# SD Memory Card Not Readable



## josephpolk (Dec 25, 2004)

I've had a Toshiba SD-MO2G memory card (2 GB) for close to a year now without any problems. It's been taken in and out of the camera to be placed in my laptop as well as the media card reader in our desktop to view, copy and move pictures off of it.

About a week ago, I placed the card into a Kodak picture frame to show some family members some pictures we took on vacation and they appeared just fine in the frame. I put the card back in our camera and figured everything was OK.

When I turned the camera back on a few days later, I got a "Memory Card Error" message and my camera could no longer see any of the pictures on the card. I took the card out and placed it in my laptop. It didn't even recognize that I had inserted the SD card into the media reader. I then tried the card reader on our desktop and it could not recognize the card either. It's not the camera because I put in a SanDisk SD card and the camera (and laptop/desktop) can see the contents of that card just fine).

I'm truly at a loss here and hoping that someone will tell me some way to retrieve the pictures off of the card. I've never had a problem with the card until now and can't figure out how/why a card would just stop working all together like that without any warning.

Thanks in advance to anyone and everyone that replies to this message. I could really use your help!


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## antimoth (Aug 8, 2009)

Your testing indicates to me that the SD card has failed. 

I've had several SD cards fail. Leave them on the desk and they fall on the floor, get stepped upon, and it flexes the body and cracks something internally.. Or maybe there was some static discharge while handling the card. I have a chair with metal armrests and on a dry winter day, I often felt a spark jump from my fingers to the chair as I would rise from it.

I just paid $20 for a class 6 8GB card, and know that slower 4GB cards are under $10 so your 2GB card is easily replaced. Of course, the pics are not, but one should always get them off and safely archived vs storing on the cards.


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## Hughv (Jul 22, 2006)

Use Test Disk, which has a Photo Recovery option:
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
Leave the card in the camera and run the software.


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## josephpolk (Dec 25, 2004)

HughV:

Thanks for the suggestion to try TestDisk. Unfortunately, the program does not see the card inside the camera at all. I've also tried plugging the card into the memory card reader in my laptop and TestDisk doesn't see it there either.

Interesting enough, when I plug my camera into the computer, Windows 7 shows the camera as being plugged in but it cannot see the card itself. Weird thing is, it shows that there is 127TB (???) of removal storage when the camera is plugged in. If I click on the icon for the camera, nothing shows up at all.

Does anyone know why the camera shows up like that in Windows Explorer? Also, since the card isn't recognized in TestDisk, does it mean that it is truly dead?

Joe


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## Hughv (Jul 22, 2006)

Did you use the photo recovery program?
As I recall, it's in the Windows folder.


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## wilson44512 (Mar 25, 2006)

the Kodak picture frame could be what messed it up. have you tried reformatting the card in the camera?


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## josephpolk (Dec 25, 2004)

Hughv -- Yes, I tried both programs -- the photo recovery one and the testdisk one. Neither one could recognize the SD card.

Wilson44512 -- I was thinking that, but how could putting a card into a frame, viewing the pictures on that, and then putting it back in the camera cause the card to fail? I can't format the card because no computer or camera will recognize it in order for me to format it at all?

If I could format it, could I then use one of those photo recovery tools to try and recover the old pictures off of the newly formatted card?


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## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

Go Here and get the free demo version of GetDataBack.
You'll probably need the FAT version for a mem card.
The Demo can be use to see if it recognizes the card .. in a Card Reader .. And will tell you what files it can find.
But, You'll have to purchase it to recover the files.

I used this yesterday to recover most of the pictures from a Kodak 2GB SD card .. That otherwise looked hopeless.
At least this will give you a clue if the pics might be recoverable.


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## josephpolk (Dec 25, 2004)

Noyb -- Thanks for the suggestion. The SD card doesn't show up in the list so I'm guessing after multiple programs that the card is dead (at least from the outside)

That being said -- does anyone know any good recovery companies that could open the card and retrieve the data off of the memory inside? I'm thinking that maybe something went wrong with the connectors and hopefully the pictures are still on the internal memory somehow but can't be accessed because of the bad connectors.

Any suggestions anyone?


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## Noyb (May 25, 2005)

Did you try it in a Card Reader ??? ... I'm assuming you did.

Mine wouldn't work in the Camera .. But showed up in Computer (XPs) ... Similar to what you posted in #4.
But my properties listed used and unused space .. Which was my Clue there was something inside.


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