Compatible problem – SD vs. SDHC card

[coody]

My digital camera does not an SDHC but SD card. It keeps displaying formatting after the SDHC card inserted, though I have already pressed “continue”. Is it possible to format the SDHC card by my computer so that the camera can use it or the card can only be formatted by the camera itself for using?

[Number Six]

If I understand you correctly, you are trying to use a SDHC card in a camera that can only accept a standard SD card - is this correct? If so, then it will not work because the camera is not capable of reading the newer type card.

[coody]

My computer is also unable to recognize the SDHC card after I inserted it into the PC slot. Is there any downloading to fix the problem so that the computer can read or format the SDHC card? It is the SanDisk SDHC card.

[redwudz]

What camera do you have? Most any newer ones should be able to use a SDHC or SD card with no problems. Make sure the write protect switch is off. I've had no problems formatting a card, SD or SDHC in my laptop. Older cameras may not accept a SDHC card. Check with the manufacturer.

My camera, a Nikon Coolpix P60, works with either type card. But the SDHC cycles faster between photos. You may just have a bad card. Check with Sandisk. They may have utilities to test or manage the card.

[Number Six]

The internal card reader in my computer can't read Memory Stick Pro, but it can read standard Memory Stick. I do not have any SDHC, but I am assuming that my reader can't read that as well because it is almost 5 years old. I bought an external USB card reader that reads Memory Stick Pro, SDHC, and any other new technology format that came out recently - I bought it on eBay for $5, but you can get them in stores for under $20. This will probably be your best and easiest solution for your computer, but it will not help you get the camera to recognize the SDHC

What model camera do you have?

[Zen of Encoding]

My computer is also unable to recognize the SDHC card after I inserted it into the PC slot. Is there any downloading to fix the problem so that the computer can read or format the SDHC card? It is the SanDisk SDHC card.

Your new card may be defective. One of my memory cards got "zapped" when I stuck it into a built-in card
reader on a friends computer, after that it wouldn't read or format in any device. The best way to keep
your camera's memory cards in good working order is to only transfer the files (pics & movies) using the
USB cable directly connected from the camera to your computer.

[turk690]

SD cards are up to 2GB only. To read and write above that capacity, the standards were updated, SDHC was born, & certain h/w revisions have to be in place, such that older equipment (that includes, but is not limited to digital cameras, video camcorders, & card readers) that specifically only catered for SD WILL NOT read or write to SDHC cards. NO firmware or s/w patch can undo or repair this one little inconvenience because the changes are in the h/w (electronics), meaning they are physical and can't be undone or revised by ANY s/w you can introduce. A similar case would be that of legacy USB and USB2.0. Of course newer equipment will necessarily read and write to both SD and SDHC.
Plugging an SDHC card to SD only-equipment might even damage one or both.
to coody, this means therefore that you should stop forcing your camera to deal with SDHC cards because it wasn't designed for that. Use only SD cards with it (which means 2GB maximum). Memory cards are not formatted in the same sense as hard disk drives are; even so, there are little programs in the WWW that you can use to force cards to have, for example, a FAT32 file system. But even if you do this to an SDHC card with an appropriate card reader on your PC (certainly not the reader you have now which is SD-only), your SD card-only camera will still not recognize it.
SDHC cards are now available up to sizes of 32GB, and they need equipment duly marked "SDHC" to use them.

[redwudz]

Good info, turk690 thanks. coody, if you would tell us you camera brand and model, it would be easy to confirm all this.

[coody]

I have already known why my camera cannot read or format the SDHC card after contacting the manufacturer - because it is an SD card only camera. Now I am concerned in why a computer cannot recognize the SDHC card. I wonder if there is any downloading that enables Windows XP or computer to recognize the SDHC card. I am waiting for the reply from the SanDisk technical support. If a computer is unable to recognize the SDHC card, what can the user do, return the card to the store or can fix the problem?

[citanool]

You might need either a firmware [cam] or driver [computer] update to get SDHC. For example, my HP notebook needed the v2.0.0.8 TI driver update that wasn't even listed on the HP site for my model under any of the OS options, but a Google search found me the newest driver that was listed as "For Vista only" but it worked under my XP.

