Memory Card Error - Card Locked

[chrisH]

Hello,

I have a Canon PowerShot SD450 Digital Elph. I also have a 2GB memory card for the camera ('Secure Digital High Performance' and it also says foto source at the bottom of the label). On the weekend I took the card out because I forgot what brand it was. When I put the card back in I recieved the message "Memory Card Error" and "Card Locked" underneath it. Can't do anything on the camera. I've looked around on the internet and was told it's possible to recover the lost images before trying to format it to use the card again. I'm also using Windows 2000 Professional and a Core Micro USB card reader.

When I use the card reader on my computer, it doesn't recognize the SD card that is in the reader. When I go to properties, it says 0 bytes. I thought I would try recovering anyways.

I downloaded PhotoRescue software (trial version).

First I tried selecting 'Logical Drive' for the options before trying to recover. It doesn't work, and asks for the drives information. So I entered 2GB as the card size, and 32k as the cluster size (looked it up on the internet). Once the program starts I just get all "READ ERROR AT..." errors followed by "The parameter is incorrect."

Okay, so that method doesn't work.

Next I try selecting the option of 'Physical Drive'... when I click the radio button for physical drive the program thinks for a moment then it displays "Drive 2 (1MB)" to select. Doesn't seem right, but I gave it a shot anyways. Again manually entered the memory card size and cluster size. After I start the recovery I of course get more errors. This time it's saying "READ ERROR AT..." followed by "The media on the drive may have changed" for a bunch of the first sectors that it scans. Then after the "READ ERROR AT..." it starts saying "The request could not be performed because of an I/O drive error". At least I think that's what it says, it cuts off after the word drive.

When I tried both of these methods, during the scanning/recovery process it listed 1 drive found, and 0 files found the entire time. So this isn't looking good for my pictures that are on the card (probably around 100 on there).

Does anyone have any other suggestions/solutions to recover the information? Or am I doing something wrong?

Any help is GREATLY appreciated. Sorry for the long post but I figured with an issue like this it's good to have as much detail as possible.

Thank you in advance for any insight into this issue.

-Chris

[tniemotka]

I know, I know, I know..... I am late, but I just saw this... And, if anyone else runs into this "Card Locked" error message on their digital camera..... this might help. I am sure ChrisH has already figured it out....

If you take out the memory card and look at it... it has a little button on the side.... slide it over.... and then slap it back in the camera and that should take care of the problem.

The chips have a little button on the side you can slide over and lock the chip so as to not accidently delete anything on the card... ChrisH must have accidently slide it over....

-T

[chrisH]

No, that isn't the issue. That was the first thing to check for.

Thanks anyways.

[Rhys]

Try sliding the slider on the card both ways fully?

[andiandiandi]

Try upgrading your camera's firmware, as suggested by http://www.kingston.com/support/faqs/dmr/media7a.asp. I'm currently having the same problem with my Canon IXUS 55 and Kingston 1GB SD card, only (a) I don't have any pictures to worry about and (b) the card can still be read by my card reader and my PDA, only being "locked" when used in my IXUS. Good luck!

[bwanaman]

Okey, this can be tricky, but it worked for me.

I have Canon Ixus 60 and Kingston SD 1gb memory card.
After loading set of images on my laptop and putting the card back in to camera, screen displayed "Card Locked!" message.

I did everything to check the common flaws, but still the same message occured.

Material needed:
1 paper clip

The socket for memory card has this tiny detector for sensoring if the card is locked or not (same side as the lock switch on the MC). For some reason it was sticking out from the side. So, little fiddling with paper clip to put the detector back in and another try to put the camera on, everything worked out just fine.

[col Filtness]

Hi having the same trouble and doing all of the above, moving locking clip both ways and multi slides still no luck. Brought another card and same trouble. Now suspected my card reader Inbuilt in printer / scanner. Tried a friends inbuilt in computer card reader and it worked on the new card . Brought one for myself and installed it and it also formatted my original card. The faulty one would read the card and allow me to paste and remove NEW photos but While I could copy from the card I could not remove the directory or photos. The new card reader did fix this trouble Cost $20. Hope this is some help Reards Col

[lauraj476]

So I got the same error message a few weeks ago. I bought a card reader and a software program that is supposed to recover lost/deleted/corrupt files but to no avail.

I have tried the SD card on my sister's camera (same Canon powershot) and it doesnt work. I have tried my sister's SD card on my camera and it does work so it is not my camera. It is clearly the SD card with an error.

What can i do, i cant lose these pics!!

Thanks anyone who might have an idea.

P.S. The SD card itself is UNLOCKED.

[K1W1]

What can i do, i cant lose these pics!!

You seem to have tried everything logical. Short of downloading and trying 20 different recovery programs which will probably only cause more frustration for no result if you must have the data off the card your best bet will be a reputable data recovery organisation near you. It will cost, and may cost big time but that is the only real option.

[fotogmarc]

I just had this problem, it might be the same. Canon SD600 and an older card reader; neither are compatible with SDHC. Not sure if there is a firmware update, but I just went back to to SD.