SDHC Card failure

[Lenp]

Help!
I have an 4G SDHC card that has (had) a ton of pictures. I plugged it into a Kodak Kiosk and it kept saying "Please Insert Camera Card". The card had images, that were previously viewed on the camera before the kiosk visit.
Now the card is not recognized by anything, camera, laptop or another kiosk Apparently the kiosk damaged the card somehow. Any clues to retreive the pictures? A data service is out of the question, with their $250 typical starting costs.
Len

[haklesup]

If it weren't the data but just getting the card going again. Just reformatting the card in the camera will probably do the trick.

To recover the data first make sure the contacts on the card are in good shape. I recently had trouble with a card that had the plastic barriers between the contacts break loose and hold the contact open. When I got that card to work, the virus scanner found a virus in the boot section right away so also try scanning the card. Removable media can become infected just by inserting in an infected PC.

[reloadron]

You may want to give this a try:

PC Inspector

It is designed for memory cards with the sort of problem you have. I believe the download (about 6 MB) canh be used as a trial.

Ron

[SETEC_Astronomy]

I'll try to find good software for you (if it exists) but if you value the content of that card in the slightest DON'T ALLOW ANYTHING TO WRITE TO IT!!! SDHC and flash drives are hard to recover, drive sectors can't be physically addressed due to wear leveling technology that is built in.

[philba]

First thing your should do is slide the R/O switch so no one can write to the device.

In general, that's a good idea when it's not in the device (camera in this case) that writes the data.

[Lenp]

Thanks guys,

Yes, the protection switch is on. The card cannot be identified by any computer or camera. The card is nearly nes and there is no damage to the finger contacts. I really think the card was electrically damaged in the kiosk since the images could be read by the camera just before trying the kiosk. The card is under warranty but I would like to try to salvage the images if possible before I send it back for replacement.

I'll watch here to see if anything develops.

Len

[Bigglez]

Yes, the protection switch is on. The card cannot be identified by any computer or camera. The card is nearly nes and there is no damage to the finger contacts. I really think the card was electrically damaged in the kiosk since the images could be read by the camera just before trying the kiosk. The card is under warranty but I would like to try to salvage the images if possible before I send it back for replacement.

Not good news. Most likely you're right about the kiosk causing
the 'damage' to your card. The SDHC format has much greater density
than the plain-jane SD cards, and requires longer address words.
More info here

The problem can also be caused by using the wrong format (FAT16
for SD instead of FAT32 for SDHC). Either way, don't expect to
recover the lost data.

[haklesup]

If you're giving up on saving the images you should just put it into the camera and invoke the Format command. You may not need to exchange or replace the card. I had one that became unreadable and that was how I fixed it, Still works fine today.

As you probably already know, SDHC cards will not read in an SD card reader. Sometimes the reader will detect a 4G card and display it as a 2G card and maybe even try to display its contents but if you try to read or write a file, you usually get an error. It's possible that trying to use an SDHC card in an SD reader could result in data corruption.

When I bought my first 4G card last year, I discovered the store (Fry's) had over 25 different models of SD reader in the store but not one single SDHC reader. I had to go to Staples and pick up a SanDisk stick style reader. Today Frys does have some SDHC readers but plenty of SD only readers too. Now SD will work with a SDHC reader but not the other way around.

[Lenp]

I gave up on the card! I cannot reformat it because nobody sees it! The camera says NO CARD and the computer says...nothing. Other cards, same make/model work in all the readers I have.

It is a Transcend model with a lifetime warranty so it went back to them. By the way, if you use their website to send a tech support request you usually dumped to a Chineese language site, probably the mother company, and never get a response. I just used the RMA part of their site and off it went.

Case closed...

Len

[Bigglez]

I gave up on the card! I cannot reformat it because nobody sees it! The camera says NO CARD and the computer says...nothing. Other cards, same make/model work in all the readers I have.

I wonder if this is mechanical failure? Perhaps the contacts
or a fine-width PCB trace were destroyed by the kiosk socket?

Or, the kiosk caused a power surge that ate the SD card
electronics.

Or, atmospheric static (ESD) blew the card when it touched the
kiosk.

Guess we'll never know for sure!

[haklesup]

No we never will know for sure

Or, atmospheric static (ESD) blew the card when it touched the
kiosk.

While Flash cards have about as robust ESD protection built in as one can design, even these chips can be damaged when enough energy is dumped into them. Mechanical failure of the internal PCB and or traces/bonding is also a good guess. It will be interesting to see if they send you the same card back or a replacement. Will you be able to tell, did you record the S/N?

[reloadron]

Could have been the result of ESD but I never do trust those kiosk. You never know what people have shoved in the things.

Ron