Can you fix my Sony Memory Stick?

September 4, 2005 9:52 PM

Is there any way to retrieve data from a Sony Memory Stick that has inexplicably become unreadable?

I put a brand new Sony Memory Stick Pro into my Sony digital camera and took a bunch of pictures with no problems. I swapped in a second Memory Stick Pro and continued with no problems. I successfully retrieved the pics from the second card, but when I put the first card back into the camera it said "memory stick unreadable."

It looks fine to the naked eye and the contacts are clean. I tried putting it in a card reader, but it was again unreadable. There is no indication that the data is actually corrupted, devices just can't seem to establish a data connection with it.

Any suggestions?

posted by shinnin to technology (7 comments total)

Try reformatting it?
posted by undertone at 10:26 PM on September 4, 2005

How does it respond in the camera? Can you read from it there?

Try a recovery application that brings back deleted files. I use Search and Recover 2 from Iolo. Good luck.
posted by geekyguy at 10:54 PM on September 4, 2005

Read how to fix and format usb drives.
posted by webmeta at 2:26 AM on September 5, 2005

Also try to play with its read-only protection, if it has one.
posted by Ervin at 10:46 AM on September 5, 2005

Ah well, I'd actually like to retrieve the 80ish pictures on the stick, so reformatting is not my first choice response.

To be more precise: in both the camera and the card reader it says that the card is not accessible. So it is not a matter of finding deleted or corrupted files--I can't actually establish a connection with the card.
posted by shinnin at 10:51 AM on September 5, 2005

shinnin--

Do you get a drive letter out of the card? If so, Restoration is your friend. If not, call Ontrack and see what they have to offer.
posted by effugas at 12:09 PM on September 5, 2005

I had a similar problem, but with a memory stick pro made by Sandisk and not by Sony. The card couldn't be read by any camera or reader that I tried. I tried to recover the 100 or so pictures on it with LC Technologies, but I sent in the card and they couldn't read it either either. So if you can't read the card at all, a data recovery place might be the only option, but even that might work.
posted by komilnefopa at 12:45 PM on September 5, 2005