Why does my Canon PowerShot A510 freeze with a 2GB microSD card in an SD adapter after formatting it on a Mac?
Asked 2/10/2011
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My Canon PowerShot A510 works with older SD cards, but a Kingston 2GB microSD card in an SD adapter causes problems after I format it on my Mac. The camera no longer recognizes the card, doesn’t show remaining shots, and becomes unresponsive until I remove the batteries. After that, the Mac may not recognize the card either until I reformat it again. What is causing this, and how can I format the card so the camera will use it properly?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
15y ago
2 Answers
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You've got a combination of less-than-ideal practices going on here. In general, anytime you bring a card adapter into the situation you're risking potential trouble. Furthermore, it's always recommended to format memory cards in the camera (rather than on a computer) since although in theory a formatted card is a formatted card, there's always a risk that something might go awry.
Given that the A510 is a 6-year old camera and SD cards are pretty cheap, the easiest solution is likely to just purchase a 2GB SD card.
Originally by user89. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user89
15y ago
0
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The likely issue is the file system format, not the card capacity alone. Based on the reported fix, the A510 expects the card to be formatted as FAT16, while Mac Disk Utility formatted it as FAT32. That mismatch can cause older cameras to fail to mount the card and appear to lock up.
What to do:
- Reformat the card as FAT16, ideally on a Windows PC or directly in the camera if it offers that option.
- If the camera can successfully format the card itself, that’s usually the safest choice for compatibility.
- microSD-to-SD adapters can also add another point of failure, so if problems continue, try a standard 2GB SD card instead of a microSD plus adapter.
In short: use FAT16 for this older camera, and if possible use a native SD card rather than an adapted microSD card.
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