Card Failure

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Big Al

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I had a nasty experience yesterday. After what I thought was a fairly productive photo shoot, when I got home, Lightroom said there were no images on the card. Windows said the card needed to be formatted. I put the card back in the camera (Z8) and got a FORMAT error. I reformatted the card and it seems to be fine. I thought back on the day and remembered that I changed batteries at the end of the shoot. I am always careful to turn off the camera when changing batteries, but in this case, I don't specifically remember doing so. This is the only explanation I can come up with. Has this ever happened to anyone else?
 
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It’s never happened to me but I make it a habit to turn off the camera before removing a battery. I’m sorry your images are not recoverable.
 
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No idea still if the only 'card failure' I experienced with the Z9 was related to 'power' but your experience reminded me of my incidence. I was shooting for several hours in deep, deep cold (-35C) and the battery died; many of the shots on the card, which I had reviewed in camera were not on the card when I went to download the images. Now a couple years later the details are sketchy in my memory but I also got a formatting error with the card at some point, which did not persist, and in fact that card is still in rotation in my camera. All to say, given the nature of electronics I just assumed it was the power 'distruption' playing a random chance influence in the problem.
 
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ssheipel said:
No idea still if the only 'card failure' I experienced with the Z9 was related to 'power' but your experience reminded me of my incidence. I was shooting for several hours in deep, deep cold (-35C) and the battery died; many of the shots on the card, which I had reviewed in camera were not on the card when I went to download the images. Now a couple years later the details are sketchy in my memory but I also got a formatting error with the card at some point, which did not persist, and in fact that card is still in rotation in my camera. All to say, given the nature of electronics I just assumed it was the power 'distruption' playing a random chance influence in the problem.
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Thank you for your comments. Your experience does have some similarities.
 
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Big Al said:
I had a nasty experience yesterday. After what I thought was a fairly productive photo shoot, when I got home, Lightroom said there were no images on the card. Windows said the card needed to be formatted. I put the card back in the camera (Z8) and got a FORMAT error. I reformatted the card and it seems to be fine. I thought back on the day and remembered that I changed batteries at the end of the shoot. I am always careful to turn off the camera when changing batteries, but in this case, I don't specifically remember doing so. This is the only explanation I can come up with. Has this ever happened to anyone else?
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Sounds like what happened was the master file table got messed up when you pulled the battery, and while the files were likely still there and recoverable, the mft was corrupt and didn't know how to identify all the files on the card.
 
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John Navitsky said:
the other thing is imo you shouldn't WRITE to the card on the computer. basically format on the camera, copy the files off to the computer but never modify things from the computer.

personally i format cards EVERY time i put it in the camera.
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Good advice. I never Wright to the card from the computer either unless I am updating firmware. And I always reformat when I insert a card. I am not sure if the camera was on when this happened. I'm trying to find someone who KNOWS their camera was on (by mistake, of course) and had a similar experience.
 
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This is probably too late - but often times if you just do a "quick" format of the card, the files can still be recoverable with the right recovery software. All bets are off with a "full" format. A "quick" format essentially just rewrites the card's table of contents, where as a full format will rewrite the table of contents and then clears off each page (the analogy breaks down a bit, but you get the idea.)
 
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dupcak said:
This is probably too late - but often times if you just do a "quick" format of the card, the files can still be recoverable with the right recovery software. All bets are off with a "full" format. A "quick" format essentially just rewrite the cards table of contents, where as a full format will rewrite the table of contents and then clears off each page (the analogy breaks down a bit, but you get the idea.)
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good points.

i recommended a full format after experiencing a problem to allow it to go over the ENTIRE card so if there were any parts of the card that had problems you'd run into it and know the card was bad. i also recommend doing this at least once with new cards before using them for the same reason

for day to day operations this is unnecessary and a quick format is usually what you want
 
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There is file recovery software available that might have been able to save your photos. I would not do anything to a card if it had files on it that I might want. Use another card instead.
 
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Nimi said:
I probably waste money needlessly, but when I get a corrupt card, I toss it.
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generally speaking, i have a similar inclination. but i will say you CAN get corruption issues that aren't an actual problem with the card, so i tend to more try to do some steps to determine if i think if the card is bad or if something just hiccuped. and even if i think that i proceed with caution
 
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John Navitsky said:
generally speaking, i have a similar inclination. but i will say you CAN get corruption issues that aren't an actual problem with the card, so i tend to more try to do some steps to determine if i think if the card is bad or if something just hiccuped. and even if i think that i proceed with caution
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I don't know how to proceed with caution. I can't risk footage, and I won't have confidence in the card, especially for client video work. I stress the cards as it is...
 
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I would consider the card suspect until you can verify it does not have bad sectors. Bad sectors where the FAT data is located can result in images not found as the location data for the file markers is not available.

A worthwhile exercise is to copy enough image files to the card to fill it up and then to view them all with Bridge or other application that does not simply grab the embedded thumbnail. It is very easy to spot a partial image being displayed or a file that cannot be loaded for viewing.
 
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I had a possibly related incident the other day chasing Orcas. There was a group incoming, I made 15 minute trek to the end of the beach. When I got there I turned on the Z8 to check settings and take a few test shots, Delkin Power 128, sandisk sd card in slot 2, top LCD read card not able to be read, I don't remember the exact message but that's at least close. I had just changed the battery at the car, and the card had been quick formatted before leaving the house. Panic struck as I had no other cards with me. I removed the Delkin and re-inserted, no change. Turned the camera off & on again a few times, no change. Removed the battery and re-inserted and all was well. Shot 1200 photos that day with no further issues. I have to assume it was the camera and not the card(s). Possibly a connection not quite right with the battery but the camera turned off & on and read the error so there was power.
 
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Each time I had a problem such as this with a camera the problem was with the memory card. The Nikon digital cameras are programmed to write the sensor output data to the card in a synchronous manner and if the card cannot write the data for any reason, there is no error recovery and the camera locks in the middle of the routine. People experienced similar problems in the days of floppy disks as the write times were so slow that read verification, unlike with hard drives, did not take place.
 
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Calson said:
Each time I had a problem such as this with a camera the problem was with the memory card. The Nikon digital cameras are programmed to write the sensor output data to the card in a synchronous manner and if the card cannot write the data for any reason, there is no error recovery and the camera locks in the middle of the routine. People experienced similar problems in the days of floppy disks as the write times were so slow that read verification, unlike with hard drives, did not take place.
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This is important - thanks for explaining. Nikon cameras have a check routine and the camera gives you an error message and stops shooting if there is any kind of corruption that prevents the file from being written correctly. This does slow writing files slightly, but it's better because you can't keep shooting with a corrupt card. This is why you can often get the files off the card even when there is a problem.
 
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