Canon Camera Window / CF card problem

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jake.perks@entagroup.com - 17 Jun 2005 09:08 GMT

I took delivery of a Canon Powershot S70 yesterday and I've experienced
a problem with the bundled Camera Window software. I've trawled Google
Groups for similar problems but found nothing, so it must be me that's
doing something wrong.

I've opted to use an external card reader to transfer the data from the
CF card to my PC as I don't really like the idea of USB1.1 speed using
the direct camera connection, nor do I like draining the battery in the
process.

Everything starts off well, Windows XP detects the presence of the CF
card and I choose to transfer data from it using Camera Window.
Everything proceeds perfectly okay from there and I can transfer the
data without a single problem.

However, when I *carefully* remove the CF card from the reader ("Safely
Remove Hardware" -> unplug card reader from the USB port -> remove the
CF card in a powered off state) then reinsert it into the S70 and
power on in record mode it would appear that the card is corrupt (error
message on the LCD display) and the camera cannot write to it. This
happens with the 32MB Canon branded card supplied with the camera and
the 1GB Kingston card that I purchased separately. The result is that
I have to reformat the card.

The above problem does *not* occur if I copy files directly using
Windows Explorer - I can replace the CF card in the camera and continue
shooting without a hitch. This all seems to point to a problem with
the Camera Window utility, but I could be wrong...

Has anybody else experienced this problem, or have any other
troubleshooting suggestions that I haven't tried above?

Thanks

Jake

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Randy Berbaum - 17 Jun 2005 10:28 GMT

: I took delivery of a Canon Powershot S70 yesterday and I've experienced
: a problem with the bundled Camera Window software. I've trawled Google
: Groups for similar problems but found nothing, so it must be me that's
: doing something wrong.

<snip>

: The above problem does *not* occur if I copy files directly using
: Windows Explorer - I can replace the CF card in the camera and continue
: shooting without a hitch. This all seems to point to a problem with
: the Camera Window utility, but I could be wrong...

I do not use Canon so other Canon users may have more camera specific
advice. But I would skip the Canon program. First once the card reader is
connected to the USB port, you do not have to "remove drive" before
removing the card from the reader. You only have to shut down the "drive"
when unplugging the reader from the computer. As long as the card is not
being accessed (read or write) you can remove it at any time. Second I
would go through "my computer" to get to the drive letter that is the card
slot in the reader. Then you can read the card and transfer files out
easily. You can either "move" the files to your hard drive or "copy" them.
Do not do any editing of the files on the card as this could place
non-standard files to the card that could indicate to the camera that
there is an error. If even a move of the files causes an aparent problem I
would just copy the files and then delete the files from the card when you
return it to the camera. Copying the files to your hard drive should make
no changes to the card info so the camera should not realize that the card
had ever been read by your computer. Some cameras have their own
proprietary format that may be ignored by the computer which a deletion of
a file in the computer could cause a mismatch. But this is not always a
problem. So trial and error will tell you what level of use you can safely
employ.

Randy

==========
Randy Berbaum
Champaign, IL

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Mike Berger - 30 Jun 2005 17:28 GMT

That's a great way to corrupt those memory cards.
You *do* want to dismount the drive before removing
it.

> I do not use Canon so other Canon users may have more camera specific
> advice. But I would skip the Canon program. First once the card reader is
> connected to the USB port, you do not have to "remove drive" before
> removing the card from the reader. You only have to shut down the "drive"
> when unplugging the reader from the computer. As long as the card is not
> being accessed (read or write) you can remove it at any time.

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