Suddenly "Invalid Card" on DR-40

[rxmnt]

Hi,

I've got a 64gb San Disk Ultra card that i've been using for years with my DR-40. Yesterday, after transfering files to my pc, I inserted the card back into the DR-40 and was greeted by "Invalid Card - Change Card". At first I tried to remove and insert it a couple of times, always with the same result. Then I thought it could be one of those "not removed correctly" problems, so I inserted the card back into my pc, and sure enough, it reported that "something is wrong" with the card, and that it needed repair.

I just followed the repair dialog, and after that, Windows was able to read the card again. It even had all the folders and files on it, so I was confident that my DR-40 would accept it - but it didn't. Same screen, invalid card. As a measure of last resort, I formatted the card on my pc (to exFAT).

Still no luck, the recorder won't accept the card, no matter what I try, but it works fine on Windows. Does anyone have any tips what else I could try? Do I somehow have to 'initialize' the card on my pc so that the recorder will be able to use it?

Thanks!

 

[Art Anderson]

Yes I would say try using the DR-40 function to Initialize. If you look through the threads about a week back there was a similar issue with a similar solution.
Any devices I have from action cams, H1 and up I let the device format the card. It's the foremost thing that knows what it wants to see. BTW - exFAT is usually no bueno - FAT only.

 

[BazzBass]

seeing as it's a clean card now, I would just buy a new one.

 

[-mjk-]

If you can't get past the card being not acceptable, you should format the card in the PC to FAT only, not exFAT.

 

[jeffoldbean]

Hi, l had the same problem, some years ago.
With my HD-P2, which uses CF media cards.
I also found that all but one of my spare CF cards, would now work.
They where all correctly formatted.
I decided to change to SD media, which was the newest, at the time.
I acquired off Ebay.
A CF Card Adapter, which takes Micro SD cards.
And it is still working correctly today.

Jeffoldbean.

 

[ScottBrio]

This is an older thread but I wanted to give it an update on my experiences with the "invalid card" issue.

I've ran into this issue many, many times and it's very frustrating. The only workaround I've found is to format the SD card with my computer NOT in "Quick Format" mode. Not sure why but Quick Format doesn't wipe it completely. You have to do the long and annoying format, but this fixes the SD card issue every time for me.

Hopefully others will find this useful. Cheers!

 

[Phil Tipping]

format the SD card with my computer NOT in "Quick Format" mode

My understanding is that a quick format just clears the file index, so normal file browsers think the card is empty, even though the actual file contents remain.
A full format clears the whole card and also checks the validity of each cell/sector/block, which is why it takes longer. The results of this check are logged by the micro-computer inside the card so it avoids them in future and gives the illusion the card is ok.
If you're finding you have to do a full format frequently do make it work, it suggests (to me) the card is gradually failing or something is corrupting it. I would try a new card from Tascam's approved list, assuming it has one for your machine. Some machines, like the DP-24/32 have both quick and full format options so you can do this from the machine itself.