SD card formatting issue

kenneth7379 · 06-04-2013, 06:39 PM

I have an RS1000 camera that I'm having problems formatting an SD card for. It's been quite a while since I've been able to format the card in the camera, but thanks to some helpful advice here on the forum, I've learned to format the card in my computer and that's worked successfully for quite a while.

MY problem now is that I can format the card in the computer, install it in the camera, take pictures, and remove the card to upload the pictures into my computer. But......every time I relay the SD card back into the computer, ir says "Card is not formatted", and I need to reformat it again.

Is there are reason I should need to reformat the card every time? Thanks in advance for an advice you can offer.

kev.pride · 06-05-2013, 12:06 AM

Buy a new card - they are as cheap as. If it's becoming faulty now you run the risk of it failing when you are shooting with it.

kenneth7379 · 06-06-2013, 09:08 PM

Thanks for the response, kev.pride. When I bought my first two cards, they were about 60.00 each, but you're right.....They're cheap now - only about 16.00, so I bought a couple.

I do have one question though......I thought I had ordered exactly the same brand and model as I had.....Lexan Platinum SDHC 16GB 100x. I just realized the ones I bought have a designation ending in 200x. Will this still work, or have I ordered the wrong thing?

Hoping for a quick answer, so if they're wrong, I can contact the seller before they're shipped. Thanks.

**jatrax** · 06-06-2013, 10:02 PM

Originally posted by kenneth7379

Lexan Platinum SDHC 16GB 100x. I just realized the ones I bought have a designation ending in 200x. Will this still work, or have I ordered the wrong thing?

You are fine. The 100x and 200x are just marketing gimmick supposedly telling you how much faster the card is than a cd-rom drive. Not particularly useful IMHO. On good brand cards they will list a "class". Class 6 is fine for most cameras, class 10 is faster and preferred. But even this 'standard' has become outdated as new cards are now much faster than the old 'class 10' which was supposed to be the fastest. As long as it says SDHC on it it will work. I would suggest you not purchase anything but class 10 cards to protect yourself for future faster cameras but at this time they are faster than you need for your camera.

**Kerrowdown** · 06-07-2013, 01:38 AM

Originally posted by kev.pride

Buy a new card - they are as cheap as

+1, treat cards as consumable like we all used to do with film.

My images are important to me, so I change cards every so often, even without issues or problems.

kenneth7379 · 06-08-2013, 07:32 AM

I want to thank everybody here for the information and help. This is a great forum.

Allison · 06-09-2013, 09:11 PM

Glad to hear you got yourself some new cards. I like to change mine about every year and a half. The only card that I ever had fail was a 64gb card and I had only used it a total of 4 times. Typically, a faulty card will fail early in its life. From what I have heard, other cards will start to fail around100 reformattings, but I have yet to have another card fail.

kenneth7379 · 06-22-2013, 09:44 AM

I received my new SD cards and things still aren't 100%.

The backup camera (no flash) will use either of the new cards. The main camera (the one with working flash) sometimes accepts one of the new cards and will work fine.....But after unloading the photos on the card into the computer, about half the time I get a "Card is not formatted" message when I put the card back in the camera.. Sometimes reformatting the card in the computer will get it working again - After one or two more attempts at reformatting. I've noticed that the Quick Format in the computer menu seems to be a little better at getting the card working again.

jzimages · 04-23-2014, 10:31 AM

I have two brand new Samsung 64GB cards 80/40 read/write speeds - and they both have created the "card is not formatted" messeage on my Pentax K5s camera in the past couple days - lost a lot of imaged and am afraid to use them now - at $50 a piece they are not exactly "consumables" is there a problem with the camera or the cards?? Have not had the issue with the 32GB cards I bought with the camera about 8 months ago so maybe its the cards - or do I need to do something different with the camera?
Also the camera "freezes up" sometimes when I am shooting and the only way to get it to work again is to remove the battery and put it back in and then it's back to normal.
So maybe its the camera??
New to this digital stuff - my first camera was a K1000 in1980!
thanks!

stevebrot · 04-23-2014, 03:20 PM

Originally posted by jzimages

I have two brand new Samsung 64GB cards 80/40 read/write speeds - and they both have created the "card is not formatted" messeage on my Pentax K5s camera in the past couple days - lost a lot of imaged and am afraid to use them now - at $50 a piece they are not exactly "consumables" is there a problem with the camera or the cards??

This is sort of a zombie thread (last post about nine month ago). I have always found it best to use the camera's format feature. If that fails, you know there is an issue with the card or your camera's ability to use it. If a card fails after being read by your computer, I would suggest setting the write-protect tab. If that is not acceptable, you might want to make sure the card has done a clean "unmount" before pulling it from the reader. Not doing so can corrupt the file system and make the card unusable to the next device.

