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Hi,

I am new, here, and hope that someone might be able to shed some favorable light on my dilemma.

Very recently, I shot a card (32mb SmartMedia) full of wedding photos, and attempted to pull them up via the card reader which was attached to our previous computer. This, for some odd reason, didn't work (thoguh it had, previous to then). I thought that it might have been the reader, itself, but the computer has, since then, been replaced (it was old & tired, anyway). Our new computer came with a 9-in-1 card reader installed, but the card still can't be read. When the card is inserted, the 'DCIM' folder will pop up. Opening that folder will reveal the '100OLYMP' sub folder. Clicking on that folder will cause the following message to surface:

Disk is not formatted
The disk in drive I is not formatted
Do you want to format it now?

I have even tried to get the card to open on about five or six other computers at Circuit City, the other day - but all to no avail. The photos will open, on the camera itself, but can't be brought up by any other means. I had even purchased a USB cable for the camera, but that proved to be fruitless also. These photos are so very precious, to us, and I hope that there is a way to get them into the computer. Formatting would serve to better matters of future photographic concerns, but would (as you know) erase the pictures that we long to keep. Any ideas?

__________________
Blessings,

Nathan

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You said you purchased a USB cable for the camera -- did you install the drivers for the camera also?? (might be a dumb question but you never know) I own that camera and I always downloaded via the USB cable/camera setup and you need them installed. If you did not install them, there may be a problem getting it to work as you should always install the drivers prior to hooking up the camera to the PC. Hope this helps. If the camera took the photos they should download to the Olympus software at least.

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Jlpriestley,

First off, thanks for a speedy reply to my queried concerns. Secondly, the answer to your question about drivers is 'negative'. However, the very nice salesperson at Circuit City (who spent a huge amount of time trying to help me out) downloaded a driver from the Olympus website, and then tried to grab the photos via the USB cable. I don't know (and neither did he) what the heck was going on, because the computer would not recognize the camera at all. There wasn't an available driver, there, for WinXP - just for Win2000 (or NT, it might have been). I am far from being a computer techie, and don't know if the driver for the latter might be the same for XP. But he seemed to think that it should have worked. As the camera was purchased used, I do not have the Camedia software, which I am told came bundled with these newly purchased cameras. I now wonder if the driver would only function for that particular program. It just exasperates me as to why this card cannot be read in the computer's card reader. The Circuit City fellow explained that SmartMedia cards do go bad, over time, and I can understand this. But I would think that "going bad" would translate into 'nothing' happening on the card - rather than what I am experiencing. I also wonder whether this camera had a defective USB port when I bought it. I have had it for a few years, now, and have always used either a floppy disk adapter or card reader for my uploadings. It looks like I may have lost out on all those beautiful (and very memorable) photos that were taken.

.........................................................................................................

UPDATE: Just to see if another card might suffer the same affliction (and also to make a determination that it wasn't a problematic issue with the camera unit itself) I formatted the card in my daughter's camera and took a few shots. After inserting it into my computer's card reader, the photo information jumped out of the folders with no problem. I was able to pull up the photos just as I had done before the above stated problem. So there must indeed be a problem with the card in my camera.

__________________
Blessings,

Nathan

Last edited by NLAlston on Jun 13th, 2004 at 07:38 AM

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Nathan,

Two other options, one of which you may have tried.

Try the card in another camera?? You said you tried your daughters camera (same model??) with a new card; try the old one. (granted you may have already done this)

Secondly, if the pictures sho up on the camera, they are indeed there in some form or another. There are companies out there that specialize in pulling data from faulty cards and drives - ie: a crashed hard drive on a PC. No doubt they could grab any data on the SM card and get it for you. I really have no idea how much it costs to do this but I would guess that someone on here knows, or the info could be easily found with a quick web search. Don't give up yet -- unless the pictures are not THAT special.

I had one or two cards go bad on my C-3000 also. They kind of became intermittenton me then I gave up on them not wanting to take a chance. Finally I waited for a good sale with a rebate and purchased a 128MB card (the max for the model I believe) and just left it in the camera all the time (downloads and all) and it has given me no problem. Now I rarely use it as I upgraded to a D-SLR .

As for the software, Olympus may in fact have the basic software available to download in addition to the drivers, or maybe the previous owner?? If you can't find it and want it, get back to me and perhaps I can burn a copy for you to try and install. It's not photoshop, but it is easy to use and does the basics.

