I've always had perfect luck with compact flash cards for probably 300,000 images shot on 7 or 8 different Nikon and Canon bodies, until now. Here's what's happening:
I have gotten a message twice now when I upload a card through a card reader to my big computer that the card or file or something is corrupt. (Sorry I don't have the exact message). When I look at the list of files in Explorer on the computer, they are the same file names as those on a previous card, but no working files or thumbnails are on the card. Actually, just the first thumbnail is showing, and it's one of pictures that should have been on that card, but has a file name from a previous card. All the other thumbs are blank, and the files don't open.
Both times I thankfully was able to retrieve the correct files from a portable hard drive backup device (Hyperdrive Space) that I had copied the files to first, as the cards were filled during shooting. But this is very un-nerving, because I could potentially lose a couple hundred images from a job in one swoop if I hadn't done the backup. And the thought of anything corrupt in the whole file transfer and management chain makes me very nervous.
So I'm trying to figure out the corrupt link in the chain.
The cards and camera seem OK, since the images upload to the portable hard drive just fine.
The portable hard drive seems fine, and has never given me any trouble, unless it's doing something to the card after it uploads it, which I can't imagine.
So that leaves:
The card reader (an older Sandisk USB CF card reader);
The computer (Windows XP), which otherwise seems fine;
Or maybe an external SATA drive that I am uploading the files to through the computer and a USB Thermaltake Blacx SATA drive dock. Hmmm. Now that I think of it, I just recently changed my workflow a bit so I don't first upload images to the computer's internal drive and later backup to the external SATA, but instead dump everything on the external SATA directly. Hmmm. Maybe I've stumbled on to the most likely suspect.
I appreciate any ideas or input. Are there any other reliable ways to work directly off easily removable external drives, if I find that that is the issue?
Thanks for any help!
David
