Camera or card issue? Pls help 2 cards cannot be accessed or reformatted

I am experiencing the exact same problem using some SanDisk Extreme Pro 90MB & 160MB 32GB new and lightly used CF cards. The problem just suddenly appeared. The problem doesn't occur with my older SanDisk older 16GB CF card. I have the latest firmware and have blown out the card cavity and looked for bent pins. Wonder what is going on. . . .

PurplePassion79 said:

I have two canon 5d mk iii cameras. yesterday I was photographing a wedding and turned on one of the cameras and it said card 2 cannot be accessed reinsert/change the card or format the camera. I took out the card and re inserted, same message. I replaced the card and it then worked. I turned both cameras off we changed locations, then I got the same message on my other camera when I turned it on. I now have two SD cards that wont format or read by camera or computer (Sandisk Extreme 32gb) These cards have only been used half a dozen times. A third SD card will work in both cameras?! luckily I have not lost any images as have copies on CF cards. I have never had any card issues before so not sure if its the card or the cameras? please help...

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Where did you buy the cards from?, If ebay , than you may have fakes.

I forgot to mention that the 32GB cards that my 5DIII suddenly cannot read ARE readable by my Canon 7D and my Canon 1DX. The SanDisk cards were purchased from Newegg.

Yes actually those two cards had been purchased from eBay. They do not work on any other cameras. I'll steer clear from eBay from now on. Cheers

PurplePassion79 said:

Yes actually those two cards had been purchased from eBay. They do not work on any other cameras. I'll steer clear from eBay from now on. Cheers

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kay bryan said:

I forgot to mention that the 32GB cards that my 5DIII suddenly cannot read ARE readable by my Canon 7D and my Canon 1DX. The SanDisk cards were purchased from Newegg.

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sounds like a camera problem..

Update! So I've been in contact with seller and also sandisk. Sandisk have confirmed they are legitimate cards and not fake. They are willing to replace them and seller has also offered refund. Some interesting info I was sent I'll paste below. The only thing I can find when I did the compatability search (last link) is with my camera I should have the extreme pro card, I was using extreme, so not sure if that was the issue!!

regarding SDHC cards, please note:
SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity), allows capacities in excess of 2GB (4GB to 32GB). SDHC uses the FAT32 file system which supports the higher capacity instead of FAT16. It uses the same form factor as SD, but the SD 2.0 standard in SDHC uses a different memory addressing method (sector addressing vs byte addressing). SDHC cards only work in SDHC compatible devices, but standard SD cards work in both SD and SDHC devices.
NOTE: Devices that do not specifically support SDHC do not recognize SDHC memory cards.

useful links:
SanDisk

Computer (with internal card reader) or digital camera fails to read 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB SDHC card

SD/SDHC/SDXC Specifications and Compatibility

SDXC/ SDHC/ SD support information page

to check the card compatibility for your device, please visit:
SanDisk Product Compatibility

just a note...if you have a card and the a device or Windows cannot see it, try it in a PC with a Linux OS, if you know anybody with one as they can often "see" the card/hard drive/pendrive when nothing else will ..re reformat it and then windows PC will may see it...i guess over the years i have had 80% success rate like this including dead/dying hard drives where i have drag and drop files of it when the windows PC cannot even see it

PurplePassion79 said:

Update! So I've been in contact with seller and also sandisk. Sandisk have confirmed they are legitimate cards and not fake. They are willing to replace them and seller has also offered refund. Some interesting info I was sent I'll paste below. The only thing I can find when I did the compatability search (last link) is with my camera I should have the extreme pro card, I was using extreme, so not sure if that was the issue!!

regarding SDHC cards, please note:
SDHC (Secure Digital High Capacity), allows capacities in excess of 2GB (4GB to 32GB). SDHC uses the FAT32 file system which supports the higher capacity instead of FAT16. It uses the same form factor as SD, but the SD 2.0 standard in SDHC uses a different memory addressing method (sector addressing vs byte addressing). SDHC cards only work in SDHC compatible devices, but standard SD cards work in both SD and SDHC devices.
NOTE: Devices that do not specifically support SDHC do not recognize SDHC memory cards.

useful links:
SanDisk
http://www.sandisk.com/

Computer (with internal card reader) or digital camera fails to read 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB SDHC card
http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/54/

SD/SDHC/SDXC Specifications and Compatibility
http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2520

SDXC/ SDHC/ SD support information page
http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/4968

to check the card compatibility for your device, please visit:
SanDisk Product Compatibility
http://pct1.sandisk.com/NewSearch.aspx

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Good job.