topic Re: formatting sd card in EOS DSLR & Mirrorless Cameras

formatin sd card

chandy38 — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 00:47:38 GMT

i have a canon eos 50d camera, and i have several sd cards that ive used on the camera. i tried to use them recently, and im getting an error message "card cannot be formatted". how do i format the card to my camera again?

formatting sd card

chandy38 — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 01:26:35 GMT

unable to format a previously sd card that was used by the camera before ... canon eos 50d

Re: formatting sd card

RobertTheFat — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 04:53:45 GMT

Since the 50D does not accept SD cards, you must be using an adapter. That's probably the source of your problem. Try using real CF cards instead.

Re: formatting sd card

ebiggs1 — Sun, 27 Sep 2015 13:20:10 GMT

SD adapters bad, CF card good.

Re: formatting sd card

chandy38 — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 23:48:41 GMT

i'm using SanDisk Ultra CompactFlash 30MB/s 8GB..... is this considered a SD card?

Re: formatting sd card

RobertTheFat — Fri, 30 Oct 2015 22:04:50 GMT

@chandy38 wrote:
i'm using SanDisk Ultra CompactFlash 30MB/s 8GB..... is this considered a SD card?

No, that's a CF card. An SD card is smaller and thinner and has both a different shape and a different way of connecting to the camera. So I guess that eliminates an adapter as the problem.

I've used 8GB CF cards in my 50D many times with no issues. Have you tried a different card?

Re: formatting sd card

Waddizzle — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 13:26:54 GMT

I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet, but make sure that card is not write protected. Check the switch.

Re: formatting sd card

RobertTheFat — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 13:36:57 GMT

@Waddizzle wrote:
I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet, but make sure that card is not write protected. Check the switch.

CF cards don't have WP switches. At least none that I ever saw did.

Re: formatting sd card

Waddizzle — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 13:50:26 GMT

@RobertTheFat wrote:
@Waddizzle wrote:
I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet, but make sure that card is not write protected. Check the switch.
CF cards don't have WP switches. At least none that I ever saw did.

Ah, good call. That explains that. I need more coffee.

I wonder if the OP is trying to use the camera to format the card, or if they're trying to do it by using the camera as you would a thumb stick, as a "mass storage device". That shouldn't work, and you would probably get an error message stating "device is in use", "not authorized", or even "write protected". The exact message would depend upon how the device driver interacted with the attached device.

Re: formatting sd card

RobertTheFat — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 14:37:22 GMT

@Waddizzle wrote:
@RobertTheFat wrote:
@Waddizzle wrote:
I'm surprised no one has mentioned this yet, but make sure that card is not write protected. Check the switch.
CF cards don't have WP switches. At least none that I ever saw did.
Ah, good call. That explains that. I need more coffee.

Me too. I'm just finishing my first cup.

I wonder if the OP is trying to use the camera to format the card, or if they're trying to do it by using the camera as you would a thumb stick, as a "mass storage device". That shouldn't work, and you would probably get an error message stating "device is in use", "not authorized", or even "write protected". The exact message would depend upon how the device driver interacted with the attached device.

You may be onto something. Ordinarily you could format a card from a computer, using a card reader or maybe even with the card in the camera, and get away with it. But if you formatted it to a file system that the camera can't handle, the camera wouldn't know what to do. In the worst case it might be too confused to even reformat the card. So I guess the course of action would be to take the card out, reset the camera to factory settings, reformat the card to the right (FAT32?) file system on a computer, then try to reformat the card again in the camera. We may hear that the OP has already tried that, but it's at least worth mentioning.