Help with corrupted xD card (Olympus, used with C-760 camera)

Hello,
I have an Olympus C-760 camera and use an Olympus xD card, 512 MB.
Every now and again, it seems to corrupt itself (while in the camera)
and lose all the data.

This time, while trying to take a picture, the message "Card full!"
appeared - which can't have been true, as at this point there was
space for another 144 pictures at the chosen (highest) picture
quality. Then, when trying to look at the files on the card, the
message "Card empty!" appeared.

Therefore the files seem to have gone, yet the card is also "full".
When accessing the card through a (Windows) PC, the card has 0 bytes
used / 0 bytes free and has the RAW-file system. The standard folders
such as "DCIM" etc. are gone.


I have already tried the program "PC Inspector" from the German
company Convar, which first indicates that the "card is too damaged
for a quick search" - and the intensive search doesn't lead to any
results.

Does anyone have any advice?
Does this suggest a problem with the card or with the camera (or
both)?
Thanks
Dagmar

Hello again,
I have downloaded the program "Handy Recovery 1.0" (http://
www.handyrecovery.com ), which, when analysing the xD card at least
finds the appropriate folders. Indeed, the most recent folders aren't
even shown as being deleted. The BOOTEX.LOG file is damaged/deleted,
but the (picture) data files/folders cannot be recovered. The error
message is "ERROR: err106: Can't read boot sector(FAT), err=0x57 ".

Perhaps this might help?
Thanks once again,
Dagmar.

On 1 Mrz., 17:19, wrote:


Therefore the files seem to have gone, yet the card is also "full".
When accessing the card through a (Windows) PC, the card has 0 bytes
used / 0 bytes free and has the RAW-file system. The standard folders
such as "DCIM" etc. are gone.

I have already tried the program "PC Inspector" from the German
company Convar, which first indicates that the "card is too damaged
for a quick search" - and the intensive search doesn't lead to any
results.

Does anyone have any advice?
Does this suggest a problem with the card or with the camera (or
both)?
Thanks
Dagmar

On Thu, 01 Mar 2007 08:19:06 -0800, jaichwillgewinnen wrote:

Hello,
I have an Olympus C-760 camera and use an Olympus xD card, 512 MB.
Every now and again, it seems to corrupt itself (while in the camera)
and lose all the data.

This time, while trying to take a picture, the message "Card full!"
appeared - which can't have been true, as at this point there was
space for another 144 pictures at the chosen (highest) picture
quality. Then, when trying to look at the files on the card, the
message "Card empty!" appeared.

Therefore the files seem to have gone, yet the card is also "full".
When accessing the card through a (Windows) PC, the card has 0 bytes
used / 0 bytes free and has the RAW-file system. The standard folders
such as "DCIM" etc. are gone.


I have already tried the program "PC Inspector" from the German
company Convar, which first indicates that the "card is too damaged
for a quick search" - and the intensive search doesn't lead to any
results.

Does anyone have any advice?
Does this suggest a problem with the card or with the camera (or
both)?
Thanks
Dagmar

Do you routinely delete pictures and then take more photos? Mostly cases
I've heard of like this result from that practice. Best to shoot until
you're done; download; then reformat in the camera.

wrote in message
ups.com...
Hello,
I have an Olympus C-760 camera and use an Olympus xD card, 512 MB.
Every now and again, it seems to corrupt itself (while in the camera)
and lose all the data.

This time, while trying to take a picture, the message "Card full!"
appeared - which can't have been true, as at this point there was
space for another 144 pictures at the chosen (highest) picture
quality. Then, when trying to look at the files on the card, the
message "Card empty!" appeared.

Therefore the files seem to have gone, yet the card is also "full".
When accessing the card through a (Windows) PC, the card has 0 bytes
used / 0 bytes free and has the RAW-file system. The standard folders
such as "DCIM" etc. are gone.


I have already tried the program "PC Inspector" from the German
company Convar, which first indicates that the "card is too damaged
for a quick search" - and the intensive search doesn't lead to any
results.

Does anyone have any advice?
Does this suggest a problem with the card or with the camera (or
both)?
Thanks
Dagmar

I've had problems with an xD 1gig type H card when I tried to read it in a PC card
reader. The data became corrupt. I exchanged the card but now I just keep the card in
my camera.

In your case I would format the card in the camera and if the problem persists just
buy another card, they are very inexpensive now.

Adam

ray wrote:
On Thu, 01 Mar 2007 08:19:06 -0800, jaichwillgewinnen wrote:

Hello,
I have an Olympus C-760 camera and use an Olympus xD card, 512 MB.
Every now and again, it seems to corrupt itself (while in the camera)
and lose all the data.

