Question:
SD card won't work in camera?
Samantha Weras
2013-07-05 03:22:45 UTC
I have a Nikon Coolpix L120 and am currently trying to use a new brand SD card in it. Its an 8gb Lexar SDHC card and for some reason it keeps asking to format and won't format and also this, "This card cannot be used". I have no idea why it would do this since it as taking pictures fine before. I usually used SanDisk or UltraDisk but the SD cards are the same, I've made sure of it, so how come it would be doing this and how can I fix it??
Seven answers:
?
2013-07-05 03:39:21 UTC
You have probably corrupted your card. If you do not remove the card from your camera or computer properly this can happen... and it is a common occurance.



Try formatting the card in the computer.



If that works, run ChkDsk on the card if you know how.



And then reformat the card in your camera to set the allocation block to 32kb.



Note to Jini; you should reformat your card in the camera. When you format the card in a Mac, it defaults to a 4kb allocation block - which is not the most efficient. While the card will work in the camera, it will be slower than it is capable of.



Cameras typically format cards using a 32kb block, which is why if you reformat the card in the camera, it will be more efficient.



You did the right thing though - you formatted the card in a Mac to get it to work, but then take the extra step to format it again in the camera to reset the allocation block.



If you have a windows computer, it can be set up to format the card with a 32kb block size so you would not have to reformat it in your camera in that case. But there is no easy way to format 32kb in a Mac without 3rd party software. This is one time a Mac is brain-dead vs. windows.
keerok
2013-07-05 06:43:25 UTC
Verify that your camera uses SDHC. SD is different from SDHC. If your camera can only handle SD then get SD only.



If your camera does handle SDHC then buy only from a reputable store. Too many fakes out there right now.
Jini (진이)
2013-07-05 03:25:49 UTC
One of my cameras is a Nikon D3100, and I tried to put an SD card in it. It gave me the same message. I plugged the SD card into my MacBook, opened up its information tab, and it showed me a setting to reformat the card. After it was done reformatting, I put it back into my DSLR, and it worked perfect.
anonymous
2016-09-17 16:22:42 UTC
Maybe yeah
Sara
2013-07-05 03:25:17 UTC
maybe it's dirty! Just take it off clean it ( blow ) an try to put it back again !
anonymous
2016-09-20 13:43:32 UTC
Can you provide more info?
Emily
2016-03-09 02:22:54 UTC
yse u can


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
Loading...