Digital cameras forum: Cannot erase my 128 Impact SD Card

I tried that before asking for help. I know about that little knob, and I never slide it to the lock position. Just to make sure that it was not in the lock position, I moved it, tried everything, moved it back again, tried everything again and ... guess what? The pictures are still there. They cannot be erased. The SD card is, somehow, READ -ONLY.

That SD card cost me $15, the brand is IMPACT and I think that THAT is the problem. I just bought a LEXAR at Wal-Mart for $20. Works perfectly on the camera. Th eoter one lasted like 100 photos.

I as well bought the IMPACT SD CARD at WalMArt at the sale. I bought 2 of them. They worked for me until like maybe 3 days ago. Now it is saying that card is not fromatted and when it tries to format it, saids it cant.
I have no clue why it has happen all of the sudden. I have taken maybe 2000 plus pictures and videos with them. I have no other problems with my smaller cards.
What can I do to get it to format..??
Thanks for any help

Crystal

Another victim to add to the list of unsatisfied walmart purchasers. I was using my 1GB sd card to store data on my computer for quick transfer to my laptop. Now, all of my computers try to format the card when attempting to read data from it, with a "could not format" warning at the end of the format attempt. The card is completely unaccessable. I will not make the mistake of buying electronics or media storage devices from Walmart again.

davey007,

First, why are you being such an a**hole posting useless information with all that attitude. Second I have a San Disk with the exact same problems described. I'm still looking for a solution. Don't bother trying to help.

I think it has been on the SD card from day one.

Sometimes it accidently gets moved to the locked position. It is to prevent someone from writing over photos on a card. Just a safety device. But most people never use it.

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I wonder if you have some card reader or device that is zapping your cards? If so, the move to CF will cure that unless the card reader is not changed as well.

Bob

I have knowledge of another person that wrote to me with the same problem with the IMPACT memory card. This may be a pattern if we can locate other people with same symptoms. I just want to give some visibility to the problem so people are aware that thsi may happen to their IMPACT cards.

They were bough in STAPLES and I don't know which one is the manufacturer. So far, we have knolwledge of 2 IMPACT companies that manufacture memory cards but don't know which one is the manufacturer:

#1
Impact Components Ltd
HL6 Haw Lane
Saunderton
High Wycombe
HP14 4AS(Road Map)
Buckinghamshire
Tel: 01844 274479
Fax: 01844 274536

and

#2
Unison Impact Products.
The number is #800-333-1541.


I am more inclined to think it is the UK company bacaus eof thsi distributor located in UK:

http://www.dealclick.co.uk/brand/IMPACT/sd-memory-cards.php

Bob, the last post was confusing to me also. Still cannot understand the addresses he posted and why? Free Help?
Thanks,

-Kevin

Received the message now!
Really hard to understand some of these posts and their intent. Very difficult to understand a post in the firt place if someone is just looking for free help.
New poster?
Thanks, Bob, for watching out for us.

-Kevin

BUt the iamges remain individually, not in a trash folder

I had a card that temporarily locked up on me once.
Try looking at the card as a drive in "My Computer" in Windows.
Do this by mounting the card in a reader or the camera & connect it to your computer. Turning the camera on should create a drive in "My Computer". Right click on the new "DRV" or "Removable DisK" (the drive letter will vary), and select "Properties" from the menu. Select the "Tools" tab and the "Check Now" radio button in Error Checking. You should then see a couple of options to repair errors & recover files.
Do it.
After you have recovered your files, reformat it using your op system and, if need be, again with the camera.

I thought I had a bad card too. After going through this I never had another problem with it and have used it for several years in several cameras.
I suspect that a "low power" or power loss during a write garbled up the MFT of the card. I now keep a closer eye on my battery level & keep a spare batt on hand....hope this helps someone.

Note that some SD cards' write protection switches may be loose. When inserting into a tight PDA SD card slot, it may be loose enough that the switch is getting slided to the on position. If you're not willing to replace it, you could try a drop of lucite adhesive to keep it in place.

If you've got an SD card reader for your PC, see if your PC can reformat/modify it from there. Else, it may be "uber" corrupt in which not even formatting can help, which I have never heard of bef.