Arrgggh!

GhostInTheRuins

I was shooting some bands last night at a gig. There were a good few bands playing so I was brought an 8GB and a 4GB card. I fit the first four bands onto the 8GB card and the last band onto the 4GB.

So all was well after the gig, both of the card worked fine straight after as I did a quick flick through. But this morning I went to have a look over them properly on the way home, popped in the 8GB and to my horror the lcd displayed "This memory card cannot be used. Card may be damaged. Insert new card". The top lcd has the letters "CHA" where the image count should be (Nikon D90, and SDHC cards)

Nikon Transfer says there are no images on the card either. I haven't been able to connect the card to my pc in a proper card reader instead of through the camera yet, but does anyone know if I'll have any hope retrieving some of the pics?

Absolutely raging here!

Quackles

GhostInTheRuins wrote: »

I was shooting some bands last night at a gig. There were a good few bands playing so I was brought an 8GB and a 4GB card. I fit the first four bands onto the 8GB card and the last band onto the 4GB.

So all was well after the gig, both of the card worked fine straight after as I did a quick flick through. But this morning I went to have a look over them properly on the way home, popped in the 8GB and to my horror the lcd displayed "This memory card cannot be used. Card may be damaged. Insert new card". The top lcd has the letters "CHA" where the image count should be (Nikon D90, and SDHC cards)

Nikon Transfer says there are no images on the card either. I haven't been able to connect the card to my pc in a proper card reader instead of through the camera yet, but does anyone know if I'll have any hope retrieving some of the pics?

Absolutely raging here!

If your computer is still assigning a letter to the card, try this - http://www.snapfiles.com/get/smartrecovery.html - it's never failed me yet.

GhostInTheRuins

Quackles wrote: »

If your computer is still assigning a letter to the card, try this - http://www.snapfiles.com/get/smartrecovery.html - it's never failed me yet.

Thanks for that. I tried putting the card into something that would normally read it as a drive and not a camera, but no luck. It looks like I'll have to format it or something so the computer will recognise it.

Quackles

GhostInTheRuins wrote: »

Thanks for that. I tried putting the card into something that would normally read it as a drive and not a camera, but no luck. It looks like I'll have to format it or something so the computer will recognise it.

If it comes to that, make sure you do a quick format rather than a full one, then try pc inspector again.

GhostInTheRuins

Quackles wrote: »

If it comes to that, make sure you do a quick format rather than a full one, then try pc inspector again.

Yeah, I had to do a format with the camera, still getting the same error and the card still isn't being read on the computer, looks like there isn't much hope for it

Fireman

GhostInTheRuins wrote: »

I was shooting some bands last night at a gig. There were a good few bands playing so I was brought an 8GB and a 4GB card. I fit the first four bands onto the 8GB card and the last band onto the 4GB.

So all was well after the gig, both of the card worked fine straight after as I did a quick flick through. But this morning I went to have a look over them properly on the way home, popped in the 8GB and to my horror the lcd displayed "This memory card cannot be used. Card may be damaged. Insert new card". The top lcd has the letters "CHA" where the image count should be (Nikon D90, and SDHC cards)

Nikon Transfer says there are no images on the card either. I haven't been able to connect the card to my pc in a proper card reader instead of through the camera yet, but does anyone know if I'll have any hope retrieving some of the pics?

Absolutely raging here!

what make of card was it !!!

GhostInTheRuins

Fireman wrote: »

what make of card was it !!!

PNY

CabanSail

Is it just one card or both that cannot be read?

This is also why I think that 8Gb cards are way too big for most DSLR RAW files today. You are better off with more 2Gb or at most 4Gb cards.

GhostInTheRuins

No it was just one that stopped working, the one with most of the pics!

I've just been looking at getting a couple of sandisk extremes as I haven't heard anything bad about them, I don't think I'll be getting anything with more than 4GB capacity anyway, now it seems like too big of a risk in case something like this happens again.

At least these pictures didn't really mean anything to anyone but myself. I was asked to shoot the local gaa club open day last Saturday but had to refuse because I had already planned on going to this gig the same day, chances are I would have been using the same card and the same thing would have happened, and I've got no idea what I would have done had I lost all those pictures. So in some way I'm kind of lucky (Maybe!)

CabanSail

Sandisk have a very good reputation, as do Lexar. Personally I only buy Sandisk now, ussually Extreme III. They come with Recovery Software in case of a gliche.

I also have some other cards, which I have used for ages & have them as emergency spares only now.

paulkellypix

You might like to read this thread about CHA errors.

I;ve got them from Lexar cards but never SanDisk
http://www.flickr.com/groups/d200/discuss/72157594178530271/

GhostInTheRuins

paulkellypix wrote: »

You might like to read this thread about CHA errors.

I;ve got them from Lexar cards but never SanDisk
http://www.flickr.com/groups/d200/discuss/72157594178530271/

Interesting, but it's definitely not the camera as some on there are saying, it won't read as a card in any pc or device, even after formatting, it's just well and truly borked. All my other cards work fine in the camera too.

Also, the D90 uses SD cards and not CF cards, so bent pins can't be a problem.

I'm definitely going with sandisk from now on I think.

PCPhoto

this might sound silly but have you tried just blowing at the card (into the holes ...could just be a spec of dust)

or maybe tried using a different card reader.

if really stuck - quick format the card then use recovery software - should get all/most of them.