? about SD and SDHC cards -LONG, but Impt!

[CarolynM]

I am using a Canon Powershot A650IS camera and my laptop computer OS is WindowsXP. I've used different brands of SD cards---Lexar, San Disk, Kingston, all 1GB or 2GB in size. Recently, while at Wal-Mart I purchased a 4GB Lexar SDHC memory card, not paying attention that it was a SDHC card instead of SD card. (The 4G size for UNDER $50 is what caught my eyes and I have no problems using Lexar cards; owning 2 SD ones that are 1GB. (BTW, price of memory cards sure have decreased as the memory space on them increases--since 4 years ago!)

Once home & realizing my error, I looked in my camera owner's manual and it does say SD and SDHC memory cards can be used so I tried it out and shot 14 photos as a test. My camera and the SDHC card appeared to work fine. The photos could be viewed on the camera's LCD screen on the back just like the SD card. I put the SDHC card in my laptop computer's SD slot and NOTHING HAPPENED! Usually ZoomBrowser (Canon camera software) detects the memory cards and it opens that software menu. My laptop SD slot is labelled: SD.MS/Pro.MMC.SM.XD I opened "My Computer" and the Lexar SDHC card was not being recognized apparently---no indication that it was in that drive at all. (I did not think at the time to turn off & restart my computer with the card still in that slot.) I removed the SDHC card from my laptop and inserted it in the SD slot in Dad's desktop computer (OS-Windows XP) to see if it would work there. His SD slot is labelled similiar to my slot: SD.MMC.MS/Pro.SM.XD---so neither computer says SDHC on the SD slot label. After waiting a bit, Windows XP on the desktop did recognize that there was a memory card present in that drive. I could open the file folder and view the files with WindowsXP---and I realized I never have put my camera software on Dad's computer, so no ZoomBrowser to use.(me) I did successfully move the DCIM file folder (and my 14 photos) from the SDHC card onto a USB jump drive though. Then I put that jump drive into my laptop and the ZoomBrowser software started like normal, but my photos were on the jump drive instead of a camera card, SDHC card in this case. I was able to download the 14 photos from my USB port jump drive and use the ZoomBrowser software to do the download.

Does anyone know what is happening here and how to correct it?
1.The photos once transferred from the SDHC card to the jump drive, they will download normally, but will not do so directly from the SDHC card.
2. Both my laptop and Dad's desktop computers are HP/Compaq brands, both running Windows XP operating system, the SD drive does not say SDHC on either computer, but the SDHC memory card works on the desktop, but not my laptop.
3. I have now put the SDHC card (with 14 photos on it) back into my laptop, turned off and then restarted my laptop while the SDHC card was in the slot; still nothing is being shown (nothing recognized as being in that drive) when I go to My Computer despite the fact that I know that the SDHC card is in that drive.

Does anyone know how this problem can be corrected? As I prepare to go on a weeklong camp trip, having a 4GB card would be great, but won't do me any good for my photography class at camp if my laptop does not acknowledge that it is present. Please do advise.

Question topic2: Whether it is a SD card or SDHC card, would a 4GB size Platinum II 60x speed card by any chance actually run SLOWER than a 2GB size Platinum II 60x speed card? Is that "normal" because it is 4GB on that little card instead of 2GB? OR do SDHC memory cards "normally" run slower than SD memory cards? This is my 1st experience in using a SDHC card, so that is why I am asking these comparison questions. It was definitely running slower (copying/moving files speed) compared to my other 1GB & 2GB SD cards while I used it on Dad's desktop computer. I'd like to know if that is "normal" comparision behavior or not? If not, do you Experts think there is a problem with this particular card perhaps? (Instead of the problem being a compatability issue with the SDHC card and my laptop computer?
Please do advise.

Thank you!
CarolynM

[ramblinray]

It may just be an incompatability with the driver for the card slot you are putting the SDHC card into on your laptop. I recently bought a 4G SDHC card and my SanDisk 12 slot reader would not recognize it. My Toshiba laptop front slot does recognize the card. I bought a cheap Targus reader to use with my old HP laptop to transfer card data. Your card is not defective since it records the images and your dad's desktop reads it. The Targus reader takes CF card and SDHC cards and is smaller than my old Sandisk reader, so all is good.

It may be possible that a new driver is available from HP/Compaq for the reader slot.

Anything is possible with regards to speed. Rob Galbraith has a table for card/camera combinations and the speeds are all over the map so to speak. If you're not bumping the record buffer max when making multiple images using continuous shooting, what difference does it make? You would only be wasting money on high speed cards on an A650IS I believe. I haven't run into a situation where I haven't had to time to transfer data to my PC, so that speed isn't critical either.

[porkchop2785]

I would try to see if there are updated drivers, like ray said

I sell some cheapy knock off readers at work that do not read SDHC, i kept getting them returned. So I did a little investigation, come to find out that the readers were old stock pile in the wherehouse, and had been manufactured over 4 years ago, hence why they were cheap...I am not sure when SDHC came into the picture, I wasnt in this game 4yrs ago.

but if the computer issue cannot be resolved, I would suggest getting a sandisk mobile mate, it looks like a jump drive but its a solo SD card reader that will read SDHC, we sell them for like 12 bucks. but you should find them anywhere

Hope you get things taken care of by camp time!

here is a link to what I am talking about:
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/SanDi...oductDetail.do
for some reason this is showing the old one, the ones i have in my store DO say SDHC

[SpeedRacerSlots]

SDHC cards require an SDHC reader.
They are NOT backwards compatible in most cases.
I too have SDHC in my Canon XSi, but its cards will not work in the built in SD slot on my 2 HP laptops, so I use the SDHC reader that came with my SDHC Card.

And per the footnotes on the MFR websites and product guides about SDHC cards...
"*SDHC cards are designed for use in SDHC-enabled devices and are not backwards compatible with standard SD legacy devices."

Also:

"To support the higher capacity needs, SD cards are now requiring a different design. The new SD 2.0 specifications which supports 4GB and up, is called Secure Digital High Capacity (SDHC). The SD Association has created and defined 3 speed classes to help you identify speed and performance capabilities/minimum requirements of SDHC cards and their SDHC host products. Details on the SD 2.0 specification: http://www.sdcard.org or SanDisk.com/SDHC

Cards address data (read and write) at numerous speeds. Many factors impede this performance. SDHC guarantees a minimum read and write speed necessary to handle recording high quality video and audio. The maximum card speed may vary, but you can always depend on SDHC cards to meet your SDHC host product's high quality performance requirements.

SDHC Compatibility Information

Because SDHC works differently (supports the new higher capacity cards) this new card format is not backwards compatible with legacy SD format host devices.
"

[CarolynM]

Thank you so very much Ray, Jaremiah, and Greg! Your information is what I needed to solve my problem! Thanks to the link Greg posted, I can verify that my 4GB card does have the proper logo markings on it with the SDHC logo as pictured in that article. Since Jaremiah posted the Circuit City link, I went to the Circuit City store near my house on Saturday. Taking my 4GB SDHC card with me and showing it to the greeter at the door and telling him what I needed; 10 minutes later I was walking out the door with the correct card reader already purchased. Once home, I snapped 4 quick photos of flowers in our yard, just so I could try out the new card reader. After installing the card reader driver from the included CD, my laptop did recognize the reader drive AND the 4GB memory card!!!!! Then my ZoomBrowser software was able to download the 4 photos like it normally does!!!!! So THANK YOU for your wonderful assistance!!

I'll be offline until the 19th. Thanks again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CarolynM

[porkchop2785]

Glad everything worked out, cant wait to see some pictures from you