Hi,
I have a similar problem, only I was fool enough to format it. Now the
Smartmedia card is totally unreadable as a result.
Here is the good part, I have done this a half dozen times over the last
two years with a handful of these cards! Now I have 4 to 5 Smartmedia
cards that are totally useless in my Olympus Camedia C-3040 Zoom digital
camera. I can use my SanDisk card reader to format the useless
Smartmedia cards for Windows and use them for file dragging and dropping
from my computer. Expensive temporary storage.
My question to all of you is: "How can I wipe the Smartmedia card(s)
clean enough to let my Olympus camera read it and format it again --
correctly?" I want to bring these very expensive dust catchers back to
life again inside the camera, not as computer file storage options.
I think I'd have to wipe out the existing format. I do have a SanDisk
card reader for the PC. I know that formatting using Windows format and
my card reader was a huge mistake. I could read files I dragged into
the cards from the computer, but the newly reformatted Smartmedia card
was totally unreadable by the camera.
Now to the ones that do work and momentarily fail me...here is how to
save pictures!
When I ignore the camera warning to format the card, I turn off the
camera immediately. I then replace the batteries. I then remove the
Smartmedia card and then replace it back in. I then turn on the camera
again. Sometimes it works okay and sometimes I repeat these steps two
or three times when that format warning reappears. Then voila, the
camera is working fine. Battery replacement or battery recharge and
replace first. Whatever you do, don't ever follow that camera's advice
to reformat the card! If you do, your pictures are instant toast,
unless a card reader and Windows utility can rescue them.
A card reader can save photos that the camera doesn't read, as long as
they aren't overwritten by anything else. Even if you thought you
deleted them once.
I realized that my AAA batteries were getting very low in their charge
when this reformat of the card message would appear. This has caused
more format problems than anything else. When they are fully charged, I
don't see this happen as often.
Glenn