This time, while trying to take a picture, the message "Card full!"
appeared - which can't have been true, as at this point there was
space for another 144 pictures at the chosen (highest) picture
quality. Then, when trying to look at the files on the card, the
message "Card empty!" appeared.

Therefore the files seem to have gone, yet the card is also "full".
When accessing the card through a (Windows) PC, the card has 0 bytes
used / 0 bytes free and has the RAW-file system. The standard folders
such as "DCIM" etc. are gone.


I have already tried the program "PC Inspector" from the German
company Convar, which first indicates that the "card is too damaged
for a quick search" - and the intensive search doesn't lead to any
results.

Does anyone have any advice?
Does this suggest a problem with the card or with the camera (or
both)?
Thanks
Dagmar

Do you routinely delete pictures and then take more photos? Mostly cases
I've heard of like this result from that practice. Best to shoot until
you're done; download; then reformat in the camera.


Do that by all means if it keeps you happy, but the system is designed
to store and delete images as the user wishes and if it's not doing that
there is a problem. I've never had a problem formatting in winxp but I
don't want to quibble over that.
Photorescue will read the card and searches sectors for images but I'm
not sure if it needs the boot sector. A format in winxp shouldn't impair
it's ability to recover images.
I would also try another card in that camera. If the op still has this
problem then the camera has a problem.
Dave Cohen

On Thu, 01 Mar 2007 19:01:16 +0000, Dave Cohen wrote:

ray wrote:
On Thu, 01 Mar 2007 08:19:06 -0800, jaichwillgewinnen wrote:

Hello,
I have an Olympus C-760 camera and use an Olympus xD card, 512 MB.
Every now and again, it seems to corrupt itself (while in the camera)
and lose all the data.

This time, while trying to take a picture, the message "Card full!"
appeared - which can't have been true, as at this point there was
space for another 144 pictures at the chosen (highest) picture
quality. Then, when trying to look at the files on the card, the
message "Card empty!" appeared.

Therefore the files seem to have gone, yet the card is also "full".
When accessing the card through a (Windows) PC, the card has 0 bytes
used / 0 bytes free and has the RAW-file system. The standard folders
such as "DCIM" etc. are gone.


I have already tried the program "PC Inspector" from the German
company Convar, which first indicates that the "card is too damaged
for a quick search" - and the intensive search doesn't lead to any
results.

Does anyone have any advice?
Does this suggest a problem with the card or with the camera (or
both)?
Thanks
Dagmar

Do you routinely delete pictures and then take more photos? Mostly cases
I've heard of like this result from that practice. Best to shoot until
you're done; download; then reformat in the camera.


Do that by all means if it keeps you happy, but the system is designed
to store and delete images as the user wishes and if it's not doing that
there is a problem. I've never had a problem formatting in winxp but I
don't want to quibble over that.
Photorescue will read the card and searches sectors for images but I'm
not sure if it needs the boot sector. A format in winxp shouldn't impair
it's ability to recover images.
I would also try another card in that camera. If the op still has this
problem then the camera has a problem.
Dave Cohen

I'm not intending to start a flame war here, and I've certainly not
researched the problem. But it is not difficult to imagine that digital
cameras with the rather limited operating system resources they have could
indeed have some difficulty handling a fragmented memory card.

On Thu, 01 Mar 2007 13:55:30 -0700, ray wrote:

I'm not intending to start a flame war here, and I've certainly not
researched the problem. But it is not difficult to imagine that digital
cameras with the rather limited operating system resources they have could
indeed have some difficulty handling a fragmented memory card.

It may not be difficult for *you* to imagine, but I'd rather not
talk about your limitations. Those FAT file handling routines
are decades old, simple, well understood, and most cameras probably
have more powerful processors and more memory than some of the early
8 and 16-bit computers that had similar file systems.

There are other reasons that could explain what has happened. A
single bad circuit, in either the card or the camera. Imperfect
contact between the card and the camera due to fingerprints or other
substances on the cards contact lands, which may have transferred
to the socket contacts within the camera. Flash cards also wear
out, but this is pretty rare, as the number of write cycles
performed has to be extremely high, but this is mentioned in several
of the camera manuals that I've seen. A useful thing to do is
borrow or buy another card to see if the problem goes away (xD
prices are much lower now than they used to be.) The camera may
have had an 8MB or 16MB xD card packaged with it, and even though
they're too small to be of much practical use, if they also fail,
then you can be pretty sure that the camera is broken and it's time
it was replaced.