PC unable to read PNY flash card

A very helpful friend in the UK sent me a bundle of his workshop photographs on a PNY 16GB flash card.

Although my PC says the card is OK; beeps when I insert the card into the USB socket; and the card’s LED flashes, nothing shows up in my MS Outlook 2010 file manager.

I then checked with one of my own cards and that was fine.

When I plugged the PNY card into my old (IBM ThinkPad) laptop the LED flashed as before but then reported …

‘A problem occurred during new hardware installation. Your new hardware might not work properly.’

Returning the card to my PC produced the same results as above, i.e. it beeps and the LED flashes.

Is there a simple solution?

Thanking you in advance,

Sam

Edited By Sam Stones on 05/11/2020 00:45:21

Cards can get corrupted and I have lost a few memory cards and thumb drives. Always have a backup in case of failure. And use the Safely Remove Hardware and Eject icon before removing card or USB memory

Do a Google search to resolve problem. Such as thei one.

**LINK**

You can also download and install software that will recover data from damaged disks.

Paul.

Thanks for your prompt reply Paul.

I'm guessing my UK friend still has all the photographs on his computer. If all else fails, he might have to send them as email attachments.

Meanwhile, I'll look for some recovery software.

Thanks again,

Sam

Hi Sam,

You can also try and see if the camera that took the photos can read the card. If so, you could possibly us the camera to transfer the photos to a computer.

Paul

Linux has a command line application called "TestDisk" which I downloaded and used to recover photo's from an SD card This worked well and even recovered photo's from the card which I had deleted. I imagine Windows has similar software available (although you may have to pay for it).

As has been said cards can become corrupted or minor differences in format software and write can cause slight differences. Lexar have recovery software freely available which is also supplied on their cards, I have used this in the past to recover cards for others. It doesn’t matter what make of card is all recovery software will work the same.

Was the card written in a format that your PC can read?

What operating system and version wrote the card? (Mac, PC, Windows/Linux etc)

What version of Windows are your 2 PC's running?

Dave

I have had photos downloaded onto a memory stick on USB3. I couldn't open them on my computer on USB2

Both using Windows 10

Format of card is hardware system related, so embedded software. Operating system has no effect other than translation of read digits to what ever software you want to use. Cameras use dedicated embedded software which may not always completely conform to international standards either purposely or accidentally, so what is written does not conform with what is expected to be read. Also cards do have a finite life, although most of us will never see the end other forms of mishandling can cause problems, heat being one.

Windows can keep writing to a card disk or memory stick after you think it has finished. If the stick or card is just pulled out (or the machine is switched off too soon) data can be corrupted.

Microsoft recognises this and the next time you try to use the card it asks if you want to scan it and correct errors.

Unfortunately, in my experience, this can also cause data loss ...................

If the card had been written in a Linux/unix format (i.e. Not FAT32) Windows will not be able to read it.

Also if it has been written in Windows exFAT format. it will may be readable under older Windows versions. (I have a USB Drive that is readable in Win 10 but not Win 7)

Dave

For the reasons listed above could be a compatibility problem rather than a failed card. In particular old computers can't read cards written by new ones - the de facto standard changed several years ago to support high volume memory sticks, and older hardware can't cope.

There may be a simple answer. Try asking friends, relatives and neighbours to read the card. If one has a computer that reads the card, it will be straightforward to copy the photos.

Otherwise, avoid sending more than a few photos by email because most email servers have arbitrary size limits and oversized emails can get whacked in transit. Better to use a free file-sharing system like Dropbox. (Alternatives available.)

Dave

Edited By SillyOldDuffer on 05/11/2020 13:58:03

I agree SOD. The way to go is Dropbox. As a family we send folders full of photo's via a Dropbox link around the world in seconds. No need to rely on the post and no electronic failures to worry about.

regards

Thanks for all the advice so far gentlemen.

For clarification, here are a few more notes regarding the USB card and (I presume) its contents …

• The images were taken in the UK and posted to me in Australia,
• I have no idea what camera, computer, or software he used*,
• My desktop PC runs Windows 7 Home Premium,
• My old IBM ThinkPad laptop runs Windows XP Pro V 2002,

It looks like incompatibility is high on the list Dave (SOD)!?

I had noticed that the USB plug wobbled relative to the black injection moulded body of the device. It had spent 26 days in the postal system, which raised a couple of questions …

• Was the device damaged physically?
• Was there a broken connection?

I decided to pull it apart, only to find it was intact. See this ‘top and bottom’ image.

Holding the ‘skeleton’ by its PCB edges, I again plugged it into the PC (and the laptop). That was when the LED revealed itself, flashing in a typical pattern and then remaining lit.

Plugging the device into both PC and laptop this morning showed the same symptoms, i.e. the rapid flashing lasts about five seconds when plugged into the PC, but only about one second when plugged into the laptop. The same (error) message appears briefly on the laptop.

The LED, visible on the RH edge of the PCB (top image), didn’t show through the black moulded case. Now it does, through a 2mm hole I drilled in the case.

*With such bad news about the CV19 spread, I’m worried that I still have had no response from my UK friend.

Many thanks for your help so far.

Sam

PS Dropbox it'll be next time

Does the USB stick show in Disk Management? I forget how to get to it in Win 7.

Resist all requests to format something!

It might be something as simple as the USB disk not having a name or a letter (H:,J: etc),. In disk management look for a disk with the right size.

Google USB, Win 7 and Disk Management. I´ve had one of these but it was a while ago.

If the computer recognises it and lights flash the USB interface is OK.

If you don't even get a 'repair disk' dialogue then it is either badly corrupted or maybe the ball grid array of connections under the memory chip has broken.

It's very hard to lose data from USB devices by 'hot swapping' these days as Windows uses a process something like:

Write new catalogue data but not marked as valid.

Write data

Make new catalogue data valid.

If this process is interrupted it can stop the write from taking place successfully but it won't corrupt the storage, although the catalogue may need to be rebuilt.

Neil

Good news!

Overnight, with the help of his son, my friend loaded the files into Dropbox. This morning while still bleary-eyed, I managed to down load all that was necessary.

Thanks again for all you help and good intentions.

Keep safe.

Sam