Can someone please help! I load my memory stick into my camera (Sony DSC-S70) take a picture, file is there no problem, yet. Powerdown camera, remove memory stick, insert in card reader on pc (tried mac as well) see picture, eject card properly, insert back in camera and power up. As soon as camera comes up "Format error" appears. I have to re-format the stick to take new pictures do the same all over again and when I put the stick back in the camera I get the same "Format Error 13-01" error message. What the heck is going on? Arghhhhhhh!

-- Randy Collins (rabasake@shaw.ca), April 26, 2003

Answers

Hello,I've got the same f**king problem !!! But I have another question:Does is damage my memorystick when I format it 2 or 3 times a day ? Greetings from Holland

-- Dennis van den Bogaert (carp1970@hotmail.com), May 06, 2003.

I have had the same problem and i have found a way to get my pics! I put the stick in the card reader. I let run the windows tool (i do this on a pc with windows me) defrag. I become the answere: there is a mistake at the stick, let run scandisk. I do it an get a lot of files like : file0057.chk I change chk into jpg ... and i get back my pics. greetings gabi/germany

-- gabi (gabi_w_z@web.de), May 25, 2003.

I have had the same problem twice. Does formating between uses solve the problem? Has anyone contacted Sony about it? Please let me know. rd1769@yahoo.com Rich

-- Rich Davis (rd1769@yahoo.com), May 25, 2003.

I also have these problem today,but i don't have to get that pictures now,I just want to get it to work,but it even don't let me to format it,how can i format it?if you know the answer please tell me ,thank you very much.

-liuzezan

-- liuzezan (jeff7302@hotmail.com), June 01, 2003.

I have the same problem with my DSC-F707. Sony had no solution. I have a sandisk usb dual card reader (memory stick & compact flash). I called sandisk and they said it was a firmware problem with the card reader. I downloaded firmware upgrade and i no longer have format errors. So if you are using a sandisk or other card reader, call them and see if there is an upgrade.

-- A. Jones (ajones@fau.edu), June 06, 2003.

I have just tried what was suggested by A. Jones and it worked! No more format errors when I re-insert the card into the camera. These message boards do work! The lesson here I guess is to constantly look for driver or firmware updates for your hardware. Thanks again to all.

-- Randy Collins (rabasake@shaw.ca), June 06, 2003.

Sorry, I forgot to add the link for those of you using SanDisk card readers, the website where the firmware update is available is: http://www.sandisk.com/dualreader/default.asp

-- Randy Collins (rabasake@shaw.ca), June 06, 2003.

Try using this formatter freeware from sony website.

It works well on my 128mb apacer stick. it remove the dreaded error message of Format error-13:01. Good luck!

http://www.ita.sel.sony.com/bin/support/support.cgi? whichone=1&installfile=msfmtinst210.txt&downloadfile=MSFMTINST210.EXE

-- valbon (valbonis@yahoo.com), June 12, 2003.

I have inserted a sony 128 san disk into my 6:1 reader running XP and have the not formated error. Canera is new Sony DCS P92. I tried running defrag but it doesnt see the drive. I did get 1K files with the .chk but when I convert to jpg they are not readable. Any ideas? If I reformat I will lose my pics and they are important. Any ideas. Thank you.

-- J White (white@worldcom.ch), July 13, 2003.

Same problem with my memory stick - it´s bullshit. The link that Valbon send does not work - can anybody help me to restore my pictures. Please............

-- Carsten Johansson (johanssonfamily@privat.dk), July 14, 2003.

I think it is caused because too many pictures have been recorded and the stick is full. I have not had the problem when downloading a half full stick.

-- J white (white@worldcom.ch), July 14, 2003.

Ever since I downloaded and installed the firmware update I have not had a problem with the dreaded "format error" message. Visit your cardreaders website and see if there is an update for your model. Carefully follow the install instructions and see if this helps. I would sure love to see a response from Sony on this but I don't think that is going to happen.

-- Randy Collins (rabasake@shaw.ca), July 14, 2003.

I had the same problem. I did use the Memory stick format Utility & it failed (to write to FAT) and now it is not able to be read on Explorer( in wiondows!) Any help?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!

poorboy.

-- Jay (netjkus@yahoo.com), July 14, 2003.

mmmmmmmmmmmm, got me there. Not sure what you should do other than contact Sony and see if they have any suggestions.

-- Randy Collins (rabasake@shaw.ca), July 14, 2003.

