fix SmartMedia card??

I have a 1.3MP Fuji @xia - it takes SmartMedia cards.

Recently i bought myself a Zio USB2 Card Reader to use with a Sony Memory
Stick Duo.
As the Zio also supports SmartMedia cards i started to use it with my
camera's cards instead of plugging the camera in via USB.
This is much quicker as the camera plugged in via USB only works at USB1.1
speed.

Anyway, straight to the point...

I've formatted a couple of SmartMedia cards a few times with the Zio and
when i've used them in my camera again they worked - the camera didn't need
to format them, they just worked OK.

Now after the same cards have been formatted by the Zio, the cards no longer
work in my camera.
I get a 'Err' message on the @xia's LCD and zero space available on the
cards.
Plugging the @xia into a TV to get to the setup menu i tried to format the
cards with the @xia.
I keep getting a 'Card error' message and of course the format fails.

The @xia however works perfectly with two other SmartMedia cards i have -
but these working cards haven't been formatted by my Zio card reader.

I've spent HOURS searching through Google and see that it's a common
problem.
The card reader formats them and makes them incompatible with the camera.
The camera cannot undo the card reader's format or reformat them.
The cards do however work perfectly ok within Windows XP with my card
reader - they're just not accepted by my @xia.

With SmartMedia now being old technology, all the info i've found with
Google is now out of date.
No utilties seem to exist which i can fix the cards with.
I use WinXP and the card reader is a USB2 model - all the fixes i've seen
refer to Win98 and USB1.1 card readers.

A friend of mine has a Win98 pc which has USB1.1 ports - i may take my card
reader to his pc and try to format them again.
Then i'll probably need to install the Zio's drivers as Win98 has no native
support for the Zio i believe.
Hoping that once installed i'll find the smprep.exe utility and can fix the
cards.
Or i may be able to use the smformat.exe utility that i've downloaded - it
doesn't work with WinXP.

Other than trying the Win98 pc, can anyone suggest a method to fix these
cards?
One is a 32MB card, the other is a 16MB card.

Of course, with ebuyer selling a 64MB SmartMedia card for less than £10 i
might just as well get a new 64MB card and shelve the two messed up cards!

Thanks for any info.

Martin.

On Sun, 29 Aug 2004 09:56:12 +0100, "Martin" wrote:

I have a 1.3MP Fuji @xia - it takes SmartMedia cards.

Recently i bought myself a Zio USB2 Card Reader to use with a Sony Memory
Stick Duo.
As the Zio also supports SmartMedia cards i started to use it with my
camera's cards instead of plugging the camera in via USB.
This is much quicker as the camera plugged in via USB only works at USB1.1
speed.

Anyway, straight to the point...

I've formatted a couple of SmartMedia cards a few times with the Zio and
when i've used them in my camera again they worked - the camera didn't need
to format them, they just worked OK.

Now after the same cards have been formatted by the Zio, the cards no longer
work in my camera.
I get a 'Err' message on the @xia's LCD and zero space available on the
cards.
Plugging the @xia into a TV to get to the setup menu i tried to format the
cards with the @xia.
I keep getting a 'Card error' message and of course the format fails.

The @xia however works perfectly with two other SmartMedia cards i have -
but these working cards haven't been formatted by my Zio card reader.

I've spent HOURS searching through Google and see that it's a common
problem.
The card reader formats them and makes them incompatible with the camera.
The camera cannot undo the card reader's format or reformat them.
The cards do however work perfectly ok within Windows XP with my card
reader - they're just not accepted by my @xia.

With SmartMedia now being old technology, all the info i've found with
Google is now out of date.
No utilties seem to exist which i can fix the cards with.
I use WinXP and the card reader is a USB2 model - all the fixes i've seen
refer to Win98 and USB1.1 card readers.

A friend of mine has a Win98 pc which has USB1.1 ports - i may take my card
reader to his pc and try to format them again.
Then i'll probably need to install the Zio's drivers as Win98 has no native
support for the Zio i believe.
Hoping that once installed i'll find the smprep.exe utility and can fix the
cards.
Or i may be able to use the smformat.exe utility that i've downloaded - it
doesn't work with WinXP.

