# Olympus XD Card or Camera problem? Can't get pictures off XD card...



## hcjb (Mar 4, 2010)

Hi there,

Am so glad I found you, I really hope someone can help me! 

I recently travelled around the world and took my Olympus camera (model FE-310 if thats helpful) with it's XD card (also olympus 1gig) with me. I had no problems viewing pictures or deleting pictures on the camera and had no problems transfering/saving pictures to my laptop. I have a card reader on my laptop which works fine with other stuff and I also have the original cord to hook up camera to computer and they have both worked fine in the past.

Until all of a sudden one day I went to take a picture and it didn't save to the memory card- the camera just acted like it was busy, flashing lights etc. I had to just take the battery out to stop it. From then on, I can view all my old pictures no problem on the camera but can't take any more and can't delete any old ones. Just does the whole "busy" thing. When I tried to open the pictures on my computer, none of the pictures will open, they have the blank thumnail icons like there is supposed to be a picture, but my actual picture doesn't come up. 

Any help ASAP would be appreciated, I am great at following instructions so if there is something I could do to fix it please let me know, I really want these photos on my computer!

Thanks,
Heather


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## bp936 (Oct 13, 2003)

First, I would buy another xD card and see if camera works with the new card. If it does, then I would buy a multi card reader with USB connection to the computer (I have SD and xD cards) so make sure it reads xD.

This would tell me, if my camera went wrong, if the xD card is corrupted, and/or the cardreader on the computer does work properly or not. To go through all that trouble only, because you said those pictures are important to you.

and welcome to TSG


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## hcjb (Mar 4, 2010)

Hi,

Thanks so so much for your quick reply! I haven't tried the above suggestions yet- I am a poor student and can't afford to buy stuff so will borrow one off a friend  But in the meantime, I did find something else that may be helpful? When I tried to open a picture in Paint it came up with this error "A hardware I/O error was reported while accessing..."

Does that mean anything??

Thanks so much for your help!!!
Heather


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## bp936 (Oct 13, 2003)

I am not that experienced with hardware,but this tells me, Input-Output hardware error.
Again, it never really says, which part of the hardware, so one has to test, a friends computer can help with looking at the card or the camera with the cable that came with it. If both work, then something on your computer doesn't want to recognize THAT card, if others work.


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## hcjb (Mar 4, 2010)

Thanks so much!! You have no idea how much I appreciate it!

I think I may have discovered something else that could help. I tried the XD card in my parents computer slot thing and it does exactly the same thing. Looks like there are pictures there but you can't open them.

I also hooked my camera up to my parents computer using the usb cable and forgot to put the memory card back in and remembered that it has an internal memory so managed to transfer the pictures I had on there (just like 4 or 5) to my computer. So with my limited knowledge of this sort of stuff I figure that it means that it definitely is the XD card problem, not my camera!

So...does that help give ideas of what I need to do to fix it??? If it is a problem with XD card what do I do?? 

Thanks again,
Heather


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## bp936 (Oct 13, 2003)

that's exactly how I learned, trial and error, it would always cost too much to have a professional look at it and they usually recommend to buy new.
Now with the card, if you managed to get the pictures off, I personally would format the card in a computer that recognizes it or in the camera, depending, which one does not say, can't be formatted. 
Also check first if the card has a tiny switch on the side, that is only read or read and write, some cards have it. I have 2 Fuji cameras, the older one still had this option on the card. Newer ones seem to skip this.

I know xD cards are more expensive than SD, so I always try everything, before I toss a card.
They say, the best thing is to format in the camera, but I had no problem formatting in Explorer, rightclick, format, Maybe then you can use the card again. And I have a USB backup drive where I immediately copy the pictures to it too or a USB stick, besides the harddrive. All because I learned, things don't always work as we expected it and important and nice pictures can't always be replaced.


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## hcjb (Mar 4, 2010)

Hi again 

Yeah, I am so thankful for you! It could have cost me so much more money to get it looked at! 

So with the card, I still haven't been able to get the pictures off the actual card still, just those few that were on the camera harddrive. So the majority of my travel pictures are still hiding...The XD card deson't have a little switch thing, it's maybe 2 years old.

So I can view the photos on the camera but not on the computer, seems like it just won't read the actual pictures... So I am still wanting to get the pictures off? Any more ideas??


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## bp936 (Oct 13, 2003)

please look at these posts her, maybe some advise can help you: 
http://forums.techguy.org/digital-p...432-important-photos-corrupt-mixed-other.html

http://forums.techguy.org/digital-p...13-solved-jpg-pictures-getting-corrupted.html

http://forums.techguy.org/digital-photography-imaging/853359-xd-card-problems.html

http://forums.techguy.org/digital-photography-imaging/887353-olympus-master-2-will-not.html

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/250069 
something about I/O error

I have no other ideas why all this is happening, unless the card is really totally corrupted.
But I would keep the card until someone or some card=reader would tell you more.

Buy another card, they are the cheapest at Walmart, but you have to go maybe often, to get them, they always seem to be out of it. I grabbed 2 when I saw them.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10256256
I am sure you can afford that, since the pictures must be important, I would try anything to keep it, even try it in someone's Apple computer. 
Do not do anything to it.

sorry I couldn't help you more and good luck.


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