HELP - Newbie OlyC700- Smart Media-Pictures none

Please Help me. I recently purchashed an OLY C700. I have never had a digital camera before. We looked at the pictures thru the LCD and then decided to download them to a laptop. We plugged into the USB port, and received a laptop error message that it couldn't read the card. Then we tried the destructions that came with the camera. When we tried to look at the pictures through the LCD again the camera said "Pictures None."
Hooking up from laptop to camera got the same "can't Read" message again.

Are my pictures gone for good? Any suggestion on what I did wrong or how to retreive the photos woule be greatly appreciated. Thank you.--DaJudge

Hi Stacy,

Sorry you're having problems. Couple of questions - how many pictures did you take? Were you able to view all of the pictures through the LCD before trying to download them? Are you using the original Olympus smartmedia card that came with the camera? Did you use Camedia to download the photos? Did Windows properly install the driver for the camera? It's plug and play. When you boot up the computer for the first time with the camera connected, Windows sees the camera as new hardware and installs the drivers for it. After that, it looks like an external, removeable drive.
Bill

Stacy said:

Thanks Bill

Click to expand...

We needed this camera for a job site and made the mistake of purchasing the day it was required with no time to practice. We took about 40 pictures with a Smart Media 64mg card. The original Olympus card that came with the camera downloaded properly with no lost photos. I believe everything software wise was installed properly and don't have a clue as to what I could have done to cause the photos on the Smartmedia card to vanish. Once the camera says "NO Photos" is that it? Is there a way to retreive these missing photos? I fully intended to educate myself on at least the basics of this camera, prior to use, but instead got some OTJT when the manual and camera were handed to me. I'm sure I can learn this, but in the meantime, the boss wants these pictures.
Stacy

Stacy,

It sounds like you may have a problem. When you get a smartmedia card that is not of an Olympus brand, you need to format the card in the camera before using it. It's like buying brand new, unformatted floppy disks. I'm surprised it let you shoot pictures on an unformatted card.

I'm afraid I don't know if you can recover what was already shot. You probably will need to re-shoot them if you can. Sorry.
Bill

Well, I've never had to format a non-Olympus card (I've never bougth an Olympus card), although this could well serve as a warning to me.

In my experience, they've all come with a standard FAT-12 file system on them. Putting the card into the Olympus camera (whether or not you say to format it) will cause the camera to write those two levels of directory that we're all familiar with.

Why this happened to this guy in particular... Well, maybe some brands of cards don't come with a proper FAT format on them, which could ultimately lead to this problem.

It'd be interesting to know what brand it is, and whether this is a consistent feature of the brand.

Bill Yuey said:

Stacy,
It sounds like you may have a problem. When you get a smartmedia
card that is not of an Olympus brand, you need to format the card
in the camera before using it. It's like buying brand new,
unformatted floppy disks. I'm surprised it let you shoot pictures
on an unformatted card.

I'm afraid I don't know if you can recover what was already shot.
You probably will need to re-shoot them if you can. Sorry.
Bill

Click to expand...

Toots said:

Well, I've never had to format a non-Olympus card (I've never
bougth an Olympus card), although this could well serve as a
warning to me.

In my experience, they've all come with a standard FAT-12 file
system on them. Putting the card into the Olympus camera (whether
or not you say to format it) will cause the camera to write those
two levels of directory that we're all familiar with.

Click to expand...

Really? I thought you had to have those directories on the card in order for it to work with Olympus firmware? This isn't true?
Bill

True, but the camera puts them there without even being asked to.

I took a fresh SM card that I knew not to have those directories, stuck it in my 3030, and poof! It was ready to take pix, and the directories were there. At no point did it ask to format the card, and at no point did I format it.

Now, as I said, the issue could come in if the FAT format of the card itself was bad. The camera might find enough stuff there to think it knows how/where to put the directories and images, but the PC could choke on it.

That right there seems to argue for doing the pre-emptive format.

Bill Yuey said:

Really? I thought you had to have those directories on the card in
order for it to work with Olympus firmware? This isn't true?
Bill

Click to expand...

Thanks for the information, Toots.

That should give Stacy some hope that the photos can be recovered. Stacy, are you reading this? Since you can't seem to get it out of the camera, maybe a card reader will work.

Bill

Toots said:

Now, as I said, the issue could come in if the FAT format of the
card itself was bad. The camera might find enough stuff there to
think it knows how/where to put the directories and images, but the
PC could choke on it.

That right there seems to argue for doing the pre-emptive format.

Bill Yuey said:

Really? I thought you had to have those directories on the card in
order for it to work with Olympus firmware? This isn't true?
Bill

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Thanks for the input. I will try this. Being new to this, however, I think "user error" will be the biggest culprit. Here's hoping that the learning curve will be forshortened thanks to nice people like you.
Stacy

I have seen people on this and other forums receive advice to try disk recovery programs (Scandisk, Disk Doctor) - but this requires a card reader.

I too have the C-700 and did have to format the non-oly cards in the camera - they worked fine straight out the package.

HTH, Cynthia

Stacy said:

Stacy62211 said:

Now, as I said, the issue could come in if the FAT format of the
card itself was bad. The camera might find enough stuff there to
think it knows how/where to put the directories and images, but the
PC could choke on it.

That right there seems to argue for doing the pre-emptive format.

Bill Yuey said:

Really? I thought you had to have those directories on the card in
order for it to work with Olympus firmware? This isn't true?
Bill

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Thanks for the input. I will try this. Being new to this,
however, I think "user error" will be the biggest culprit. Here's
hoping that the learning curve will be forshortened thanks to nice
people like you.
Stacy

Click to expand...