Other than trying the Win98 pc, can anyone suggest a method to fix these
cards?
One is a 32MB card, the other is a 16MB card.

Of course, with ebuyer selling a 64MB SmartMedia card for less than £10 i
might just as well get a new 64MB card and shelve the two messed up cards!

Thanks for any info.

Martin.

I have emailed the files for you - read your mail.

B.Pedersen Latitude -31,48.21 Longitude115,47.40 Time=GMT+8.00
If you are curious look here http://www.mapquest.com/maps/latlong.adp
http://www.members.iinet.net.au/~borge

"nesredep egrob" Long. -31,48.21 Lat. 115,47.40 wrote in message
...
On Sun, 29 Aug 2004 09:56:12 +0100, "Martin" wrote:

I have a 1.3MP Fuji @xia - it takes SmartMedia cards.

Recently i bought myself a Zio USB2 Card Reader to use with a Sony Memory
Stick Duo.
As the Zio also supports SmartMedia cards i started to use it with my
camera's cards instead of plugging the camera in via USB.
This is much quicker as the camera plugged in via USB only works at
USB1.1
speed.

Anyway, straight to the point...

I've formatted a couple of SmartMedia cards a few times with the Zio and
when i've used them in my camera again they worked - the camera didn't
need
to format them, they just worked OK.

Now after the same cards have been formatted by the Zio, the cards no
longer
work in my camera.
I get a 'Err' message on the @xia's LCD and zero space available on the
cards.
Plugging the @xia into a TV to get to the setup menu i tried to format
the
cards with the @xia.
I keep getting a 'Card error' message and of course the format fails.

The @xia however works perfectly with two other SmartMedia cards i have -
but these working cards haven't been formatted by my Zio card reader.

I've spent HOURS searching through Google and see that it's a common
problem.
The card reader formats them and makes them incompatible with the camera.
The camera cannot undo the card reader's format or reformat them.
The cards do however work perfectly ok within Windows XP with my card
reader - they're just not accepted by my @xia.

With SmartMedia now being old technology, all the info i've found with
Google is now out of date.
No utilties seem to exist which i can fix the cards with.
I use WinXP and the card reader is a USB2 model - all the fixes i've seen
refer to Win98 and USB1.1 card readers.

A friend of mine has a Win98 pc which has USB1.1 ports - i may take my
card
reader to his pc and try to format them again.
Then i'll probably need to install the Zio's drivers as Win98 has no
native
support for the Zio i believe.
Hoping that once installed i'll find the smprep.exe utility and can fix
the
cards.
Or i may be able to use the smformat.exe utility that i've downloaded -
it
doesn't work with WinXP.

Other than trying the Win98 pc, can anyone suggest a method to fix these
cards?
One is a 32MB card, the other is a 16MB card.

Of course, with ebuyer selling a 64MB SmartMedia card for less than £10 i
might just as well get a new 64MB card and shelve the two messed up
cards!

Thanks for any info.

Martin.

I have emailed the files for you - read your mail.

B.Pedersen Latitude -31,48.21 Longitude115,47.40 Time=GMT+8.00
If you are curious look here http://www.mapquest.com/maps/latlong.adp
http://www.members.iinet.net.au/~borge

Thanks - i received the image files and your email earlier.

Now i'm looking at WinHEX and am lost!
(I have access to a registered Personal version).

Can you give me a quick how-to copy a the image DAT file(s) to the
smartmedia card(s)?

So far...
I have opened the imagefile for a 16MB smartmedia card and put my 16MB
smartmedia card into my Zio card reader.
Tried Select All then Copy the opened 16MB DAT file to the clipboard - and
then was going to Paste it to the opened 16MB smartmedia card.
But after copying the DAT to the clipboard, i select the opened 16MB
smartmedia card and try to Paste it from position zero but Paste is not
enabled.
Maybe i haven't successfully copied the DAT file to the clipboard?

Can you help?
I may try a less complicated hex-editor if i can find a freeware one!

Thanks again.

Martin.

Martin wrote:
"nesredep egrob" Long. -31,48.21 Lat. 115,47.40 wrote in message
...

On Sun, 29 Aug 2004 09:56:12 +0100, "Martin" wrote:


I have a 1.3MP Fuji @xia - it takes SmartMedia cards.

