compact card problem

[Dick]

HELP!

We just got back from paddling the Allagash in Maine, and tried to transfer 200 photos from our Nikon 4300 digital camera to our Macintosh G4, using iPhoto. The Nikon uses compact flash cards. We were able to transfer only about 35 of them. We get the following message: "Unreadable Files 132/private/tmp/502/Temporary items/iPhoto/DSCN2653jpg" (lists all of the other unreadable files as well). We tried using a new card and had no trouble, so the problem seems to be with the card. We can still see ALL of the pictures on the camera, we just can't transfer them to the computer. Any suggestions?

Dick

[redhawk]

Are you using the camera to try to transfer the pictures to the computer, or do you have a card reader that you put the card into to transfer the pictures to the computer?

Can you select which files you want to transfer to the computer? If so, unselect file "DSCN2653jpg" (and shouldn't there be a "." before the jpg.?) and try to transfer the rest. It's possible that you have a glitch in that one and that it stops dead in it's tracks rather then just continue with the rest of them.

[Dick]

Are you using the camera to try to transfer the pictures to the computer, or do you have a card reader that you put the card into to transfer the pictures to the computer?

No card reader, just the camera -- the way we've always done it.

Can you select which files you want to transfer to the computer? If so, unselect file "DSCN2653jpg" (and shouldn't there be a "." before the jpg.?) and try to transfer the rest. It's possible that you have a glitch in that one and that it stops dead in it's tracks rather then just continue with the rest of them.

We can't select individual files for downloading -- or if we can, we don't know how to. We did delete the above photo (blurry anyway), but that made no difference. I inadvertently omitted the "." before jpg when I typed my post, so that's not an issue. Again, we can see the pictures in the camera, so we know they're there. We just can't get them to the computer.

Dick

[redhawk]

Don't know what to tell you at this point other then to try to download them to another computer maybe a pc to seee if that works.

[RC]

Dick,

You might also take the card to a walmart to see if their machine can read from the card.


RC

[kurtteej]

Worst case, if the card is somehow damaged there's a service that should be able to retrieve the images even from a damaged card [typically not all images though].

This has happened to me twice. I've noticed that it occurs when I shut the camera off prior to images being completed stored to the card. I've also had some issues when I take pictures too quickly [this only happens on my Nikon Coolpix point-and-shoot, not on my Canon DSLR].

I'll post the recovery service name when I get home tonight [it aint cheap].

[lumberzac]

If you have access to a PC you can try this:

To recover the jpg files I went into MSDOS and ran a chkdsk/f. This captured the files as .CHK files. From there I simply renamed each .CHK file back to a .JPG file and the pictures were restored.

I also believe that if you hook the camera up to the computer without starting iPhoto, the computer will read it as an external drive. If that is the case, you should be able to select individual photos to see which files are corrupted. (Please note that I’m not a Mac person so I could be wrong on this)

[Dick]

Thanks everyone for your help and advice. We did take them to Walmart, per RC's suggestion, and they all came back fine, save for one corrupted file. Redhawk, I think Joanne has already contacted you about selecting the pictures. Kurtteej, thanks for the warnings. Joanne says she may in fact have shut the camera off too soon and/or taken a picture too quickly. I'll look forward to the name of the recovery service for future reference. Lumberzac, we'll give your idea a try.

Thanks again, everyone.

Dick