No Longer Reading SD Cards

I used to put SD cards (various sizes: 2GB, 1GB, 42MB, & smaller) from my cameras (Pentax & Minolta, and others before these) into a PC-card adapter or a USB card-reader and read from them (under 10.1 thru 10.4.8).

Yesterday, only 2 or 3 weeks after I last did this, both the PC-card adapter & the USB reader no longer read them or even show there is an SD card inserted, using Finder, iPhoto, or Image Capture (and despite restart, privilege repair, cache cleaning). The PC adapter shows no response at all. The USB adapter says the card is not formatted, but formatting fails (Disk Utility or Lexar Image Rescue).

The cards work fine in the camera, and I can still read them using a USB cable from the camera, but that requires the camera to be on, meaning it chews up batteries or requires using the power brick - too much hassle and too many cords.

Any suggestions?

Hi there and welcome,

the first thing would be to plug the reader into another computer and test whether it is working okay...if it is then it must be a software fault on your Mac.

Personally I don't like card readers, they always seem more trouble than they are worth. I have had lots of different ones, and they always seem to struggle sometimes. Thye sometimes won't read the card yet the Camera would...

Let us know whether it works on another computer...

regards

Ric

Hmmm...
I had alread tried a 2GB card using the USB reader on my wife's 10.3.9 system, and got the same "not formatted" response, although she has been doing the same as me...
But just now, I tried a 1GB chip and it read perfectly in hers. Retrying the 2GB gave the same problem.
Retried both cards in my system and got the same result - the 1GB worked as it used to (a surprise, as it was not working hours ago), but the 2GB still did not work. It was formatted by, and working in the camera - I even used the camera cable to fill it with old photos that now show fine in the camera's screen.
(I just tried a Palm-formatted 256MB card in mine: zipponada; same on hers. I do not normally try that, so it does not surprise me too much.)

So, is the issue cards over 1GB?

Or, if some part of my system is wonky, then what sub-prog do I replace? (No way is this worth a complete reinstall!)

Hi there,

what make and model reader do you have ?

regards

Ric

PCcard adapter/reader: generic "4 in1"
USB reader: LaCIE "Hexa Media Drive" (YD-8V14)