SDHC card not recognized

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stuck
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SDHC card not recognized

Post by stuck »

First up, I know there is a difference between SD and SDHC cards so I know you can't read an SDHC card with a SD card reader.

The problem is despite this knowledge and using SDHC compatible hardware we (i.e. stuckling1 and myself) have a TDK 4Gb SDHC card that is not recognized when either it is inserted into a SDHC compatible camera connected to a Vista laptop or when it is inserted into a SDHC card reader plugged into an XP box.

We were hoping to recover images from the card but since (at the moment) we can't get it to be even recognised we can't even abandon that idea and just reformat the card to at least get a working card back.

Any suggestions?

Ken

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jonwallace
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Re: SDHC card not recognized

Post by jonwallace »

4GB SDHC cards do seem to be a problem with XP, if Google is anything to go by. I have one that reads quite happily on my Linux netbook, but I can't get XP to see. Plugging the camera in worked for me, but only via the camera wizard thingy. (which was no use as I wanted to transfer ebooks to my el cheepo Android tablet).

This forum discussion here mentions a hotfix from Microsoft. I can't remember whether I tried it or not, but I did try a new card reader (to no avail)
John

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stuck
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Re: SDHC card not recognized

Post by stuck »

From my reading of similar Google searches the majority of the problems seem to be that people are trying to read an SDHC card with a non-HC compatible reader. That's not the issue here, putting the SDHC card into a proper SDHC reader connected to an XP box simply locks up the XP machine, the card is not recognised. Similarly, putting the card into an SDHC compatible camera and connecting it to a Vista laptop is unsuccessful, the card is not recognised.

Your comment about using the camera wizard is interesting, we've not tried that yet (since we don't have the original camera the card came out of) but it sounds like something to try.

Ken

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stuckling1
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Re: SDHC card not recognized

Post by stuckling1 »

I've just remembered that my laptop's internal card reader (which was the first thing we tried it in!) IS SDHC compatible - I've had an 8GB card in there in the past.

Maybe the card has died, which is why the pics were lost in the first place... :( Still, we've not given up yet!

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wasbit
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Re: SDHC card not recognized

Post by wasbit »

I don't want to send you off on a wild goose chase but I seem to recall that there was at one time a 2GB limit for the reading device.
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wasbit

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stuck
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Re: SDHC card not recognized

Post by stuck »

wasbit wrote:a 2GB limit for the reading device.
I think that is why SDHC was developed, to get round the limit / as a successor to SD.

This problem card is a reputable brand (TDK), is clearly labelled SDHC and we've tried it in two most definitely SDHC compatible readers, a camera (but not the one it originally came out of) and a proper card reader. Neither device even recognises the card.

We are still hoping to:
1) try it in the original camera
2) try it in a reader on a MAC
3) try it in a reader on a Linux box

At the moment though option 1) is the only one open to us as we've not tracked down the kit for 2) or 3) as yet.

Ken

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stuck
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Re: SDHC card not recognized

Post by stuck »

update...

I've been able to try reading this card using a SDHC reader attached to a Win 7 machine. No joy. As soon as the card is inserted into the slot that drive just dies / locks up / stops responding.

Also tried it an another camera but the camera just asks you to reinsert the card.

It really does look like this card is absolutely unrecoverable. Since no device can even see it, it can't even be reformatted.

Ken

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stuckling1
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Re: SDHC card not recognized

Post by stuckling1 »

Oh. That's unfortunate :(

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stuck
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Re: SDHC card not recognized

Post by stuck »

It might serve as a coaster for a very small cup :grin:

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Bigaldoc
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Re: SDHC card not recognized

Post by Bigaldoc »

How 'bout the original camera you mentioned? I wonder if that camera applied some proprietary formatting to the card. May not help you get the images from it, but...

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stuck
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Re: SDHC card not recognized

Post by stuck »

Don't know Al, it's a thought and we will try the original camera - eventually. It's the middle of school exam season here and both stuckling1 and the friend the card belongs to are a busy making sure they get the grades they need to go the universities of their choice.

Meanwhile, I may be being a bit paranoid here, you know what they say, "If it sounds too god to be true it probably is." but this company apparently can work miracles:
http://card-recovery.biz/us/service.php

Hefty price tag though: http://card-recovery.biz/us/rules.php

Ken

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stuckling1
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Re: SDHC card not recognized

Post by stuckling1 »

stuck wrote:Hefty price tag though


Hefty? You call that hefty? I call that super-duper-industrial strength-hefty! I guess it's a difficult job.

I'll tell you for free she won't want to spend that much on it. Coffee shops pay do pay their part-time baristtas, but not that much! I think if we can't do it ourselves, we'll have to give it up for lost. :\

As it is, I made it clear to her not to expect miricals - she's just glad we've had a try.

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viking33
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Re: SDHC card not recognized

Post by viking33 »

You two communicate via the Lounge? :grin: :scratch: :innocent:
BOB
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StuartR
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Re: SDHC card not recognized

Post by StuartR »

stuckling1 wrote:...Hefty? You call that hefty? I call that super-duper-industrial strength-hefty! I guess it's a difficult job.
...
Once upon a time, in a far and distant place, I used to do data recovery from disks that couldn't be mounted. This was so long ago that Bill Gates hadn't even sold MS DOS to IBM yet, so the file system wasn't NTFS or FAT, and the operating system definitely wasn't windows.

I wrote a recovery tool that used to scan the entire drive looking for things that could be valid file headers or index file segments. This would spit out a long list of disk sectors that I then had to manually review. I then stitched together the maximum number of these that I could to create new meta data on the drive, and I finally rebuilt all the remaining required metadata by hand. This took a long time and we charged a lot of money for it.
StuartR


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stuck
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Re: SDHC card not recognized

Post by stuck »

viking33 wrote:You two communicate via the Lounge? :grin: :scratch: :innocent:
:yep: :whisper: but only when we're not in the same place at the same time, we do actually talk to each other when we are both at home :grin:

Ken