[sholtzma]

I ran all the tests in Lexar's ImageRescue and the cards seemed just fine. They formatted (in ImageRescue) after that perfectly well. My K-5 reads and writes to both cards just fine (I did a test shot or two on each card). Are there more tests I should run?

[vonBaloney]

I ran all the tests in Lexar's ImageRescue and the cards seemed just fine. They formatted (in ImageRescue) after that perfectly well. My K-5 reads and writes to both cards just fine (I did a test shot or two on each card). Are there more tests I should run?

Is ImageRescue just a rescue program? Run them through a testing program that stresses the card and "tries" to get it to fail -- it will write and read to it a gazillion times. If it passes that, then my opinion is that the cards are fine and that everything else in the chain is to be suspected. Nevertheless, the risk is yours. So what I would do is:

A) Not operate the card slot in the dark.
B) Get a new card reader -- get a name brand like SanDisk but also read the reviews for people talking about failure (check Amazon and Newegg). In the meantime there is always direct transfer with USB cable from camera.
C) Don't manipulate JPEGs etc and copy stuff back and forth to the cards. Capture pictures, copy to computer, verify the copies, replace card in camera and delete all images or format. Other than firmware updates, that's it.
D) If you are in extreme conditions (or even if you're not), get extreme cards -- they are temperature-proof, shock-proof, x-ray proof, etc. They tend not to fail.
E) If your cards do screw-up again anytime soon (with a different reader), then yes do throw them away with haste.

[Kerrowdown]

Cards are not expensive things now compared to the rest of the investment you have tied up in your equipment.

I tend to treat them as consumable especially as you mention they could be coming up to a couple of years old.

If your images are important to you like mine are to me, I would get new cards. For me I change cards relatively often even when they are working fine just based on usage and time owned, it's really a "no brainer" as I can't have any failures on my watch.

[Rupert]

I've had some various and strange problems with SD cards and the K5....cards that work fine in the K20D don't in the K5...and then do...and then don't again....but always work fine in the K20D? Not sure what is the cause, but I have limited my cards for the K5 to "known workers". Cards are cheap, so it's not a big problem, even for those times it is a problem.
Regards!

[bobD]

Just a few things to think about.....
If you pulled the card in the dark then perhaps the camera was still on too ??? That would point to a corrupted card.

Likewise, pulling the card from the reader or the reader from the usb slot without first unmounting (safely remove ? in Windows) could corrupt it too.

Yes, we all sometimes forget and possibly 9 times out of ten things are ok but the tenth one leads to a corrupted and inaccessible card.

Often re-inserting the card and choosing safely remove will restore the access.
In Linux I can mount the card and copy the files off then reformat the card in-camera to restore the permissions and access.

Generally I observe this temporary corruption where the power has being removed from the card whilst it was in use, either by being physically removed or during an unplanned outage.
This often leaves the files intact but corrupts the file index preventing access. If the files can be copied off and the card reformatted then it is likely to continue to perform well.

If, however, one is in the habit of pulling the card whilst in use then performance and corruption may be affected repeatedly.

This is not a hardware fault but user error.
Practise safe removal, reformat only in-camera and copy images to disk to work on rather than writing changes to the card and the card should perform to spec for many years of use.

[Lowell Goudge]

Just a few thoughts here, and something to think about.

first of all, pulling cards out of a reader without "ejecting them" first, leads to corrupted files when the operating system has not finished writing to them. many times windows especially delays the actual write, because it is a low priority task, otherwise, if the system is not accessing the card, they are hot swappable.

second, pulling a card out of the camera is not an issue with power on, because there is a door open interlock that suspends all the functions to prevent this.

third, as others have said 8G cards are cheap, i bought a pair recently for $9.95each, so if in doubt, scrapping them is not a deal breaker

lastly, check carefully the memory card slot, and the cards themselves. some cheap cards have the separating ridges between the fingers fall off, leaving little slivers of plastic that can interfere with the contacts. If in doubt, you can always open your memory door and blow air in with a blower brush, and see what falls out. you might just have had a little sliver interfering with the contacts/