Good luck.

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Jlpriestley,

First, let me say that it was very thoughtful & considerate of you to consider burning me a copy of your Camedia software, but I do have about four photo editing programs laying around here - one of them being PhotoShop 7. A very big thanks, anyway.

I did try my card in my daughter's camera (Olympus D-340R), which immediately brought up the card formatting screen. Her card also had to be formatted in my camera, first, but worked flawlessly after that.

Yes, these photos are so VERY, VERY meaningful to us, and I am willing to do just about anything to retrieve them from the camera. You have provided a glimmer of hope, in your given direction toward companies which specialize in pulling data from defective media devices. I will truly effectuate a search for one. I am nowhere near being financially well-healed, but these photos are more than worth whatever the cost of such service.

__________________
Blessings,

Nathan

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Jlpriestley,

You will never guess what happened, and I wish to share this for anyone else who may find themselves faced (or to be faced) with a similar condition.

I searched the 'net for "Data Recovery" services, and did happen to find a number of them. The cheapest price was $40 for a one-shot service deal. Another, charged a $50 (no return) fee whether they were successful or not. Checking a little further, I happened to find a downloadable demo version of a data recovery program, and I gave it a whirl. I nearly fell out of my chair when this program pulled the photo file information from my card. However, the program (being only a demo version) only showed about 1/4 of each photo - but that was enough to convince me. I immediately went back to the site, paid the $39.95 for the 'personal' license. I had to delete the previously retrieved photos, as they were pulled before the license code number was entered. But when I next traveled through the process, all of our photos showed up in their beautiful fullness. I have you to thank for the seed of awareness that you planted in me, for I was at the point where I didn't know what we were going to do. These photos meant just that much, because my children were a part of it.

The program is called "FileScavenger" (I opted for ver. 2.1), and can be found at this site: [url]http://quetek.com/.

THANK YOU EVER SO MUCH!!

__________________
Blessings,

Nathan

Last edited by NLAlston on Jun 14th, 2004 at 12:29 AM

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Nice to see a happy ending. Glad it worked for you!

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I read this site earlier today cause I had a problem with my Olympus D460..I got that 'format disk' error. Didnt want to reformat! I went to a drugstore nearby and they had this kiosk called "Aladdin," which was able to get the images off the now-discarded SmartReader ship, and move em over to a CD. I went to a "Longs" here in SF, but Walgreens also has them, and I think Target does too. It works well- it helped us out a lot! You can see the photo results here:

http://skunktrain.blogspot.com

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Brinke,

I don't know if I'd mentioned it in one of my earlier posts, but I had also tried a couple of those photo Kiosks at Walgreens, and they weren't able to help in my situation. I am really glad that it worked out for you, and wished that it had for me. For it would have cost me somewhat less to have had our photos pulled from that disk. I didn't mind paying the $39.95 for that 'Filescavenger' program because - as stated before - those photos ment just that much to us. But how many times will I have a need for that program? Maybe never again. But it's here just in case.

__________________
Blessings,

Nathan

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i am also having problams w/ this device i have the driver and such (yes i pluged it in and turned on the cam) i fire up a program in fedora core 2 called gphoto2 i c the pictures i can get the folder but when i try to save these pictures it makes it about 1/4 of the way then gives me crap about it.

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they have chocklate milk now?

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Flashguardian ( http://www.flashguardian.com ) will recover photos off all types of flash memory cards and USB keys. They have the advantage of not charging you anything at all if they don't manage to get any photos off (unlike anyone else I've discovered). They charge from 25 pounds, and are very helpful if you e-mail them.

Last edited by dsw11 on Oct 21st, 2004 at 08:30 PM

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Hi - I have a similar problem with my C-3000. Only a little bit different - I have the USB drivers installed - when i plug the camera in with the USB cable, I get the icon in my system tray that shows a connected hardware device - when I double click on that, it says "Olympus Digital Camera". Here is the problem: I can't get anything off the camera. I have a brand new 128 MB smart card in it. The camera doesn't show up as an extra drive or anything, there is no way to browse the camera for the pictures. I am using WIN XP, I've tried downloader, cam2pc, and neither of them detected my camera properly. I don't want or need the Camedia software, and I bought this camera used (without the software). There has to be some program or something I can use to explore the camera and get the pics off the smart card...any ideas? Thanks
Todd

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