A scramble of my mumbles, rambles and trembles.
Let them all rest in the blog so I don't have to crumble.
Friday, July 29, 2005
How to kill an XD card
Took some photo with your camera, stuck the XD card in a card reader, and delete some files with your computer. That's it.
8 comments:
Anonymous
said...
I don't know why you want to make life difficult for yourself. So many people have already ruin their memory cards by doing more than file transfer with card readers.
I have had 6 different kinds, including 3 xD cards, of lost counted number of flash memory cards over the years taken tens of thousands of photos and never had a single problem with anyone of them. I'd never done anything more than file transfer with anyone of them with numerous number of card readers.
Whether they are supposed to work or not, the fact remains that it isn't safe to do so.
I don't have any XD cards, but iPhoto on the Mac would offer to delete the files automatically after they have been imported from the memory card or the camera.
Although one could build a very robust memory card, it is not very difficult for a piece of software that access the file system on it to corrupt the file system. I suspect that there is something wrong with your computer.
SD cards are also tricky. They have this "security" feature that would render the data on it unreadable if you mess around with the file system too much.
No no. I didn't kill my XD card again. I just know how to kill it. It's not a problem of the card reader, it's just a 'feature' of the XD card.
MS will also have similar problem. The problem lies in the controller on the card, and that's an design fault.
When I use CF or SMC card, I will always delete all the photo after transfer them to the computer. But with the XD, I have to do it in the camera. Kind of trouble.
Tin, What I know about the XD cards does not come from my usage of it, but from my colleague at work, who makes the purchase decision. And my company sells memory cards in HK and overseas.
"... What causes these things to occur? Good question. Here are the major causes of corruption in flash media...
... 8. Opening, renaming, deleting, or moving files around on your memory card while accessing the card from your computer, via a USB/Firewire connection to a card reader or camera;...
... 10. Reformatting your flash media card using your computer instead of your camera (The reformatting utility on computers is much more sophisticated than the one used by your camera and because of this, it can create incompatibilities between your card and your camera.);"
Within spec or out of spec, there are people having problems with any kind of memory cards being used with card readers other than copying files. Now that you know xD cards have such a problem, be it other cards may have absolutely no such problem whatsoever, and I am not saying they are, would you now use xD cards in one way but other cards in another way just so you get a chance to confuse yourself or worse yet, a chance to lose some files or even damage some cards, xD or otherwise?
The XD card won't have any problem if you use the XD card reader that's totally competible with XD spec and designated with XD logo on the product. However, the licensing fee claiming full competible is more expensive that the production cost of the card reader.... so... the XD format may be excellent with competible reader, but OM and Fuji is killing the system.
OTOH, Toshiba make the XD cards for OM and Fuji. But don't brand it themselves. You know why?
You look at this in the technical sense whereas I look at it in a practical sense. So, as long as they work for me I don't ask questions. It is, however, very nice of you to have posted this info.
Beside all of that, it is not good practice to delete files from the cards with card readers on computers anyway. One could have accidentally deleted the files on the HD instead after the transfer and formatted the card, or worse the HD, and lost all the files before knowing it. By not doing deletion at all in the work flow and only format the cards in the camera only after making sure all files have been correctly transfered to the HD avoids accidents.
8 comments:
I don't know why you want to make life difficult for yourself. So many people have already ruin their memory cards by doing more than file transfer with card readers.
I have had 6 different kinds, including 3 xD cards, of lost counted number of flash memory cards over the years taken tens of thousands of photos and never had a single problem with anyone of them. I'd never done anything more than file transfer with anyone of them with numerous number of card readers.
Whether they are supposed to work or not, the fact remains that it isn't safe to do so.
I don't have any XD cards, but iPhoto on the Mac would offer to delete the files automatically after they have been imported from the memory card or the camera.
Although one could build a very robust memory card, it is not very difficult for a piece of software that access the file system on it to corrupt the file system. I suspect that there is something wrong with your computer.
SD cards are also tricky. They have this "security" feature that would render the data on it unreadable if you mess around with the file system too much.
No no. I didn't kill my XD card again. I just know how to kill it. It's not a problem of the card reader, it's just a 'feature' of the XD card.
MS will also have similar problem. The problem lies in the controller on the card, and that's an design fault.
When I use CF or SMC card, I will always delete all the photo after transfer them to the computer. But with the XD, I have to do it in the camera. Kind of trouble.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XD_card#Other_adapters_and_readers
So you are absolutely correct that XD cards are "designed" to fail easily in a 3rd party card reader.
I suppose Oly and Fuji don't want you to pull the tiny XD card out from the camera.
Tin,
What I know about the XD cards does not come from my usage of it, but from my colleague at work, who makes the purchase decision. And my company sells memory cards in HK and overseas.
If you need SD cards, call me and I can help.
http://www.nyip.com/tips/flashcards0604.php
"... What causes these things to occur? Good question. Here are the major causes of corruption in flash media...
... 8. Opening, renaming, deleting, or moving files around on your memory card while accessing the card from your computer, via a USB/Firewire connection to a card reader or camera;...
... 10. Reformatting your flash media card using your computer instead of your camera (The reformatting utility on computers is much more sophisticated than the one used by your camera and because of this, it can create incompatibilities between your card and your camera.);"
Within spec or out of spec, there are people having problems with any kind of memory cards being used with card readers other than copying files. Now that you know xD cards have such a problem, be it other cards may have absolutely no such problem whatsoever, and I am not saying they are, would you now use xD cards in one way but other cards in another way just so you get a chance to confuse yourself or worse yet, a chance to lose some files or even damage some cards, xD or otherwise?
A good design spec should be fool proof.
The XD card won't have any problem if you use the XD card reader that's totally competible with XD spec and designated with XD logo on the product. However, the licensing fee claiming full competible is more expensive that the production cost of the card reader.... so... the XD format may be excellent with competible reader, but OM and Fuji is killing the system.
OTOH, Toshiba make the XD cards for OM and Fuji. But don't brand it themselves. You know why?
You look at this in the technical sense whereas I look at it in a practical sense. So, as long as they work for me I don't ask questions. It is, however, very nice of you to have posted this info.
Beside all of that, it is not good practice to delete files from the cards with card readers on computers anyway. One could have accidentally deleted the files on the HD instead after the transfer and formatted the card, or worse the HD, and lost all the files before knowing it. By not doing deletion at all in the work flow and only format the cards in the camera only after making sure all files have been correctly transfered to the HD avoids accidents.
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