Wednesday, May 30

Oh, I'm not a technical person.

I thought I might fiddle with the camera card while I had the house to myself. Well, there's been a whole lotta fiddlin' but no music. I've just spent the last hour on Fuji's website trying to find out if there are others or if I'm the only moron to do this to not one, but now two cards.

The old card that was dying, but I reformatted and renamed Lazarus... is now "not initialized". I've no idea how to "initialize it", but I'm terrified to try to fix it, because that horrid Kodak Queasy-Share software lost the batch of pictures it sniped from that card when we got back. The rock pictures? Gone. The baby eating yellow flower shot? Gone. (You didn't see that one, but it was cute. I was going to blog it this afternoon, which is how I discovered it's GONE.) My hope is that they're still on that card somewhere, because they are NOWHERE TO BE FOUND on the computer.

And the big card that will not be formatted, no matter how nicely I ask? No clue what's up with that. So, I've written to FujiFilm. I'm hoping they will help me. Here's my email:

I own a Fine Pix S 5100 digital camera. Have had it for years. Love it. I received recently a new FujiFilm XD-Picture Card (DCP-1GB), which I immediately inserted into my camera and began taking pictures on it. Camera identified card. Card, camera. No errors. Life was good. Until I tried to upload the photos to my PC (Dell something or other, Windows XP Home - please don't tell me that's the problem). My computer (never one to make small talk) said, "Card not formatted." Huh. I never formatted previous FujiFilm cards. Never had this problem. Had to take the card to a photo shop to save to a disk without formatting it (which worked, but not quite what we're shooting for, here). Took the card back home to the computer. "OK, format it," I said. "Cannot format," said the computer. I can take pictures on the card, and they'll show up on the TV, on the camera, and on a disk, but I cannot get them off without taking them to Wal-Mart, whereupon I get stuck w/ Kodak Easy Share Software. I don't want Kodak, I like my Fine Pix Viewer. I just want my pictures. But I can't figure out how to get them off this card. I'd be willing to suck it up and take the Kodak for this one batch, but how can I fix the card so that I can use it in the future? Can I format it on my camera? (If so, how?) Am I doomed to use Kodak anyway? Any way you could help me? I make a mean chocolate cake, and I'm nice to tech support people. Please help.
Dy


They'll either take pity on me and throw me a technical bone, or they'll laugh morbidly and toss it into the circular file. I can hope, though, can't I?

Kiss those babies!
~Dy

6 comments:

Emily (Laundry and Lullabies) said...

I'd be willing to bet that your letter will be the funniest part of their day. So maybe they'll smile and be inclined to help you. I sure hope so!

Dy said...

Oh, I hope so. I know they have to deal with angry people all day long, so I was hoping that if maybe I can make somebody smile or chuckle, it wouldn't be so bad on both ends. :-) Here's hoping!

Anonymous said...

OK, my former tech-support hubby LOL at that one. I hope they help and I bet you MY husband would do it for chocolate cake if HE worked for Fuji. :+)

Warmly,
Kate

Melora said...

Good letter! I hope they get back to you quickly with a helpful answer. I have a Fuji camera and xD card, and nothing like this has ever happened. How upsetting.

Emily said...

LOL at the letter!!

I hope you get it all worked out and are not doomed to Kodak hell (I've been there and it's know fun).

Anonymous said...

Okay, this is just a suggestion, but I fwd'd your "email" to my techie geek of a husband, and he suggested that you have a bad card reader. Do you have another card reader you can try? My husband had the exact same problem yesterday with a memory card from our brand new camera, and it would read on a different card reader on another computer just fine. Wierd, I know. I don't know if that'll work, but you could give it a try.

love dawn