Cards getting corrupt - Needs to be formatted

[asouclks]

I am using 10 cards in 5 different cameras. The cameras are Nikon D3100. There have been 2 cards that have got corrupt after moving from the camera to the USB adapter. We have lost the pictures because of this.

Is there a known issue where the cards get corrupt and need to be reformatted? Does the USB adapter that the card is using matter? We have REV-F and REV-V adapters that we're using interchangeability.

Anyone else experiencing this type of issue? Any help would be appreciated.

[DropKnowledge]

You shouldn't be experiencing any corruption by simply moving the Eye-Fi card from the camera to the USB reader, especially if you're using an Eye-Fi reader. Could you describe a little more what you mean when you say the cards became corrupted? Are the photos themselves corrupted, are the files lost, does the card requiring formatting, etc? Has this only happened once to each of the two cards that experienced the problem, or several times with the same cards?

REV-F and REV-V readers are the two latest models, and neither should be causing a corruption issue.

[asouclks]

Hello DropKnowledge-

There have been at least 3 cases where when moving the Eye-Fi card to the reader, windows says the cards requires formatting. When I try to put the card back in the camera, the camera also says it needs formatting. The puzzling thing is that I was able to take pictures the whole time.

At first I wasn't even able to format the corrupt cards. However, I then tried formatting using FAT instead of FAT32 and that worked.

A little more detail on the process. We take pictures for about an hour and then head back to the office with Wifi and then swap out the card with another card. The card that was in the camera goes into the reader to be uploaded and the photographer heads back out to take more pictures with the other card.

This process goes on from 11am-1am sometimes. Is there a known issue when using these cards heavily and being pulled from the camera often?

We have also had the camera tell us the card was damaged and needs to be formatted mid shoot. However, if we turn off the camera and back on it will work.

[DropKnowledge]

asouclks,

My suggestion, based on your scenario, would be to format the Eye-Fi cards in the camera each time the photographer inserts a fresh card. If the issue does pop up again, then please leave the card inserted into the computer and grab a card log before formatting or doing anything else. To get a card log (with the Eye-Fi card and reader inserted into the computer), click the Eye-Fi Helper icon in your system tray and select "Get Eye-Fi Card log..." Save that file and attach it in this thread.

Also, have you noticed that the issue only occurs with a specific reader, or (for example) only with the REV-V readers?

Thanks,
Joe

[mashimaro]

I just had the very same issue happen to me today. I got the Eye-Fi card two weeks ago. Our relatives were visiting us from out of the country. We took all the pictures for them using this card with our Sony TX-10 camera. The card took pictures fine. But when I plugged it into the reader to transfer two-week-worth of pictures today, the computer did not recognize the card at all. I had a bad feeling right at that moment. Because eject was not an option, I even shut down the PC before I unplug the card to avoid corrupting it. Unfortunately, the card became usable ever since. When I put it into the camera, it now shows it needs to be formatted. I can’t format it because it can’t be recognized by my PC or three other laptops.
At this point, I don’t even care about using this card anymore. I just need to know if there is any way to recover the photos from it. Visiting us was once in a lifetime experience for my relatives, and losing all the pictures is devastating. Do you guys have any fix for this?

[DropKnowledge]

mashimaro,

Please see the following page for more info on your issue: http://support.eye.fi/cards/media/data- ... -fi-cards/

Once you've determined a path regarding the data recovery, please also contact support (support@eye.fi) and mention this thread so that we can get you out a new card.

[AndCycle]

I have identified some of the card reader do corrupt data on EyeFi card, especially those labeled with SDXC,
this really making people crazy,

I have no idea who I should report because the reader works fine with normal SD card

[faygord]

I seem to have the same issue.

New card, installed and worked. Tested by mving a couple of pics

Loaded up the card over two weeks.

Inserted into reader - not recognised: drive needs formatting!

Put back in camera..all pix visible..

Connected via cable..format message again. Pix still visible in camera.
Tried different reader. format message.

I MAY have put the sandisk card in the other reader BEFORE trying to read it which MAY have corrupted the files sytem if other posts are correct.

Which is a bit stupid...

Waiting for support to come up with an answer. Any body got any ideas about how one might get pics off except by one at a time through the camera memory...

[Dave729]

I have the same issue - works in camera but not in card reader hooked to my Mac. A coworker suggested I put it in a printer with a card reader -- that didnt work, either. Id like to see a fix for this, also. Im not going to use the card, as ive lost confidence in it.

[ghowe]

Same happened to me today, pictures on Eye-Fi Pro X2 card became corrupt when using third-party card reader. Spoke with customer service who confirmed the known issue, especially with UDMA card readers.

In my case, while shooting on location today with a single-slot-SD camera, RAW+jpg pictures recorded ok on the Eye-Fi card, and .jpgs transferred to iPad wireless during the shoot. (on prior shoots I would record RAW on a separate CF card using dual CF/SD slots, and downloaded RAW files to computer with no issues). When attempting to transfer RAW files from Eye-Fi card to Mac Pro on OSX 10.6.8 via third-party Hama card reader (I didn't have the Eye-Fi usb reader available) the card did not mount and OSX error message "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer" came up, asking to initialize the card, and the card stayed un-readeable and would not mount. I put the Eye-Fi card back in camera and all images were still there.

