HELP! The Picture Is In My Computer, But Not On My SD Card Anymore!

[cam10ra]

OK, here is how it all started. I put my SD card into the port on my computer and started viewing the pictures. I then selected a certain picture, clicked File > Make A Copy.... Then I selected that the copy be located in the My Pictures folder. Is was created there as a JPEG Image.

However, once I put the SD card back into my camera, I proceeded to view the pictures, but when I get to the one I made a Copy of, it says "File Contains No Image Data" in blue letters against a white background.

So....what happened? Is there any way I can fix it? Can I put a picture from my computer onto my SD card?

The Camera is Nikon Coolpix.

Thank you all so much for any help you can give me!

[Photo-John]

I'm not sure how it happened. If you selected the copy option it shouldn't have done anything to the file on your card. However, sometimes stuff gets messed up with cameras, computers and digital files. That's just how it goes. The good news is you can copy the file back to your card. If you're using a Windows computer you can just drag and drop it from your computer onto your card.

The bigger issue here is your overall workflow. Workflow is how you handle your images between the camera, computer, etc. It's your big picture strategy, image management if you will. Let me make a few suggestions that will help you better store and protect your photos.

1) Get a card reader. Using a dedicated card reader means you don't have to use your camera's crappy software or plug your camera into the computer. Most of us on this site use card readers instead of connecting our cameras to the computer.

2) Don't view your images on the memory card. This is dangerous - as you just discovered. The card is for storage, not viewing.

3) At regular intervals (I do it after every shoot), copy all of your images from the memory card to your computer. Use your computer for storage and not your memory card. Memory cards can get lost, stolen or corrupted. They're not a good way to store your digital photos.

4) Format your memory card at regular intervals. Again, I do it every time I copy my images to the computer. Formatting your card not only deletes all the images, it also restructures it correctly so that it's more stable and less likely to have corruption problems (like you just had) down the line.

I hope that helps. The problem you had isn't really a big deal since you can copy your image back. But I wanted to give you a better long-term strategy for managing and protecting your digital photos. The way you're doing it now is very risky and liable to end in tragedy. You can still store some images on your card to share with friends. But make sure you are saving everything on your computer in case something happens to your memory card or camera. My mom recently left her camera on the plane. She wasn't so upset about losing the camera. It was the photos that were the real loss.

Oh yeah - welcome to the site!

[cam10ra]

Thanks a lot for the welcome and for all of the great suggestions. You really went above and beyond to tell me some pretty interesting information. However, I still do have a few questions on what you said.

1) What do you mean by "card reader"? My laptop has a port on it for inserting an SD card; is this good enough?

2) OK, so I should copy images from the card to the computer and view them that way rather than just directly from the card? Does this rule include not viewing the images directly on the camera?

Thanks for the clarification. This really is an informative site!

[Photo-John]

I'm happy I was able to help. I do think we try to go the extra mile here. I built this site on the premises that there are no stupid questions and everyone deserves to be helped and learn. I could tell from your post that you would benefit from having a better photo management strategy. I'm glad you came back and appreciated my advice

Now, to answer your new questions...

1) What do you mean by "card reader"? My laptop has a port on it for inserting an SD card; is this good enough?

Yup - that's a built-in card reader and it will work just fine.

2) OK, so I should copy images from the card to the computer and view them that way rather than just directly from the card? Does this rule include not viewing the images directly on the camera?[/QUOTE]

This rule does not apply to viewing images on the camera. The only thing that can go wrong when you're viewing images on the camera is you could get confused and delete something by accident. That's not likely, though. But when you're plugged into the computer it's a lot easier for something to go wrong and corrupt an image file. Or you could get confused about whether you're looking at an image on the camera or the computer and delete the wrong one. I always transfer all my files to the computer and then remove the card from the reader (or unplug the camera) and then double-check to make sure the photos are actually on the computer. Only then do I start editing or deleting images.

Happy New Year!

[cam10ra]

Thanks for the elaboration. I certainly appreciate the advice.

1) Great. I'm glad I asked so I didn't have to go out and buy a piece of equipment that I did not need.

2) I'm glad It's OK to view the images from the camera since this is usually how I view/show them anyways. I'm going to assume that there's less of a chance of image file corruption if I just batch-copy all of the file from the card to the computer.

Keep up the great work.