Okay to Use Card Reader w/CF, Microdrive?

[David Doyle]

I just purchased an S2 which came with an IBM 1GB Microdrive. The drive worked just fine and I used a San Disk Card reader to extract the images off the drive. Then when I tried to erase the images off the drive I got an error. Since then the MD hasn't worked and I get an error msg on the camera: "drive not initialized" and the camera won't format the drive; I get a "disk error" msg. What's more the drive is making a "whining" noise and wont work in the card reader either.

MY question: did I mess up the MD by using the SanDisk USB card reader to delete images? If so, will this also damage CF cards?

I am considering purchase of a SanDisk brand 1GB CFII card and need to know if I will be okay to use the card reader or if I should stick to using the firewire cable to transer images and use the camera to delete/format the disk.[B]

[jdempsey]

Can you format the drive in the card reader as fat16?

[David Doyle]

I doubt it, as the drive seems to be malfunctioning and my XP system doesn't recognize it anymore since I tried the abortive delete operation.

Just how would you go about formating as fat16?

[jdempsey]

You should be able to right click on the drive letter and use the format command. Make sure you select fat16. This is assuming you can get that far on the drive. I use two Microdrives and a Sandisk Ultra 512. I have three different card readers attached to different machines (desktop, laptop and office) and have not had any problems using them. I did have a problem deleting images off on one drive, but was able to format the card in the camera to resolve the issue.

Hope this helps

[Wichita Wayne]

This happened to me once, and I solved the problem by pluging in the A/C power supply. Be sure to remove the 123s before pluging the power supply into the camera or you will fry the batteries. For some reason this allowed trhe camera to format the microdrive without any problem. I also never, never, never erase pictures by any other means than the camera. I only read files with the readers. Then put the microdrive back in the camera to erase them. However, after saying that I would guess that your drive that makes a funny sound is probably defective, and should be returned for an exchange.

[David Doyle]

Thanks for the replies. Obviously, Fuji changed the writing mechanism in the S2 -- my old S1 let me erase with the card reader and would read just about any card /drive I shoved into the slot.

However, with the "wounded kitten" sound the MD is making I thinking it's a "goner". :confused:

[David Doyle]

A question for Wayne:

What about deleting files while the camera is tethered to the computer with the firewire cable, using Windows explorer? This is faster than using the camera playback LCD and the camera is still doing the deleting.

[Wichita Wayne]

That is when I had my worst problem. I had my S2 hooked to the computer via the USB port and had one heck of a time getting past a problem when I erased all the files on my MicroDrive with the computer's OS. After that, the drive refused to work in the camera at all. Finally, pluging in the A/C cord allowed me to format the drive and it has worked fine since. I teach digital seminars at a local recreation center and every time a student has problems with electronic "film" it is usually caused when they erase the things with the computer. SmartMedia doesn't seem to be as much trouble as CF cards and MicroDrives, and I have never seen a problem with the other various media types. When you erase files you are using the computer to rewrite the disks file allocation table and that seems to be where the problem's start. Therefore, my rule, is to never write anything to a card with the computer, only use the computer to read and copy the files. I always erase and format with the camera's OS, and since I started doing that I never have a problem. It is also good to format the things often with the camera so that they stay in good shape. The only exception to this rule is when I recover files that were accidentally erased before being transfered to a computer. But once the recovery program is finished and the files are safely transfered to the computer I use the camera to format the media before using it again.