Fuji A201 camera / 64Mb SmartMedia memory card. Worked well for a while, then I installed a card reader which crashed my PC during a transfer operation. Card won't respond since then. 1. Can the crashed transfer have been the cause? (Would seem obvious - yes - but just touching all bases.) 2. Are memory cards formatted (like hard disks). 3. If so, could reformatting be an answer? 4. If so, how do I format the card? Many thanks.

-- Lionel Scales (lionel@dsl.pipex.com), June 05, 2002

Answers

1. Yes, but there are other explanations - it could also be electrical failure. 2. Yes. 3. Reformatting may make the card usable, but may also result in a loss of your pictures. 4. Reformat the card like you would format a disk. (This is OS dependent.)

I have an app that recovers lost pics at www.andrewtoth.com/salvage

ajt

-- Andrew J. Toth (salvage@andrewtoth.com), June 05, 2002.

Andrew, Thanks for your advice. I have now reformatted and the card appears OK again. There were no images which I wanted to retain or recover. Cheers.

-- Lionel Scales (lionel@dsl.pipex.com), June 05, 2002.

I had a 128 meg SmartMedia card fail on Saturday after perhaps 5 uses in 9 months (I had 3 x 128 plus 1 x 64). I used 3 cards that day at a company picnic and the first died a few hours after taking pictures when I tried to download. Neither PC reader nor camera would recognize card and camera reported card error. It would not format and has been replaced. This failure worries me as it could have been a one time shot like a wedding. I wouldn't use a troubled card a second time

-- Dennis Eccleston (denniseccleston@hotmail.com), October 08, 2002.