issues may occur more often when cards are formatted by the computer than by the camera would have to do with the subset of features of the FAT filesystem that are supported by the camera vs. those which are supported by the computer.

I assume that Windows has to support several varieties of FAT, and is expected to every kind of way that such a filesystem could be used, while your camera only supports exactly enough of the FAT specification to be able to read and write images from the card. Also, assuming that your camera wants to get this done very quickly under a very limited and special set of circumstances, I would not be surprised if the camera's firmware has been programmed to ignore some of these special cases that may arise on Windows or Mac-formatted memory cards. On rare occasion, something like this could lead to disastrous results.

This is FYI, YMMV, FWIW, and IANACE...Y (I Am Not A Computer Engineer...Yet).