Big problem with PQI SmartMedia 128MB: After the card was fully written I waited to end up the writing operation, took it out of my C-4040 and shot with the next card on a payed job(!). Later I inserted the full card again into the camera for downloading the images. Suddenly there was one image left, and then, I couldnīt believe, the card was no more readable by the computer, as I tried to pass the images via USB to my iBook. I donīt want to format the disk, because there are still 50 super important images on it, which I have to deliver. I tried also my Mausb-2 card reader, with the same result: "Disk not readable by this computer. Do you want to intilialize?"

Any ideas to format or make it readable without loosing everything?

P.S.: As I shot in sequence and switched while the camera was writing to the view mode, it crashed!(normally not) I had to open and close the battery compartment cover and she was back.

Hoping for help, Frank

-- Frank B. (flashlight66@oninet.pt), September 30, 2001

Answers

For some reason the PQI destroys the first copy of the FAT on the card by filling it with the hex value FF. You can you any disk utility like Nortons or WinHex and copy the 2nd FAT on the card (which is still good) to the first FAT. I had to do this on mine, when some valuable data seemed to be lost after I had put the card in the PQI reader.

-- Ron Diol (rsdiol@mail.com), November 29, 2001.