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I reformatted my camera

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Jasen Betts

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Jan 11, 2012, 3:31:14 AM1/11/12
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I reformatted my camera (actually the SD card plugged into it)
because if fiesystem corruption and now windows doesn't want
to know it.

I just did mkfs.msdos /dev/sdb1

camera works fine in linux, no more crosslinked files,

windows XP nolonger recgnises it, just gives some generic error, like
it can't find the right USB driver.

anyone got any ideas?

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Richard Kettlewell

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Jan 11, 2012, 4:10:05 AM1/11/12
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Jasen Betts <ja...@xnet.co.nz> writes:
> I reformatted my camera (actually the SD card plugged into it)
> because if fiesystem corruption and now windows doesn't want
> to know it.
>
> I just did mkfs.msdos /dev/sdb1
>
> camera works fine in linux, no more crosslinked files,
>
> windows XP nolonger recgnises it, just gives some generic error, like
> it can't find the right USB driver.

As a general rule it helps you quote the error message, though in this
case...

> anyone got any ideas?

Get the camera to reformat the SD card instead?

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Richard Kettlewell

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Jan 11, 2012, 5:09:38 AM1/11/12
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Richard Kettlewell <r...@greenend.org.uk> writes:
> As a general rule it helps you quote the error message, though in this
^if
> case...

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Simon Jones

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Jan 11, 2012, 9:16:45 AM1/11/12
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Don't use XP? ;-)
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TJ

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Jan 11, 2012, 9:17:40 AM1/11/12
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I'd second Richard's post. I'm no expert, but from what I've read it's
usually best to have the camera do the formatting. You didn't mention
whether you'd tried taking any photos yet. With a lot of cameras, the
camera can't even use the card if it's formatted somewhere else.

Two other suggestions come to mind:

1. Don't bother with XP. Just use Linux.

2. Buy a new card, and format it with the camera. Unlikely, but the card
could be messed up.

If those don't work for you, try asking in a Windows group, since it's
Windows that has the problem.

TJ


Jasen Betts

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Jan 12, 2012, 6:03:09 AM1/12/12
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On 2012-01-11, TJ <T...@noneofyour.business> wrote:
> On 01/11/2012 03:31 AM, Jasen Betts wrote:
>> I reformatted my camera (actually the SD card plugged into it)
>> because if fiesystem corruption and now windows doesn't want
>> to know it.
>>
>> I just did mkfs.msdos /dev/sdb1
>>
>> camera works fine in linux, no more crosslinked files,
>>
>> windows XP nolonger recgnises it, just gives some generic error, like
>> it can't find the right USB driver.
>>
>> anyone got any ideas?
>>
> I'd second Richard's post. I'm no expert, but from what I've read it's
> usually best to have the camera do the formatting. You didn't mention
> whether you'd tried taking any photos yet. With a lot of cameras, the
> camera can't even use the card if it's formatted somewhere else.

It's just a (micro) SD card, these things basically behave like hard
disks. AFAIK all hardware uses them the same basic way. (people swap
them between devices an readers etc) in any case the card was in the
camera when I formatted it.

The card functioned sort-of with the factory format (I took photos and
they went onto the card) just I somehow managed to mess up the
filesystem.

the camera itself has a very minimal user interface one button for
on/off/shutter and one for mode (still, movie ,audio )
and two LEDs to indicate mode.

> Two other suggestions come to mind:
>
> 1. Don't bother with XP. Just use Linux.

It now doesn't work with the TV either (TV runs BSD AFAICT) haven't
connected the TV to the LAN yet.

> 2. Buy a new card, and format it with the camera. Unlikely, but the card
> could be messed up.
>
> If those don't work for you, try asking in a Windows group, since it's
> Windows that has the problem.

I thought someone might know some arcane mkdosfs invocation or similar
to make XP happy. perhaps it needs a MBR. - (currently the fisrt half of
the first block is all nulls). I'm not too worried.


I rebooted the XP computer and it started working again, everyone who
suggested I ask in a windows newsgroup was right... standard windows
advice :)


On a related subject I just figured out how to use the mencoder x264
and lame codecs to convert the mjpeg AVI's it records into something
better:

mencoder -idx -of avi -oac mp3lame -ovc x264 -noodml -o out.avi IN.AVI

hmm, the output file is almost the same size, I'm doing something wrong.


mencoder -idx -of avi \
-oac mp3lame \
-ovc x264 -x264encopts bitrate=1000 \
-o out.avi \
IN.AVI

That's smaller but there is a noticeable quality loss in high motion
fringes, bitrate=1500 seems optimal.




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TJ

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Jan 12, 2012, 9:45:25 AM1/12/12
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Glitches happen: dirty contacts, card not quite properly installed, weak
battery.

When I said to use the camera to format the card, I meant with it NOT
connected to a PC. If you are formatting while connected to the PC,
you're using the camera as a card reader, an entirely different thing.

One of my cameras uses an SD card. When I use the camera to format the
card, it sets up the folders in a proprietary way, although it uses a
FAT format that Linux or Windows can read. I once tried to format a card
using my card reader, which was successful, and then set up the folders
and such myself. The camera refused to use it until I used the camera's
formatting function to do it again. I don't know what the difference is
- I never bothered looking into it - but it's there, nonetheless.

YMMV, of course.

TJ
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