[turk690]

As is the case with some digital cameras, some older computers (>3 years old) have card readers that will NOT recognize SDHC cards. The card reader in my current PC (see my computer details) uses a NeoDio chip that is specifically designed ONLY for SD cards, and there is NO current XP or Vista driver or firmware update available anywhere that will make it read and write to SDHC cards. It is NOT defective. It's simply NOT designed to read & write to SDHC.
to coody, as a first step you should verify what type of card reader your computer has, then if it's SD-only (like your camera) if there are driver and/or firmware updates that will make it recognize SDHC. My experience with mine shows that SDHC is a new electronics beast which means SD-only equipment CAN'T be upgraded to SDHC merely by driver or firmware updates. They are for that matter stuck where they are.
I've encountered cases where SDHC cards have been corrupted merely by being inserted into SD-only equipment so it's indeed also possible that your SDHC card is in such state. Then it's equally as important to get access to verified SDHC equipment to test whether your SDHC card is OK or not.

[Number Six]

Again - your best and easiest solution would be to get an external USB all-in-one card reader. It can be used with any computer that has a USB port.

[icer]

I was searching for an answer to my Q, and came across this forum... and others similar to it.

While avidly reading through each and every one of your posts, I saw something that needed to be rectified... I know, this topic died ages ago, but it didn't stop me from visiting here now, did it?

In particular, what turk690 said may be true to a degree, however, please note that I have seen in another forum that it is possible to convert an SD reader to an SDHC reader in Windows.

For those that are too lazy to click on the link , here is the text:

This post is for anyone who has been unsuccessful in turning an SD card reader into an SDHC reader. I recently replaced my SD card with a 4GB SDHC for my K20D. I am not tech savvy.

My Toshiba notebook has an SD slot which wouldn't read the SDHC card. After getting mixed advice as to whether the card reader could be upgraded I spent all weekend downloading XP service packs and Toshiba driver updates, all to no avail.

An electrical engineer at work gave me a tip off which led to the solution. After manually going into drive management options and selecting the SD card reader properties it was possible to manually point the card controller to the folder containing the new driver using the 'update driver' advanced options. I pointed to the folder where the XP service packs and Toshiba driver updates ended up being saved.

Once this was done, the slot read the SDHC card without an issue.

So, to anyone who has experienced the same frustrating process, give this one a go.

I would like to add here that I never meant to step on anyone's toes. Rather, I only wanted to share what I deemed as useful with the rest of you here



icer

[lordsmurf]

This thread is stupid.

You cannot turn an SD slot into an SDHC slot with firmware.
This is no different than trying to turn a CD burner into a DVD burner with firmware.
You may as well stick a disk with firmware up a cat's ass in an attempt to turn it into a dog.
They'll all have the same end results.
Plus a pissed-off cat.

At best, there may be some SDHC slots out there with bad firmware that only reads SD cards, but that would be a very teeny tiny slim minority.

[whiterow]

i have been keen to get the best photo/movie performance out of my older cameras, and usability cross- platform in the future.
i recently obtained a 2gb 133x professional sd card from amazon.co.uk.

this bypasses the sdhc/xc issue, providing decent storage size and high speed, write/read c. 20GB/SEC

lexar.com, has a 2gb sd card compatibility chart fo photo applications, which is useful and accurate.

as the original format, sd cards should be operable with sdhc and sdxc devices in the future, which appeals to me.

[[_chef_]]

True, its impossible to "upgrade" such hardware by simply flashing firmware.

Will not work, cannot work.

[pentaxuser]

I use an older pentax istd that won't accept the sdhc cards. Having trouble finding an sd card. Anyone have any ideas where to get one?

[aedipuss]

did you try amazon? they have lots of them. you need to search for low capacity 2gb and under cards.

[pentaxuser]

aedipuss....Thank you! Didn't even think of Amazon!! Yes they do have lots and I'll order a couple while I'm at it.

[lordsmurf]

Get this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BQ7GW8/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=thdifa-20&camp...8&linkCode=as2

I have some device that need old SD cards too. The Nintendo Wii, for example.
Those cards work great.