EOS Rebel T7 asking SD Card to Reformat

[bhealy]

I took my SD card out of my camera to upload some photos to my laptop. Now that I've reinserted the same SD card — one I've had no issues with — my camera (Canon EOS Rebel T7) is saying it cannot read the SD card. I'm not sure what to do as there is still more space on the SD card and I'd like to continue to use it and access my photos.

[Tintype_18]

Is the card cleared of images? Try another card that has been formatted. I have a T7 and, so far, haven't experienced this.

[bhealy]

It is not cleared of images. I put in back in the same camera I used it in prior.

[kvbarkley]

reformat it. There is a menu option to do that. Do not use SD cards for permanent storage of your photos. Always transfer *all* of the images to your laptop.

After I do that, I go ahead and low-level format in the camera.

[kvbarkley]

But do not choose the option to erase the images after transferring them to the PC. Always verify that the transfer went well before erasing them from the card.

[stevet1]

bhealy,

I more or less had the same issue, only mine was with a card reader. I was rockin along and things were going well, and then one day, poof. My computer would not read that a card was present. I put it back in camera, and the camera told me I had to reformat the card. I could have tried to recover the photos using some kind of software recovery tool, but I was too lazy, and just went ahead and re=formatted the card. I lost about 200 photos, but none of them were really crucial.

I blamed the card reader and threw it out and bought another one.

I would buy a spare SD card though. You never know.

Steve Thomas

[Tronhard]

Hi again:
If you are using your SD card for storage after a shoot, I strongly recommend against it.  They are not designed or robust enough for that.  The correct procedure after a shoot is:
Turn off the camera and remove the card
Place the card into a SD card reader attached to your computer and it should appear as a removable drive 
Copy the files from the DCIM folder to a location on your hard drive, and verify they are there
Remove the card (if using Windows use the Eject feature *)
Return the card to the camera and turn it on
Use the camera's format command to clean the card ready for a new shoot**

As Keith wisely suggested, in this case do a low-level format of the card and you may get it back.

*  In Windows the Eject feature can be found by placing the mouse over the icon for the card and RIGHT-CLICK to get a pop-up menu, the Eject feature is on that.  This can be important if the computer still has process links to the card and by just yanking the card out, it can result in card corruption.  The Eject feature will close links if it can or will warn you to close processes using the card if it cannot.

** You should not delete files in the camera, over time this creates challenges for the table that locates files and can lead to corruption of the card - in some cases that is irrecoverable.

[Waddizzle]

Since no one’s asked I will pop the questions. 

What brand and capacity card are you using?  I strongly recommend 32GB, smaller, with this camera body.  

Are you using full size SD cards?  Never use the micro-SD cards that need a plastic adapter. They’re not recommended by Canon. 

Avoid buying cards from the Amazon marketplace. There’s a lot of counterfeit cards, batteries, and other accessories there. Buy your accessories from a factory authorized dealer. 

[Tronhard]

Fair question Bill!

[bhealy]

It's a full size 132 gb SD card. I've had no issues with this same SD card for the last year.