Don't know if this will help, but I had a similar problem. I am using a Sony DSC S75 digital camera with a Sony 128mb memory stick. Also using a SanDisk dual reader with Windows XP. When I moved or deleted the DSC images from the memory stick, I would mark all of the ones that I wanted to move or delete using the shift key. I moved or deleted all contents of the memory stick. Included were all the DSC images and two folders which precede the listed images. The two folders were named DCIM and 100MSDCF and were in folders F:\ and F:\DCIM respectively. I finally figured out that every time I moved or deleted these two folders along with the images from the memory stick, I got a format error and had to reformat. So I tried deleting or moving just the images, but not the two folders. It worked. Part of the formatting process evidently is the creation of these two folders or files. Once deleted, and reinserting the memory stick generates a format error message. When the reformatting is done, these folders are created. I have deleted only the images on the memory stick, kept the two folders and have never received another format error or need to reformat the memory stick.

-- Bill Thayer (thayerwb@hotmail.com), July 20, 2003.

Had same prob as all of you, But did not want to format and loss picture that I had to have. I used software call GetData back by Runtime Software in the past to recover hard disks. And decided to give it a try and it worked fine. A few notes: I could not even see the memory on win 98 so software would not work, on my 2000 machine it would want to format the memory but would identify it, so I ran software on 2000. I think you can download copy from manufactures website and it will recover all up to the last point not letting you copy data to harddrive. If you see ur data in the list then you can purchase software and copy data to your harddrive. Good Luck and after you fix dont forget to upgrade firmware for readers.

-- jason (pg1954@cox.net), July 21, 2003.

Got the same shitty problem with 128MB Memory Stick (format error C:13:01) and used Gaby's solution: 1. defragmentation, 2. scanning, 3. changing "CHK" against "jpg" one-by-one, 4. calling for preview. Could recall all pictures even those partially or completely dammaged (with gray stripes ore completely gray). Than delete dammaged ones and you get a new and smaller review which you can store.

Best regards from beautiful Switzerland!

Karl

-- Karl Börner (k.e.boerner@bluewin.ch), July 25, 2003.

I have used the 128M stick to take photos using DSC-P71, after that I have taken the stick out and insert into PC100 handycam, "Format Error" occured, I have then re-inserted the stick back to DSC-P71, same problem still exists. Anyone could help, I do not want to loose all the pictures.

Thanks/Ambrose

-- Ambrose (ambrose.ng@dragonair.com), July 27, 2003.

Just had this problem ("Format Error 13-01") using 128mb Lexar memory sticks with Sony DSC-F707. The solution was to insert the memory stick back into the camera, set the dial to "Set Up", and select Format-OK. The camera then reformats the memory stick. Fortunately, I had not files in the MS.

Hope this helps.

-- Ron Reblando (reblang@email.uc.edu), August 06, 2003.

Thank You Ron! It realy helps and is so easy :-)

-- Lubo Lipov (lipovl@iname.com), August 12, 2003.

Hi guys

Had similar probs - followed all of the above and managed to recover my pics, but even after reformatting the memory card my camera (DSC- P72) will not accept the memory card, and will not even offer the chance to format it. Do i have to bin this memory card or is there a solution ?

-- Marvin Young (Manx_Turk@yahoo.co.uk), August 17, 2003.

Somehow i may have lost all my digi photos off 1 half of my lexar 256meg memory stick. I DID NOT REMOVE IT WHILST IT WAS RECORDING/SAVING. So on that note i dont know what happened!

I had side B of the stick in my USB reader connected to my PC, then i removed the stick (whilst the USB reader was still connected) and changed it to side A. To my horror when i put the stick back into the reader all the files on side A said file error on both the PC and in my digi camera. Whats funny, and why i still cling on to some hope is that there are 26 file errors on side A which is the amount of correct files on side B. Side A should have over 100 files not 26 and also when i try to take a picture on side A it acts as if it has very little space ie that it is still full from the original side A pics.

Does anyone know where im coming from? Im on holiday and if i lose these pictures i wont have a a chance to take them again

thanks for any replys

My freind and i were singing digital camera's praises up until this point. This is worse than owning a disposable at the moment.

-- Daniel Healy (zero5uk@hotmail.com), September 09, 2003.

Hello everybody! I know I may sound stupid but I'm not familiar with a couple of things. I have to go to the MS Gate in order to format my memory stick but I have no idea where to find the MS Gate in my PC, can anybody let me know? Thanks a lot!

