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Delkin CF Card caput after one year


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A year ago while on the Big Island of Hawaii, I thought I would splurge and buy a Delkin CF 700x 64 Gigabyte compact flash card at the local camera store in Kona. What a dream come true, practically shoot to my heart's content all on the same card, not needing to change cards or download while travelling.

 

Went thru the card a few times over the last year, nothing excessive, but now the card is totally gone. Fortunately I only lost a day's work of photos, all of which I can repeat again some time. I am wondering what could have gone wrong and if there is a simple retrieval fix that isn't costly.

 

I tried a free download, Wondershare, but it did not recognize the card's existence either. I also blew forced air into the card pin slots to perhaps clean out dust, but to no avail. The card is not recognized whatsoever, not on my Canon 7D, not on my Apple computer via a card reader. No ports, no nothing, like it doesn't exist.

 

Could this be user error somehow, maybe I pulled the card without turning the camera off first, if that's a problem? Ideas? Give it up and just buy another?

 

Thanks in advance.

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I had a Sandisk 32gb SD card die about a year after I got it. It was the only card I was using in that camera and I'd format it, in camera, each time after transferring images to my computer. Up until then I'd always used several Lexar CompactFlash cards and only once had an issue.

The one time I used Lexar Image Rescue and I was able to retrieve everything I had shot with that card, going back several years.

 

 

Cleaning the contacts might help but I wondered if formatting the SD card that many times might've been the issue. Or maybe SD cards don't last as long as CompactFlash. 

 

Since then I've been using two SD cards in my camera and occasionally swap slots so that I'm not always using the same card. No idea if this will help prolong the useful life to the cards. I guess time will tell.

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RescuePro has worked for me.

Sandisk buyers get a coupon for 1 yr free use.

There's a trial version to see if there's anything there that RP can recover. I would at least try that on the card.

I noticed that there are some coupons and serials available online.

 

This is not your Wondershare, which comes up 1st when searching for RescuePro. Probably by stealing the keywords/adwords and paying Google to come in first.

 

wim

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I am not suggesting this is the problem here but one needs to be very careful where one buys memory cards. Some years ago I bought a couple of CF cards on eBay Amazon, supposedly Sandisk but they were fakes, fortunately I got my money back. They are so easy to fake, just need to create labels/packaging that looks something like the real thing.

 

I only buy memory cards (Lexar or more usually Sandisk in my case) from major dealers (usually a group) who will be buying direct from the manufacturer or their main distributor, I may pay slightly more but I have never had a problem since. Only in an extreme situation might I buy memory cards from a dealer I didn't know.

 

Just a warning

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Some of the Sandisk cards have a lifetime guarantee. I had one go bad and they gave me a new one. It failed after I had downloaded the images so that wasn't an issue. It just wouldn't format anymore.

 

Paulette

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I agree with Martin: there used to be lots of fakes out there. Not sure if this is still the case though.

At one point rumor had it that 90% of the high end Delkins were fake.

 

Delkin has a service akin to Sandisk:

http://www.delkindevices.com/support/file-recovery/

You could try PhotoRec

Download here. It's free and open source. A bit spartan but very powerful.

 

wim

 

edit: Delkin has a lifetime warranty as well.

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I agree with Martin: there used to be lots of fakes out there. Not sure if this is still the case though.

At one point rumor had it that 90% of the high end Delkins were fake.

 

Delkin has a service akin to Sandisk:

http://www.delkindevices.com/support/file-recovery/

You could try PhotoRec

Download here. It's free and open source. A bit spartan but very powerful.

 

wim

 

edit: Delkin has a lifetime warranty as well.

 

Seems it is still an issue, at least on eBay, quick search found reports from as recently as last summer. On reflection I think my fake cards were probably from eBay not Amazon as I was not using Amazon for such purchases in those days.

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Nand flash memory eventually wears out after repeated formats. Reformatting on a daily basis would shorten the life of the chip. Deleting images as you shoot would also have the same effect. Memory chips wear out, and cheap counterfeits ones wear out faster.

 
See here:
 
 
The boot drive in my imac is entirely nand flash memory. It probably has the same life expectancy as a hard drive. But for different reasons.
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Some of the Sandisk cards have a lifetime guarantee. I had one go bad and they gave me a new one. It failed after I had downloaded the images so that wasn't an issue. It just wouldn't format anymore.

 

Paulette

 

Mine was a plain white Sandisk card that came in a clear plastic bag. It was part of  kit that was included,  at no additional charge, when I bought a new camera. I guess you get what you pay for. 

The first thing I notice was the camera was taking longer and longer to view images on the screen. Sometimes they didn't appear at all. Then one day I noticed my computer only downloaded about 400 out of 600 or so images shot that day. Cleaning didn't seem to help but I was finally able to download the remaining images using different software.

Cards are cheap. Unless you simply can get a new card when you need one there's no reason to risk using a bad card.

 

Stacy

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Some of the Sandisk cards have a lifetime guarantee. I had one go bad and they gave me a new one. It failed after I had downloaded the images so that wasn't an issue. It just wouldn't format anymore.

 

Paulette

 

Mine was a plain white Sandisk card that came in a clear plastic bag. It was part of  kit that was included,  at no additional charge, when I bought a new camera. I guess you get what you pay for. 

The first thing I notice was the camera was taking longer and longer to view images on the screen. Sometimes they didn't appear at all. Then one day I noticed my computer only downloaded about 400 out of 600 or so images shot that day. Cleaning didn't seem to help but I was finally able to download the remaining images using different software.

Cards are cheap. Unless you simply can get a new card when you need one there's no reason to risk using a bad card.

 

Stacy

 

 

Indeed. I was in Africa when that card gave out so I was glad I had more. I have kept buying as they improve but I don't throw out the old ones "just in case".

 

Paulette

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You can buy a new card and get Lexar Rescue for the same cost as buying the software: https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=lexar+camera+memory+card&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=77785962785&hvpos=1t2&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16349092464986683312&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=b&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9004193&hvtargid=kwd-2324930717&ref=pd_sl_8yyzpncwd0_b

 

I searched for SD cards but there are CF cards too. 

 

I used an older version years ago when I hit "reformat" on a CF card I hadn't uploaded to my iMac yet and it recovered the new photos and older ones. It only recovers them as jpegs even if you just shot RAW. No idea how the newer versions work but it's worthwhile.

 

I'd also contact Delkin - maybe they'll replace it for you. A year is very fast for a card to die. 

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Thanks for all the replies. I think I will take Marianne;s suggestion and get a new card or two and get the Lexar Rescue  with it. If I can rescue those images from the bad card, great- if not, at least the cost in trying was minimal and I have a new card.

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