[Leica] Compact Flash Card Trouble

[mrvolvo at cableone.net (Randy Holst)]

Robert Clark wrote:

>I have a 2GB Lexar CF card that I use with my D70... I put the card in the 
>reader and my iMac would not recognize the card... I placed it back in the 
>camera and got the message "You Can Not Use This Card."  I tried to 
>reformat the card (and obviously lose the images) but it wouldn't let me do 
>that either... I understand Lexar has a data recovery program  for about 
>$30...anyone ever used it?  Or...should I just cut my losses and get 
>another CF card? 
>

Hi Robert,

I'm far from an expert on these memory cards, but have been using 
various CF cards with different cameras and computer systems for several 
years and have come to the conclusion that it's best to use four 512MB 
cards rather than one 2GB card.  That way, when a card goes bad, you 
don't lose all your images and all your memory at once.  I have yet to 
try any type of data recovery software, primarily because anything I've 
lost hasn't been that critical, but also because there is no guarantee 
that it will work.  If you look at the fine print on Lexar's Image 
Rescue 2.0 software, you will see the disclaimer: "Image recovery is not 
100% guaranteed".  In other words, it will likely work for everyone but 
me.  If you decide to try it, I wish you luck.

The bottom line is that I've lost many images to the "digital gremlins", 
but NONE to bad film.

Randy Holst
Boise, Idaho