Recently i bought myself a Zio USB2 Card Reader to use with a Sony Memory
Stick Duo.
As the Zio also supports SmartMedia cards i started to use it with my
camera's cards instead of plugging the camera in via USB.
This is much quicker as the camera plugged in via USB only works at

USB1.1

speed.

Anyway, straight to the point...

I've formatted a couple of SmartMedia cards a few times with the Zio and
when i've used them in my camera again they worked - the camera didn't

need

to format them, they just worked OK.

Now after the same cards have been formatted by the Zio, the cards no

longer

work in my camera.
I get a 'Err' message on the @xia's LCD and zero space available on the
cards.
Plugging the @xia into a TV to get to the setup menu i tried to format

the

cards with the @xia.
I keep getting a 'Card error' message and of course the format fails.

The @xia however works perfectly with two other SmartMedia cards i have -
but these working cards haven't been formatted by my Zio card reader.

I've spent HOURS searching through Google and see that it's a common
problem.
The card reader formats them and makes them incompatible with the camera.
The camera cannot undo the card reader's format or reformat them.
The cards do however work perfectly ok within Windows XP with my card
reader - they're just not accepted by my @xia.

With SmartMedia now being old technology, all the info i've found with
Google is now out of date.
No utilties seem to exist which i can fix the cards with.
I use WinXP and the card reader is a USB2 model - all the fixes i've seen
refer to Win98 and USB1.1 card readers.

A friend of mine has a Win98 pc which has USB1.1 ports - i may take my

card

reader to his pc and try to format them again.
Then i'll probably need to install the Zio's drivers as Win98 has no

native

support for the Zio i believe.
Hoping that once installed i'll find the smprep.exe utility and can fix

the

cards.
Or i may be able to use the smformat.exe utility that i've downloaded -

it

doesn't work with WinXP.

Other than trying the Win98 pc, can anyone suggest a method to fix these
cards?
One is a 32MB card, the other is a 16MB card.

Of course, with ebuyer selling a 64MB SmartMedia card for less than £10 i
might just as well get a new 64MB card and shelve the two messed up

cards!

Thanks for any info.

Martin.


I have emailed the files for you - read your mail.

B.Pedersen Latitude -31,48.21 Longitude115,47.40 Time=GMT+8.00
If you are curious look here http://www.mapquest.com/maps/latlong.adp
http://www.members.iinet.net.au/~borge


Thanks - i received the image files and your email earlier.

Now i'm looking at WinHEX and am lost!
(I have access to a registered Personal version).

Can you give me a quick how-to copy a the image DAT file(s) to the
smartmedia card(s)?

So far...
I have opened the imagefile for a 16MB smartmedia card and put my 16MB
smartmedia card into my Zio card reader.
Tried Select All then Copy the opened 16MB DAT file to the clipboard - and
then was going to Paste it to the opened 16MB smartmedia card.
But after copying the DAT to the clipboard, i select the opened 16MB
smartmedia card and try to Paste it from position zero but Paste is not
enabled.
Maybe i haven't successfully copied the DAT file to the clipboard?

Can you help?
I may try a less complicated hex-editor if i can find a freeware one!

Thanks again.

Martin.


There is a unix / linux utility called DD that writes a device
image to a raw device. Also most linux distros have a rawwrite
utility for running under windows machines for the purpose of
creating boot floppies. Here is a link:

ftp://ftp.debian.org/debian/dists/st...rent/dosutils/

The syntax would be rawwrite source dest
where source is the image file, and dest is the flash card device


Now tell me Linux is useless!

On Sun, 29 Aug 2004 13:00:51 +0100, "Martin" wrote:


"nesredep egrob" Long. -31,48.21 Lat. 115,47.40 wrote in message
.. .
On Sun, 29 Aug 2004 09:56:12 +0100, "Martin" wrote:

I have a 1.3MP Fuji @xia - it takes SmartMedia cards.

Recently i bought myself a Zio USB2 Card Reader to use with a Sony Memory
Stick Duo.
As the Zio also supports SmartMedia cards i started to use it with my
camera's cards instead of plugging the camera in via USB.
This is much quicker as the camera plugged in via USB only works at
USB1.1
speed.