-- martin val (heremartin@hotmail.com), October 04, 2003.

yippee! thanks for advice on this page I stupidly formatted my memory stick and after much grief followed the advice to use the camera DC51 to format it - and it works!

-- Mike (mike.barnett@blueyonder.co.uk), November 03, 2003.

I'm pretty sure it's some kind of power thing. I use a Sony memory stick with a MSAC-FDM2 Floppy disc adaptor. I get this error message ( 13.01 ) when the batteries in the adaptor run low. I replace the batteries and everything works fine. Tip. Don't leave the adaptor in the camera even when it's switched off. It drains the batteries.

-- Phil Page (psfcp@ntlworld.com), November 24, 2003.

If you don't want to loose your pictures I might have a solution for you. I have a Sony DSC-P92 digital camera with 128MB memory card. When I inserted the memory card into my SanDisk (ImageMate MS/MS PRO) all my pictures were gone! I did a little homework and found the software PhotoRescue. Of course I had to pay $29.00 to download the software - but it was worth it. I was able to restore all of my pictures within minutes! I don't know if I'm able to email a copy of the software but I can certainly try. Just send me an email and I'll reply back with the attachments. Hope it works but in case it doesn't, you can find the software at www.datarescue.com. My email is: m.borges@sbcglobal.net

-- Martha Borges (m.borges@sbcglobal.net), December 04, 2003.

I HOPE THAT CAN HELP... I HAD THE SAME PROBLEM WITH THE c:13:01 FORMAT ERROR, I JUST RESOLVE THE PROBLEM, VERY SIMPLE, RENAMED THE MEMORY STICK AND DON'T GIVE YOU MORE PROBLEMS.

-- Gonçalo André (Gamgoncalves@hotmail.com), December 04, 2003.

I get c:13:01 format error when I use my Sandisk 8-in-1 Reader (SDDR- 88-07) to format my memory sticks. I put the memory stick (lexar 128mb) back into my dscu20 and format it, and it goes away. I use my Sony MSAC-US1 to format that same Lexar 128mb memory stick and insert it into my u20, no problems at all, ie. no c:13:01 format error. I think Sony didn't divulge the full details of memory stick hardware/software issues to others apart of their memory stick consortium, hence all these errors. That's my 2 cents.

-- meteve (horsey@dbzmail.com), December 14, 2003.

SOLLUTION: had the very same problem, error 13:01 on my sony dsc p50 after formating the stick in my pc. Sollution for all these things is to reformat the chip. YOU DONT NEED A SPECIAL PROGRAM. My camera unfortunately has no firmware with a format option, so i tried the Windows ones to let this thing run. And it worked after these MAGIC WORDS: format y: /FS:FAT /A:8192 the y: is the driveletter for the chip in your pc and the important word is /A:8192 -- means that the clustersize on the chip has to be 8kB. The standart format in windows is using 512b clusters on a chip with these sizes.

-- (rene.buechler@epost.de), December 17, 2003.

Watch out. DOS FORMAT command did not work for me. I have a Sony DSC-P71. First of all, 8192 may not be the right sector size for your camera. DSC-P71 uses 16,384 as the sector size. So your format command should read "FORMAT y: /FS:FAT /A:16K. Secondly, as I said, after I reformated it with FORMAT command, the pictures I took could not be seen in Windows XP. I finally realized that the camera has a format utility (Set Up->SetUp 1 -> Format ->OK). That solved the problem for me.

-- Benny Lin (bennyxlin@yahoo.com), December 19, 2003.

Thanks rene.buechler, this "format y: /FS:FAT /A:8192" saved my day. My usb memory stick was completely dead, windows just crashed when I tried to access it. After that command it workd fine...and before I was almost throwing memory stick to garbage... THX for HELP!!!

-- Siika (siika@surfeu.fi), January 15, 2004.

MY SOLUTION: I have Lexar 128 MS, was trying to read it using Dazzle 6 in 1 card reader on Windows 2K but it could not recognized and asked me to format it. No way, I didn't wanted to loose my pictures. I downloaded FREE 'PC Inspector Smart Revovery' (http://www.pcinspector.de/smart_media_recovery/uk/welcome.htm). Simple, Beautiful, Intelligent and perfect software for problems like this. I recovered everything and now Windows Explorer recognize the Memory Stick.

-- Hardeep K. Parwal (hkparwal@yahoo.com), January 18, 2004.