BTW...I always do an in-camera reformat rather than erase to remove files from the card.

Steve

Oldbayrunner · 04-24-2014, 05:51 AM

Originally posted by jzimages

I have two brand new Samsung 64GB cards 80/40 read/write speeds - and they both have created the "card is not formatted" messeage on my Pentax K5s camera in the past couple days - lost a lot of imaged and am afraid to use them now - at $50 a piece they are not exactly "consumables" is there a problem with the camera or the cards?? Have not had the issue with the 32GB cards I bought with the camera about 8 months ago so maybe its the cards - or do I need to do something different with the camera?
Also the camera "freezes up" sometimes when I am shooting and the only way to get it to work again is to remove the battery and put it back in and then it's back to normal.
So maybe its the camera??
New to this digital stuff - my first camera was a K1000 in1980!
thanks!

Try downloading this software and do a "Full format"...Note: SDXC memory cards inserted in the direct SD slot on a computer may require the installation of an SDXC driver. (if needed look for this)

https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/

stevebrot · 04-24-2014, 08:15 AM

Originally posted by Oldbayrunner

Try downloading this software and do a "Full format"

I spent some time last night researching this issue and wondered at the time whether the strange behavior might be the result of a "quick" exFAT format over a previous NTFS or FAT32 format of the same card. Doing what you suggest (even from Windows) might solve the problem.

Steve

Oldbayrunner · 04-24-2014, 09:35 AM

Using the Full format function using the SD formatter software is a low level format that completely wipes all of the sectors of any information, with the exception of the security partition, and maps any bad sectors that can cause problems from being used on the card. If you used NTFS or Fat32 formatting on a SD card prior then formatted using quick exFatt without doing a full format first it could cause problems.

I would remind any one if your going to do a full format you need to use a photo recovery software first or your photos may not be able to be retrieved.

06-04-2013, 06:39 PM	#1
kenneth7379 New Member Join Date: Feb 2013 Posts: 21	SD card formatting issue I have an RS1000 camera that I'm having problems formatting an SD card for. It's been quite a while since I've been able to format the card in the camera, but thanks to some helpful advice here on the forum, I've learned to format the card in my computer and that's worked successfully for quite a while. MY problem now is that I can format the card in the computer, install it in the camera, take pictures, and remove the card to upload the pictures into my computer. But......every time I relay the SD card back into the computer, ir says "Card is not formatted", and I need to reformat it again. Is there are reason I should need to reformat the card every time? Thanks in advance for an advice you can offer.

04-23-2014, 10:31 AM	#9
jzimages New Member Join Date: Apr 2014 Photos: Gallery Posts: 10	sd card issue I have two brand new Samsung 64GB cards 80/40 read/write speeds - and they both have created the "card is not formatted" messeage on my Pentax K5s camera in the past couple days - lost a lot of imaged and am afraid to use them now - at $50 a piece they are not exactly "consumables" is there a problem with the camera or the cards?? Have not had the issue with the 32GB cards I bought with the camera about 8 months ago so maybe its the cards - or do I need to do something different with the camera? Also the camera "freezes up" sometimes when I am shooting and the only way to get it to work again is to remove the battery and put it back in and then it's back to normal. So maybe its the camera?? New to this digital stuff - my first camera was a K1000 in1980! thanks!

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06-05-2013, 12:06 AM	#2
kev.pride Veteran Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Modbury North, South Australia Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 351	Buy a new card - they are as cheap as. If it's becoming faulty now you run the risk of it failing when you are shooting with it.

06-06-2013, 09:08 PM	#3
kenneth7379 New Member Join Date: Feb 2013 Posts: 21 Original Poster	Thanks for the response, kev.pride. When I bought my first two cards, they were about 60.00 each, but you're right.....They're cheap now - only about 16.00, so I bought a couple. I do have one question though......I thought I had ordered exactly the same brand and model as I had.....Lexan Platinum SDHC 16GB 100x. I just realized the ones I bought have a designation ending in 200x. Will this still work, or have I ordered the wrong thing? Hoping for a quick answer, so if they're wrong, I can contact the seller before they're shipped. Thanks.

06-06-2013, 10:02 PM	#4
jatrax Site Supporter Join Date: May 2010 Location: Washington Cascades Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 12,992	Originally posted by kenneth7379 Lexan Platinum SDHC 16GB 100x. I just realized the ones I bought have a designation ending in 200x. Will this still work, or have I ordered the wrong thing? You are fine. The 100x and 200x are just marketing gimmick supposedly telling you how much faster the card is than a cd-rom drive. Not particularly useful IMHO. On good brand cards they will list a "class". Class 6 is fine for most cameras, class 10 is faster and preferred. But even this 'standard' has become outdated as new cards are now much faster than the old 'class 10' which was supposed to be the fastest. As long as it says SDHC on it it will work. I would suggest you not purchase anything but class 10 cards to protect yourself for future faster cameras but at this time they are faster than you need for your camera.