Anyway, straight to the point...

I've formatted a couple of SmartMedia cards a few times with the Zio and
when i've used them in my camera again they worked - the camera didn't
need
to format them, they just worked OK.

Now after the same cards have been formatted by the Zio, the cards no
longer
work in my camera.
I get a 'Err' message on the @xia's LCD and zero space available on the
cards.
Plugging the @xia into a TV to get to the setup menu i tried to format
the
cards with the @xia.
I keep getting a 'Card error' message and of course the format fails.

The @xia however works perfectly with two other SmartMedia cards i have -
but these working cards haven't been formatted by my Zio card reader.

I've spent HOURS searching through Google and see that it's a common
problem.
The card reader formats them and makes them incompatible with the camera.
The camera cannot undo the card reader's format or reformat them.
The cards do however work perfectly ok within Windows XP with my card
reader - they're just not accepted by my @xia.

With SmartMedia now being old technology, all the info i've found with
Google is now out of date.
No utilties seem to exist which i can fix the cards with.
I use WinXP and the card reader is a USB2 model - all the fixes i've seen
refer to Win98 and USB1.1 card readers.

A friend of mine has a Win98 pc which has USB1.1 ports - i may take my
card
reader to his pc and try to format them again.
Then i'll probably need to install the Zio's drivers as Win98 has no
native
support for the Zio i believe.
Hoping that once installed i'll find the smprep.exe utility and can fix
the
cards.
Or i may be able to use the smformat.exe utility that i've downloaded -
it
doesn't work with WinXP.

Other than trying the Win98 pc, can anyone suggest a method to fix these
cards?
One is a 32MB card, the other is a 16MB card.

Of course, with ebuyer selling a 64MB SmartMedia card for less than £10 i
might just as well get a new 64MB card and shelve the two messed up
cards!

Thanks for any info.

Martin.

I have emailed the files for you - read your mail.

B.Pedersen Latitude -31,48.21 Longitude115,47.40 Time=GMT+8.00
If you are curious look here http://www.mapquest.com/maps/latlong.adp
http://www.members.iinet.net.au/~borge

Thanks - i received the image files and your email earlier.

Now i'm looking at WinHEX and am lost!
(I have access to a registered Personal version).

Can you give me a quick how-to copy a the image DAT file(s) to the
smartmedia card(s)?

So far...
I have opened the imagefile for a 16MB smartmedia card and put my 16MB
smartmedia card into my Zio card reader.
Tried Select All then Copy the opened 16MB DAT file to the clipboard - and
then was going to Paste it to the opened 16MB smartmedia card.
But after copying the DAT to the clipboard, i select the opened 16MB
smartmedia card and try to Paste it from position zero but Paste is not
enabled.
Maybe i haven't successfully copied the DAT file to the clipboard?

Can you help?
I may try a less complicated hex-editor if i can find a freeware one!

Thanks again.

Martin.

If you have access to the Winhex you are quids in. Try to forget the card. Find
a small file 1 k or so and copy that to the clipboard - now paste it to soome
other place and see if it works.

Even try the instructions below.

If so try a file 10 k or thereabout. There was a time when he made the Editor
write just a small file as an incentive to buy the full version.

If it works, do as follows:

open file (my copy of 16MB not 16 KB.zip)
Goto Edit
select Copy all/Into New File
Select Removable disk and that of course is your smartmedia disk.
That will do it if the editor has not been lamed.

B.Pedersen Latitude -31,48.21 Longitude115,47.40 Time=GMT+8.00
If you are curious look here http://www.mapquest.com/maps/latlong.adp
http://www.members.iinet.net.au/~borge

Well i'm just posting this to close this thread...

I had no success whatsoever trying to fix my Smartmedia cards.
Tried all sorts of methods and utilities.

No problem - a new 64MB Smartmedia card from www.ebuyer.com for less than
£10 (P&P free) is on it's way.

Martin.

Well i'm just posting this to close this thread...

I had no success whatsoever trying to fix my Smartmedia cards.
Tried all sorts of methods and utilities.

No problem - a new 64MB Smartmedia card from www.ebuyer.com for less than
£10 (P&P free) is on it's way.

Martin.