Hey guys if your having problems finding your pictures on your stick doesn't matter what kind it even works on your hard drive. Use this program it can get your pictures back even if you already formatted. It does work guarenteed.

http://63.141.194.5/dir/index.html

-- brandon moore (OptimusMatrix@hotmail.com), February 12, 2004.

I had the same "Format Error C:13:01" issue with a Sony brand 128Mb Memory Stick that quit working while attempting to transfer the images to my PC. I was transferring images from three different MS's - this was the third one. This MS at first read as if it had the same files as the previous MS (128Mb Sony), then died - nothing could read it - the PC or my Sony DSC-F717 camera. I tried Hardeep K. Parwal's solution above (download the free PC Inspector software), and it worked beautifully! I was able to recover all but two of the 70 or so images! Thanks for sharing your solution!!!

-- Grant Wetherill (wetherillg@insightbb.com), August 10, 2004.

just encountered this error a while ago.i was trying to upload the pictures via memory card reader,but the MS card was unreadable in the pc,then i put it back in the camera and it said something like "memory stick error"!please help me,what should i do?is the MS broken already or is there a way to make it up and running again?

ty!

-- Jake (louiejakelubangco@yahoo.com), August 18, 2004.

IT WORKS!!!! http://www.pcinspector.de/download.htm#file_recovery - get the smart recovery - Version 4.5 and with few clicks, I am able to restore back my photos!! PHEWS!!!!.... GREAT STUFF! CHEERS!!...

On the side note, any ideas why the sudden "Format Error: C13:01" will appear? Issit due to swapping of Memory Stick or it just hit me for no reason?..

-- Eugene Lau (Malaysia) (eugene03@hotmail.com), September 16, 2004.

My Scandisk Memory Stick Pro 1Gg Card is haveing the C:13:01 error. I think I have located the problem with the formating from my pc. I cannot not get my camera to format it at all. I wont let me get to that selection since theres an error. I have tried the format FS:fat with 16k and 8192 and neither works. I am all of out of clues. Apparently most of you have the sony cards, but what can I do to fix a scan disk? Anyone? Thanks, Andy

-- Andy (ataylor@taylorbuiltpcs.com), October 17, 2004.

Can someone please offer a little more detail on how you run a Scandisk on a memory stick? I too have an issue where I have a memory stick that is getting the Format Error C:13:01. This happens when I try to view the pictures on the camera or download them to my PC. Ritz camera could not pull them off either. The camera display tells me I have 90/90 pictures but I can only view 1/90 then get the format error when trying to view the rest. I cannot download to computer or view on the camera itself. I read a thread somewhere that said if running Windows XP (which I am), your camera will show up as a drive (which it does) under My Computer and that you should be able to make a disk image of it on your hard drive using various disk utility programs. I downloaded a few from download.com that say they will do this, but when running the utility, it doesn't show the camera as a drive that can be image copied. So far, the only thing that shows the camera as a drive is My Computer under Windows XP. I haven't found a third party utlity that will do this. My reason for wanting to do this is so that I can try to Scandisk it once on my hard drive in hopes of pulling off the images that I can't get to right now. I'm trying to do what Gabi stated he did on the May 25, 2003 thread. These pictures I am trying to recover are from our Disney vacation and they are all we have. Any and all help would be deeply appreciated. If there are any other ideas other than the Scandisk that may help, please post those as well. Thank you for your help!

-- Larry Leone (llcooldba@yahoo.com), November 14, 2004.

SOLUTION to Format Errors on a Lexar Media 128MB Memory Stick used in a Cybershot F707:

1. Format the Memory Stick from DOS (the Windows command prompt):

format [drive]: /FS:FAT /A:8192

2. Download and install Sony's utility for formatting Memory Sticks:

http://www.ita.sel.sony.com/bin/support/support.cgi?whichone=1&installfile=msfmtinst210.txt&downloadfile=MSFMTINST210.EXE

3. Format the Memory Stick again with the utility.

If you're concerned about losing the data on the Memory Stick, you can format the Memory Stick in DOS and then recover the data using a product like Ontrack DataRecovery:

http://www.ontrack.com/software/

I haven't used this software on digital camera media before, but I see no reason why it wouldn't work.

-- Anon Y. Mous (anon@anon.com), December 25, 2004.

Does anyone know what the appropriate block size for a memory stick on MVC-FD92? Or how to find out? I've tried monkeying around with formatting @ different sizes, and still get the c:13:01 error. The Mavica FD92 will not format the memory stick pro card.

-- Ed Sova (esova2@lycos.com), January 06, 2005.