Camera as removable disk - XP wants to format

[mfargis]

Here is a mystery. Sorry for the lengthy post, but all the clues are here:

I just bought an Olympus C-765UZ digital camera, and am using an Olympus 1GB xD card in the camera. Like many such cameras, there are no special drivers for WinXP - you just connect the USB cable, and XP sees the camera as a removable drive.

I have plugged this camera into both another desktop and a laptop and have no trouble viewing and/or downloading the pictures. However, when I plug it into my desktop and attempt to access the removable drive, I get the message:

" Disk in drive G: is not formatted. Do you want to format it now?"

Of course, I do not want XP to format my xD card, especially when it is working fine in the camera and when connected to 2 other computers. I have searched and searched for a fix to this problem.

Here are a few other facts:
1. I have duplicated the problem using my daughter's identical camera (w/ 256MB xD card) - works fine on other computers, while mine wants to format the drive.
2. I also duplicated the problem using a card reader, so it is pretty clearly my desktop - not the camera, or the xD card.
3. Both desktops are running XP Pro, laptop running XP Home, all with SP2.

Any ideas why my desktop sees this card/camera as unformatted?

 

[H4x3r]

i dont knwo why it sees is as unformatted.....but you might actually try formatting it....it cant really hurt anything....so if i were you i would try that (btw i work with professinal cameras one is the canon Eos 1D Mark II and another is the 1D....and i've never had any trouble with the cards after format)

 

[mfargis]

The problem appears no matter what xD card I use, so I tried formatting an extra card I have. Making sure to use FAT (and not FAT32) I attempted to format the card, but kept getting the "cannot complete the format" message. My guess is that the same problem that causes my computer to see the card as unformatted also prevents the computer from completing the format.

Ideas, anyone?

 

[Jamil]

It seems like an issue with your camera and operating system. I would first see if you can find Windows XP drivers and/or utilities to install for your particular camera. If you cannot find these, I would look into buying a USB card reader. Some card readers do not require drivers to be installed, but some do.

At work, I have a USB Dazzle CF card reader that I simply plug-in and works. I did not have to install a single driver under Windows 2000 (that is what I run at work). At home, however, I have a 6 in 1 card reader that does have drivers and a format utility that I had to install. It is installed in a 3.5 inch drive bay and connected to the main board. I run Win XP Pro at home.

 

[mfargis]

There are no special drivers for the camera/xD card. As I mention above, the camera works fine on two other XP systems and the same problem exists on my PC whether I use the camera or card reader. I believe I have isolated the problem to my PC - either a hardware, OS or conflicting driver. Beyond that I am stumped.

 

[EricB]

you have something corrupt on your computer. I had this problem before and I had a corrupted hard drive

 

[mfargis]

I am certain that something is corrupted, because now I cannot burn a CD or DVD either. I can read them fine, but cannot write to the disks because the drive does not recognize them.

Tried the PowerMax utility, but everything checked out. Also looked for deleted files, but wouldn't know which of the many listed were necessary. I guess it is time for an XP reinstall.

 

[mfargis]

XP reinstall was a big hassle (it always is) but it solved the problem. All removable drives and writeable media drives are once again fully functional.

 

[EricB]

Funny you bring this up. I had this guy computer who had the same problem as you (even with the dvd drives). the computer would stop when you put a dvd movie in a dvd rom and it would crash when your a dvd in the dvd burner. this thing was he had no viruses or spyware. I alway try to fix a computer first (I format as a last resort). We were on it for a long time. I uninstall his dvd ide and removable drives. no luck. I unhook all of the drives and hooked them one at a time. no luck

Finally we just formatted. all of the problems disappeared.