Card format problems in D7200

I have been using the same 64gb San Disk Ultra SD card in my D7200 since I got it last year. I removed the card to use as flash drive in another device, now I get an error message "CArd" in display window, I get the same message in both slots. I have reformatted the card using my PC as I am unable to do so on the camera. The card works fine for transferring data from PC to laptop so I assume the card is still good. Any ideas?

When you formatted the card on the PC it likely got formatted in ExFAT which some Nikon cameras can have a problem re-formatting.  The first thing you should do is make sure your firmware is up to date in the camera as Nikon may have corrected some things with respect to formatting.  Next, format the card on your PC but instead of using quick format, uncheck that box and format.  This will take some time but it will mark off any bad bits or sectors which could be tripping up the Nikon.  If that doesn't work, one way I have been able to get cards to format again is to find a Mac and format it in it's disk utilities using the MSDOS format option which uses FAT32 and that is the native format that Nikon uses.  Even though FAT32 is a PC format, many versions of Windows will not let you format a 64GB card in FAT32.  If none of that works, there is likely some problem with the card.

I've had a couple of SD cards give me card error messages when the little grey switch on the side began to move back and forth freely. I had the cards replaced and no more problem.

E.J. Peiker wrote:When you formatted the card on the PC it likely got formatted in ExFAT which some Nikon cameras can have a problem re-formatting.  The first thing you should do is make sure your firmware is up to date in the camera as Nikon may have corrected some things with respect to formatting.  Next, format the card on your PC but instead of using quick format, uncheck that box and format.  This will take some time but it will mark off any bad bits or sectors which could be tripping up the Nikon.  If that doesn't work, one way I have been able to get cards to format again is to find a Mac and format it in it's disk utilities using the MSDOS format option which uses FAT32 and that is the native format that Nikon uses.  Even though FAT32 is a PC format, many versions of Windows will not let you format a 64GB card in FAT32.  If none of that works, there is likely some problem with the card.

I have down the non quick format with no change in error code. It may be the card as sometimes when I load into PC USB port it is not recognised. I do not have access to a mac

Thanks for your quick reply

Gary

Yeah if it's having problems when loading it in a card reader, it's likely that the card is going bad.  Time to replace it.  Since it's 64GB it is likely new enough that it might still be under warranty.

You might want to check the contacts to make sure they are clean, i.e. no corrosion or oils. The contacts may have picked up oils from your fingers or from the other device. Check the camera contacts, as well, because they could have been contaminated from a dirty card. One person stated that they tried several (8) different cards until the message cleared up. Could have been that as he removed and replaced the cards, the contacts cleaned up by the friction.

E.J., Can Windows format a 64GB card as FAT32 and still maintain 64GB? I tried to format a 128GB micro sdxc as FAT32 and it only showed 32B in my phone. My Windows 7 shows no option for exFAT. I formatted it again in camera and it went back to 128GB. I have read that anything over 32 should be formatted as exFAT.

Joe

I found this interesting reading, even though it pertains mostly to cards for phones. It does talk about the different file types.

http://www.androidauthority.com/high-ca ... ns-690710/

Joe

SantaFeJoe wrote:You might want to check the contacts to make sure they are clean, i.e. no corrosion or oils. The contacts may have picked up oils from your fingers or from the other device. Check the camera contacts, as well, because they could have been contaminated from a dirty card. One person stated that they tried several (8) different cards until the message cleared up. Could have been that as he removed and replaced the cards, the contacts cleaned up by the friction.

E.J., Can Windows format a 64GB card as FAT32 and still maintain 64GB? I tried to format a 128GB micro sdxc as FAT32 and it only showed 32B in my phone. My Windows 7 shows no option for exFAT. I formatted it again in camera and it went back to 128GB. I have read that anything over 32 should be formatted as exFAT.

Joe

No but a Mac can.  But even if you format it to 32GB in the PC and then put it in the camera, the camera should be able to format the full 64GB.  And yes, anything over 32 should be formatted as exFAT but that doesn't mean that the camera the card is going into will recognize an exFAT formatted card when you insert it.  Most do and many have had that issue fixed in firmware updates which is why the first thing I told the OP to do is to make sure the FW is up to date.  I had a client a couple of years ago that had a 64GB card formatted on a PC and when she inserted it into a D4 the camera basically did not recognize the card and couldn't format it.  The only way we could was for me to format it as FAT32 on my Mac, then stick it in the camera and format it and everything has been fine ever since.  A subsequent FW update for the D4, even though it was not specifically called out, fixed that issue.  This is why I always tell people, if the manufacturer hasn't pulled a new firmware update off the market after a week, update your camera even if there is nothing in the FW update docs that compel you to do it - say a video update and you only shoot stills.  Japanese culture is one of not revealing your weaknesses or admitting problems publicly but it is also one of fixing any weaknesses even though they are never likely to tell you that they fixed it.  It is a bit different from western culture where we first claim a bug is a feature and then make headlines that by popular demand we changed it to work like the customer wanted...

By the way, if you ever run into this problem on a Nikon or Canon and have a Sony camera laying around, Sony cameras will automatically run a database rebuild operation on the card which takes a few seconds and then the card can be formatted.  If a Sony camera can't format a card, then it's a pretty safe bet that the card has a serious problem.