Memory card seems to de-format while using..?

[susaan]

I have a Transcend 4G compact flash card in my 40D,nice and fast,but while out this morning,it suddenly stopped working,due to card becoming unformatted,and it did the same thing,yesterday.
Returning home,I inserted it into a card reader & got the pics off,no problems,re- formatted using Windows right click quick format (as I do every time,after taking off pics.)

Is it better to re-format on the camera for this card/camera combo ?

Funny thing is,I'm pretty sure the same thing happened with my Sony Cybershot,last week,and it takes a pro duo stick,so I am either looking at 2 incidents with cards,or a computer problem,and need a a replacement for the formatter.

Any suggestions welcome !

PS I'll do some virus scanning,just in case,but would be surprised if anything got thro' my security,as had huge pro help putting it together.(All windows patches up-to-date,auto-run disabled,etc,etc.)

[gryphonslair99]

Don't format the card in the card reader. Format it in the camera.

[freygr]

The memory card should not unformat under any circumstance. The fact that you can get your photos off the card means that it is not the card or card reader. I would make sure that your camera's firmware is up to date and there is not any physical problem with the CF card slot. I never format the card as it adds unneeded write cycles to a finite number of write cycles, I just move or delete the photo and let the cards firmware reallocate to even the write cycles for longer card life. One other thing I do is to rotate my cards also the spread the usage among my CF cards and this also servers as a backup until I need a card even if I moved or deleted the photos as they are recoverable until over written.

[JamesV]

I agree with both above.

For years I never formatted my cards in with either the computer or camera and I never had any problems.

I just recently formatted all my cards with the two cameras that they are going to be used with.

So if you are going to format your cards do so in the camera. But you also don't have to format them either.

James

[Frog]

I re-format mine every time after loading them onto comp.
Never had a problem.

[susaan]

Thanks,guys,you always come thro' for me !

Since formatting in my camera,no problems,and will take care of updating the firmware,next day I'm home.

I'll also drop by my Canon dealership,introduce myself and ask them to take a look at the memory card slot.

[gryphonslair99]

Thanks,guys,you always come thro' for me !

Since formatting in my camera,no problems,and will take care of updating the firmware,next day I'm home.

I'll also drop by my Canon dealership,introduce myself and ask them to take a look at the memory card slot.

Glad to see you are not having the problem any longer. If you always format in the camera you should have no problems. I have 10 cards that I use for shooting and after downloading all the pictures via a card reader I always reformat the card instead of erase it in the camera. I have never had a card issue with doing this and I am a Canon shooter.

[susaan]

This answer from an online friend might explain more about my problems - the Canon is fine,but both Sony and MP3 players are still having problems,so running a Hijack scan to see if anything weird is happening.

"If you are using XP, (which I am ) it might format as FAT32 but I think some cards might be formatted VFAT, which is actually the 16 bit. Maybe that's the problem - windows doesn't format the best possible way in this instance."

[freygr]

This answer from an online friend might explain more about my problems - the Canon is fine,but both Sony and MP3 players are still having problems,so running a Hijack scan to see if anything weird is happening.

"If you are using XP, (which I am ) it might format as FAT32 but I think some cards might be formatted VFAT, which is actually the 16 bit. Maybe that's the problem - windows doesn't format the best possible way in this instance."

Just use FAT16 which is the DOS 2.1 to 6.xx file format. You can choose it when you have the format window open. But for best results use your camera to format or reformat your memory cards.