Format Error I have a SDSC-W55 with a 2GB SanDisk memory card. On a recent vacation, the camera just stopped taking pictures and displayed FORMAT ERROR on the screen. The card was half full and the battery had sufficient charge. I was initially able to display the pictures I took so I stopped using the camera. Now I cannot display any pictures at all. The camera displays the same error. My PC will not recognize the memory card. If I pull the card, the camera and PC works fine with the internal memory. I don't was to reformat the card and risk losing all the memories from the vacation. Any ideas?

This kind of problem is called "Format Error" and often happens to memory card or USB flash.

There are many reasons may lead to this. Like pull out the card without power off or fall the memory card onto the ground, even simply the card becomes corrupted.

The solution is DO NOT format the card right away, Rescue the pictures or movies insides first.

Do it as follows --------------------------------

First things first: DO NOT take any more photos with the memory card that you want to recover photos from in case you may quite possibly ruin your chances of recovery.

Then Connect the card to your computer as it should appear as a "Removable Drive" or put the card in a card reader attached to your PC.

Next, if you are comfortable with using a PC then you can download a photo recovery utility that will recover your pictures with this software called Wondershare Photo Recovery (I once used this program bounded with some other software) from the following link(the program also recover videos and music files):

Photo Recovery Windows (if you are running Windows OS)
Photo Recovery Mac (for Apple Mac OS X)

I hope all the information may help you! Best regards

First do not panic! It maybe possible to recover your pictures if you take care. Take the card from the camera (powered off)and if it has a "write protect" tab then lock it now. Do not try and write anything to the card or you risk causing more problems. If you are comfortable with using a PC then you can download a FREE utility that will recover your photos from the following link: http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec If you need something a little more "user friendly" then you will need to buy the software. If you search the web for photo recovery software you will find many. One I have used successfully is RescuePro that used to be bundled with some Sandisk products. Now you can get it from the link below: http://www.lc-tech.com/software/rescuepr... You can try the demo to see what you can recover before buying. Remember - Do NOT try & write anything back to the card until you can recovered your pictures to your PC safely! If neither of the programs can "see" the card I guess you have no option other than to format it. I have successfully used the above programs to recover photos from cards that have been formatted so all maybe not lost. Please update the question & let us know if the information given was useful to you - Good Luck!