I switched to a Lexar Pro UDMA CompactFlash SD usb 2 reader and the drive mounted ok. However, when navigating to the image folder, OSX crashed with "You need to restart your computer" (kernel panic descending black screen of death) message, and was forced to force-restart. Did the same thing a second time with same results.

I tried another Mac Pro in the office using the Lexar, and the card mounted ok, but folders contained zero byte alias files and seemingly corrupted data with weird random file names. No image files were present. I put the card back in camera and this time it said "File does not contain image data," and no images came up for review.

At this point I called an Eye-Fi customer service agent, who was very friendly and worked through the issue. She confirmed the only card reader officially supported by Eye-Fi is the reader supplied with the card, and with any third-party card reader you run risk of corruption issues. She offered to email a list of supported image rescue software links I could follow up with to try and retrieve images off the card. (this email hasn't come as of several hours later).

I used Image Rescue 4 and was thankfully able to retrieve all images from today's shoot.

It leads me to the conclusion that while this is a fantastic product concept, the possibility of file corruption makes it unacceptable for professional usage at this time. Perhaps using Eye-Fi hardware only, other users may have had continued success with transfers and no corruption issues. I havn't seen or found anything thus far on the Eye-Fi site or instructions which specifically warns to not use third-party readers for downloading. This would be helpful.

A quick forum search shows other corruption issues as well, so there seems to be an issue with more then just third-party readers.

Please fix. Thanks!

[voip-ninja]

I just wanted to comment as I myself have now had a 2nd failure as described here with an Eye-Fi X2 Pro card.

I have a new 2012 top of the line 27" iMac. I shot over 100 JPGs with my NEX-7 and, because I wanted to get quick access to the photos I moved the SD card directly into the card reader that is built into the Mac. The first picture on the card transferred and then the Eye-Fi assistant became unresponsive. The Mac Finder would not work until I killed Eye-Fi, at which point the SD card became corrupted. I, very fortunately, was able to recover all of my pictures using a fantastic script called photorec.

This should not be happening. I put other SD cards in this Mac all the time and have never had a problem with any other cards than the Eye-Fi.

This happened with my previous Eye-Fi card with an older iMac and Eye-Fi support insisted that they only support using the card with their own card reader. I was sent a replacement card at the time and hoped the issue was behind me, but clearly not.

The convenience of geotagging and wi-fi transfer is not worth it if Eye-Fi can't build an SD card that works reliably without corruption of images or requiring re-format of the file system.... that is totally unacceptable.

[ahinchcliffe]

if you are running Mac OSX 10.8 then you needto make sure you are running version 3.4.28 or later of eyefi centre as detailed here

http://support.eye.fi/software/problem/ ... recognize/

if not what youre missing here is the fact that every one who has posted here has had problems with 3rd party readers thats not entirely eyefi's fault their cards are compliant with standards laid out by the SD Association however not all card readers are created equal and it seems some card reader manufacturers weren't expecting to meet the power demands of the eyefi cards wireless transmitter and microprocessor. you didn't expect eyefi to make a sd card with microprocessor and wireless transmitter that did not draw more power than a regular sd card did you? neither did some card reader manufacturers just because a card reader works with a regular sd card does not mean it will work with an eyefi card i have a few card readers that do work i probably have as many that do not. but as i say this not eyefi's fault if all card readers had been made according to the guidelines laid out by the SD association in particular relating to how much power may be required by some sd cards they would all work.

and in conclusion eyefi supply you with a perfectly good card reader that is guaranteed to be eyefi compatible in fact its pretty much guaranteed to work with any sd/sdhc card why not use it?

[glennn]

I'm having same issue too. Wish I had never bought this card. Its corrupted more than a few times for me and have lost a lot of valuable work.
I should have learnt after first time.
I did a recent shoot that cost me an arm and a leg to setup with multiple cameras and the only card that failed was my 100 dollar Eye-Fi card.
None of my card readers will read it. Using Win7 64bit.
I finally got a file structure from using an older Dell laptop. But there was a dump of about 50 folders all with gobbledegook jacked letters.
No possible chance of recovering these shots I don't think.

Whilst shooting it had some mad error appear on the screen I don't recall what it said as I nearly threw camera out the window.
I had formatted the camera before starting the shoot on board the camera. format card.

[glennn]

Also no camera I put it in can read the card... canon 550D, 600D, or 60D etc
I was shooting Raw images. Time to go find some data recovery software

[RyanA]

Glennn,

We're very sorry that your Eye-Fi card went corrupt during a shoot and that your photos were potentially lost for good. Our Eye-Fi cards tend to have a fairly low failure rate (especially when using the supplied Eye-Fi card reader), so with all the trouble you've had, it's possible that your Eye-Fi has some other defect or malfunction going on behind the scenes. Once you've run through the data recovery process, if you are interested in replacing the card, just shoot an e-mail to support@eye.fi with my name (Ryan A.) in the subject and a reference to this thread in the body and I'll personally handle setting that up.

Again, our apologies that your photos were lost.
Best regards,
Ryan A.