06-07-2013, 01:38 AM	#5
Kerrowdown PEG Moderator Join Date: Aug 2008 Location: Highlands of Scotland... "Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand" - William Blake Photos: Gallery Posts: 57,867	Originally posted by kev.pride Buy a new card - they are as cheap as +1, treat cards as consumable like we all used to do with film. My images are important to me, so I change cards every so often, even without issues or problems.

06-08-2013, 07:32 AM	#6
kenneth7379 New Member Join Date: Feb 2013 Posts: 21 Original Poster	I want to thank everybody here for the information and help. This is a great forum.

06-09-2013, 09:11 PM	#7
Allison Veteran Member Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Pittsburgh, PA Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 667	Glad to hear you got yourself some new cards. I like to change mine about every year and a half. The only card that I ever had fail was a 64gb card and I had only used it a total of 4 times. Typically, a faulty card will fail early in its life. From what I have heard, other cards will start to fail around100 reformattings, but I have yet to have another card fail.

06-22-2013, 09:44 AM	#8
kenneth7379 New Member Join Date: Feb 2013 Posts: 21 Original Poster	I received my new SD cards and things still aren't 100%. The backup camera (no flash) will use either of the new cards. The main camera (the one with working flash) sometimes accepts one of the new cards and will work fine.....But after unloading the photos on the card into the computer, about half the time I get a "Card is not formatted" message when I put the card back in the camera.. Sometimes reformatting the card in the computer will get it working again - After one or two more attempts at reformatting. I've noticed that the Quick Format in the computer menu seems to be a little better at getting the card working again.

04-23-2014, 03:20 PM	#10
stevebrot Otis Memorial Pentaxian Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Vancouver (USA) Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 42,007	Originally posted by jzimages I have two brand new Samsung 64GB cards 80/40 read/write speeds - and they both have created the "card is not formatted" messeage on my Pentax K5s camera in the past couple days - lost a lot of imaged and am afraid to use them now - at $50 a piece they are not exactly "consumables" is there a problem with the camera or the cards?? This is sort of a zombie thread (last post about nine month ago). I have always found it best to use the camera's format feature. If that fails, you know there is an issue with the card or your camera's ability to use it. If a card fails after being read by your computer, I would suggest setting the write-protect tab. If that is not acceptable, you might want to make sure the card has done a clean "unmount" before pulling it from the reader. Not doing so can corrupt the file system and make the card unusable to the next device. BTW...I always do an in-camera reformat rather than erase to remove files from the card. Steve

04-24-2014, 05:51 AM	#11
Oldbayrunner Pentaxian Join Date: Mar 2013 Posts: 1,666	Originally posted by jzimages I have two brand new Samsung 64GB cards 80/40 read/write speeds - and they both have created the "card is not formatted" messeage on my Pentax K5s camera in the past couple days - lost a lot of imaged and am afraid to use them now - at $50 a piece they are not exactly "consumables" is there a problem with the camera or the cards?? Have not had the issue with the 32GB cards I bought with the camera about 8 months ago so maybe its the cards - or do I need to do something different with the camera? Also the camera "freezes up" sometimes when I am shooting and the only way to get it to work again is to remove the battery and put it back in and then it's back to normal. So maybe its the camera?? New to this digital stuff - my first camera was a K1000 in1980! thanks! Try downloading this software and do a "Full format"...Note: SDXC memory cards inserted in the direct SD slot on a computer may require the installation of an SDXC driver. (if needed look for this) https://www.sdcard.org/downloads/formatter_4/

04-24-2014, 08:15 AM	#12
stevebrot Otis Memorial Pentaxian Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Vancouver (USA) Photos: Gallery \| Albums Posts: 42,007	Originally posted by Oldbayrunner Try downloading this software and do a "Full format" I spent some time last night researching this issue and wondered at the time whether the strange behavior might be the result of a "quick" exFAT format over a previous NTFS or FAT32 format of the same card. Doing what you suggest (even from Windows) might solve the problem. Steve

04-24-2014, 09:35 AM	#13
Oldbayrunner Pentaxian Join Date: Mar 2013 Posts: 1,666	Using the Full format function using the SD formatter software is a low level format that completely wipes all of the sectors of any information, with the exception of the security partition, and maps any bad sectors that can cause problems from being used on the card. If you used NTFS or Fat32 formatting on a SD card prior then formatted using quick exFatt without doing a full format first it could cause problems. I would remind any one if your going to do a full format you need to use a photo recovery software first or your photos may not be able to be retrieved.