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HELP! OSX can't read SD card, WIN XP Can!

gusanitoverde

gusanitoverde

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 12, 2003
283
0
Northern California
I got a problem.

I recently bought a Digital Camera (100MLT19 Dimage X20) and this device uses an SD Card. Usually when I have connected USB Digital Devices whether a PDA or a Camera iPhoto always came up and retrieved the pictures.
And just in case, I have a Multi Card Reader that always worked with my Mac. I read mostly Memory Sticks.

When the Digital Device is able to take pictures the usual folder in an external card is the DCIM folder. This folder will contain all pictures and will be read by iPhoto and any card reader.

The problem:

At the store where I bought the camera, I asked my wife to pull out her PDA and lend me her SD card to test the camera that we were to buy. (Her card was half full therefore I could not format it in the Camera before I took pictures) I took couple of pictures and the camera was good and we bought it.
When we arrived to my Mac at home (I have a PowerMac G4 1.42 Dual and 1GB of Ram, OS X Panther) I connected the camera and iPhoto did not come up automatically as it does always. Then I pulled iPhoto manually and it was not able to read neither the camera nor the card.

Then, I disconnected my camera and connected my multi card reader and the Volume appeared on the desktop with the usual white icon, I clicked and found the “Palm” folder of my wife and next to it the “DCIM” folder. I approached to open this last folder and there was nothing. Not a single file. Where did the pictures go?

I was out of resources. I disconnected the camera from my Mac, and then I grabbed my wife’s Palm and inserted the SD card into it. I used a Palm Program called “File Z” to read the card. And it showed the “Palm” folder, the “DCIM” folder next to it and when I entered this last folder I found another folder: “100MLT19” and within there were the pictures!

How come I can’t have OS X reading this files in my SD card?
How come the PDA could read them?

After that, this morning, I came to work and I have a Windows Machine. Is a Dell, Pentium III and runs Windows XP. I had trouble reading the camera at first, but Windows XP figured out fast and the Card was read. Then I connected my Card Reader and found all folders, all pictures and retrieved them safely out of the card.

Can anybody tell me what’s wrong with my OS X in my Mac and how come these folders were invisible to it?

Thanks! :confused:
 
Thank you for relpying

I will try by formatting the card as soon as I get home. Thanks. However, This SD card is shared by my wife's Palm and she needs to use it too. I guess if that is the problem, I will just by another card to keep both independent.

I may have another theory, but I will check first. :cool:
 
Jeremy, a question for you...

I am a recent switcher I only have a year and a half experience with Mac. I think I know where is terminal... How do I explore the card with it? (I am not yet home to see it) but just in case I ask... I don't have to enter any weird codes loke in DOS or anythinglike that, right?
 
gusanitoverde said:
I am a recent switcher I only have a year and a half experience with Mac. I think I know where is terminal... How do I explore the card with it? (I am not yet home to see it) but just in case I ask... I don't have to enter any weird codes loke in DOS or anythinglike that, right?
Click to expand...
The Terminal is a command line, similar to DOS but more powerful. Here are some basic commands for using the Terminal (text in italics represents arguments):
cd directory - change current directory
ls - list directory contents
cat file - list file contents
 
I'd say get a seperate SD card for the Palm and the Camera since the camera wants to format the card it's way and the palm probabily wants to format the card it's way. It will also save you the hastle of wondering if you'll be erasing you wife's contact's or to do list if you need more room for photo's :)
 
kingjr3 said:
Before formatting...I would use Terminal to explore the SD directories. The directory may be hidden from finder view, but still exist.
Click to expand...
If that's the case I would just use Tinkertool, much more user friendly, but also less geeky :)

iJon
 
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