How do I get my Canon Camera to show up as a Hard Drive?
 

All,

I was wondering if it is possible to get my Canon Powershot camera to show
up as a hard drive when I plug it into my Win2000 box - instead of
automatically starting the ZoomBrowser application.

The reason for doing this is that I am trying to recover some images from
my Compact Flash card since the disk drive I downloaded the images to is
toast, and no other backups are available. If anyone knows of other ways to
recover lost data from CF and/or SD - please let me know.


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Olav Kindt - remove spam to email me

My S50, Sony F82 and T1 all show up in Windows Explorer when plugged into
USB and turned on in play mode, but my OS is XP Media Center. Don't know if
that makes a difference

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"Olav Kindt" wrote in message
...
All,

I was wondering if it is possible to get my Canon Powershot camera to
show
up as a hard drive when I plug it into my Win2000 box - instead of
automatically starting the ZoomBrowser application.

The reason for doing this is that I am trying to recover some images from
my Compact Flash card since the disk drive I downloaded the images to is
toast, and no other backups are available. If anyone knows of other ways
to
recover lost data from CF and/or SD - please let me know.


--
Olav Kindt - remove spam to email me

....just plugged the USB cable from the S50 into another computer running XP
Pro and there's the Canon drive in Windows Explorer.

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"Jim Townsend" wrote in message
...
Olav Kindt wrote:

All,

I was wondering if it is possible to get my Canon Powershot camera to
show
up as a hard drive when I plug it into my Win2000 box - instead of
automatically starting the ZoomBrowser application.

You can't.

Canon cameras don't support USB Mass storage so they can't be treated as a
drive.

The computer and camera exchange data via a set of commands much
the same way FTP uses get and put etc. This commands are issued
by Zoombrowser.. You don't see it happen.

Canon has it's own proprietary protocol, and most new Canon cameras
also recognize the universal Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP). PTP
is built in to some Windows versions.

The reason for doing this is that I am trying to recover some images
from
my Compact Flash card since the disk drive I downloaded the images to is
toast, and no other backups are available. If anyone knows of other ways
to
recover lost data from CF and/or SD - please let me know.

As someone else mentioned.. Pick up a $10.00 card reader. You'll be
able to treat the card as a drive AND, you'll find the files download
MUCH faster..

OK...really not trying to be contradictory here, but not only do the cameras
show up as drives in Windows Explorer, but I can copy, paste, drag and drop
files both from and to the card in the camera while connected with the USB
cable.

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"Basiltoo" wrote in message
...
"Ric Kaysen" wrote in news:muh3d.294
:

Well...OK, but how is that different? I can still view it's contents and
transfer files.


Different protocol. You cannot transfer files to the camera for example.

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Regards,
Baz

That's what I was thinkin' up front.

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"Ed Ruf" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 00:18:29 GMT, in rec.photo.digital "Ric Kaysen"
wrote:

OK...really not trying to be contradictory here, but not only do the
cameras
show up as drives in Windows Explorer, but I can copy, paste, drag and
drop
files both from and to the card in the camera while connected with the
USB
cable.

Being a Nikon guy I have no real clue about this. However the OP was using
W2k, could this make a difference?
__________________________________________________ ______
Ed Ruf Lifetime AMA# 344007 )
See images taken with my CP-990 and 5700 at
http://EdwardGRuf.com

"Ric Kaysen" writes:

OK...really not trying to be contradictory here, but not only do the cameras
show up as drives in Windows Explorer, but I can copy, paste, drag and drop
files both from and to the card in the camera while connected with the USB
cable.

I believe the difference is you are using Windows XP and the original poster is
using Windows 2000. If memory serves, Windows XP can use some PSP devices as
file systems, but Windows 2000 did not have that support, or had a list of
supported cameras. I recall there used to be instructions how to patch an .inf
file to allow the Olympus C-2100UZ to work (it uses PTP and does not use USB
mass storage).

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"Basiltoo" wrote in message
...
"Ric Kaysen" wrote in news:muh3d.294
:

Well...OK, but how is that different? I can still view it's contents and
transfer files.


Different protocol. You cannot transfer files to the camera for example.

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Regards,
Baz



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Michael Meissner
email:
http://www.the-meissners.org

All,

Thanks for all your help. I ended up bying the cardreader as suggested here.

Now all I have to do is to get the delete images - I have posted a new
question about how to recover lost images so if you have a clue - I would
appreciate your help.

Regards Olav

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On Mon, 20 Sep 2004 00:18:29 GMT, "Ric Kaysen"
wrote:

OK...really not trying to be contradictory here, but not only do the cameras
show up as drives in Windows Explorer, but I can copy, paste, drag and drop
files both from and to the card in the camera while connected with the USB
cable.

Ric,

just wanted to mention that this is also what I would have
expected from the start. When I read Jim's remark that you can't
use the Canon camera like a USB drive and have to use special
software, I immediately did not believe that. You confirm my
thoughts.

If Canon did that, a number of customers would take the camera
back to the shop and complain.

Hans-Georg

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Hans-Georg Michna writes:

OK...really not trying to be contradictory here, but not only do the cameras
show up as drives in Windows Explorer, but I can copy, paste, drag and drop
files both from and to the card in the camera while connected with the USB
cable.

just wanted to mention that this is also what I would have
expected from the start. When I read Jim's remark that you can't
use the Canon camera like a USB drive and have to use special
software, I immediately did not believe that. You confirm my
thoughts.

It's operating system dependent. Newer Canon cameras have two protocols
for talking to a host, the original Canon one and a new standard called
PTP. If your operating system *also* supports this protocol, and
everything is set up properly, then you (apparently) can see the camera
mounted like a removable disk and use all the usual file browsing tools
to access it.

But, if you have an older Canon camera, PTP is not available. If you
have any version of Windows other than WinXP, the operating system
doesn't support PTP. In either case, you have to use the original Canon
protocol on the camera, and that does *not* support viewing the camera
as a disk device. Instead, you need to use the Canon software to access
it, either via a TWAIN driver (in programs like Photoshop) or a special
program. Or you removed the CF card from the camera and plugged it into
a card reader, the best solution in any case.

If Canon did that, a number of customers would take the camera
back to the shop and complain.

Canon cameras have been like this for years. I knew it when I bought my
cameras, and it hasn't inconvenienced me noticeably.

Dave

Dave,

thanks for the info! I thought Canon cameras would follow the
standard USB simulated disk drive protocol like most other
cameras.

Hans-Georg

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