Camera Says Card Cannot Be Accessed? Here Is a Fix Guide

Although today seems to be the world of cell phone cameras, many people are still more inclined to use a digital camera since their pursuit of photo quality is getting higher and higher. Among the wide variety of digital camera brands, Canon always has a place; it is no exaggeration to say that Canon has gradually become the industry benchmark.

While you indulge in the happiness brought by Canon cameras, one day, it may break your heart. Have you ever thought of this? As you can easily discover by searching in Google, the card cannot be accessed error appears on the Canon camera from time to time. Lots and lots of Canon camera users have reported the problem – camera says card cannot be accessed. Due to a lack of relevant experience, these people have chosen to resort to others by writing help-seeking post in all major forums.

Face The Problem – Camera Says Card Cannot Be Accessed

Don’t be shocked when you suddenly find your card cannot be accessed in the Canon camera. After all, the memory card is a type of storage device that is more fragile than a common hard drive. In other words, digital camera cards can be damaged more easily.

However, does it mean that the card is declared unusable when the card access is denied? Absolutely no! Though a memory card cannot be accessed currently, the photos saved on it can be recovered and the problem may be fixed by appropriate means. The question is how ordinary users could possibly finish the recovery & repair work alone.

This is exactly what I know & want to share with you. Please first get the free copy of MiniTool Power Data Recovery to prepare for camera card recovery.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

Camera Says Card Cannot Be Accessed – A True Example

Card cannot be accessed. Reinsert/change the card or format card with camera

"Really this is The Worst Message any Photographer could have! First, I own a Canon T4i/650D, I was photographing a concert and suddenly this message appeared on the screen, and the memory card could not be read! I tried to insert my SDHC memory in the laptop to check the all-day images I photographed, but I was shocked that all my files were gone as it asked me to format the memory on the laptop too! Imagine how all your daily photos can be deleted without any warnings! I have this memory card: Dane-Elec Pro 8GB 200x Class 10 SDHC Memory Card It works well most of the time, but this message appears suddenly after a long period of photography... I really need your help, is it a memory problem, or the card slot pins in my Canon T4i? Share your experience 🙂 Sorry for my bad English... Thanks in Advance, Amro."

Amro Ashraf said in the post that he saw “The Worst Message any Photographer could have” – the memory card is not accessible. All his files are gone and the camera asks him to format the memory card. At this critical moment, he should stop operating the camera and say no to the formatting request unless the files on that memory card are not useful. In the meantime, he ought to find a powerful tool to help him with SD card recovery.

Find The Solution – Complete Memory Card Recovery Easily

Fortunately, I discover a good choice for both ordinary users and senior users: MiniTool Power Data Recovery. I’d like to walk you through all the steps to recover photos from SD card without formatting.

Camera SD Card Recovery – A Detailed Tutorial

1. In order to complete the damaged SD card recovery smoothly, you need to estimate the total size of the data you need to restore in the first place. Then, decide which edition of software suits the most for your case.

• a). If you only have a few files (no more than 1GB) to recover from the camera memory card, you could just use the free edition.
• b). If the total size of files waiting to be recovered is more than 1GB, you’d better choose the personal edition (under the condition that you need to use the software in a business environment, you need a business license).
• c). If you’re not sure about the size of need files, you can use the free edition to scan your card first; then, decide whether to get a license to upgrade the software or not, by analyzing the found items in the scan result.

2. Please download and install MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free on your computer immediately. When this operation is completed, you should take out the card properly from the camera and connect it to the current computer (you’ll need a card reader unless your computer has a special interface for memory card/SD card). Now, launch the software to recover data from the inaccessible memory card.

MiniTool Power Data Recovery FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

3. Check whether the SD card appears on the main interface.

• a). If your card does appear, you should hover your mouse over the partition and click Scan to start scanning.
• b). If you fail to see it, please try to click on the Refresh button to refresh the list and see whether your memory card shows up or not.
• c). If the refresh doesn’t work, please read this article to find out the possible reasons for explaining why a USB flash drive can’t be recognized by the computer and take the corresponding measures to work this out.

4. Wait for the completion of the full can, which will last for a period of time depending on the usage of your card. When it finally finishes, all the found files will be listed by their paths. Browse the files to find the wanted files. You can also use the Filter, Type, and Search features to quickly pinpoint your required files.

5. You can use the Preview feature to verify the file content before saving it. Choose the photos you want to recover and click the Save button. In the prompt window, you need to choose a new destination for those restored files instead of the original one.

A prompt window will inform you when the data recovery process is completed. If you run MiniTool Power Data Recovery Free and restore more than 1GB of files, you will be informed that files more than 1GB cannot be restored. In this case, you can jump to this page to get a suitable edition for yourself.

This is the end of the camera card photo recovery tutorial.

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In case, you may be interested in dead SD card recovery or data recovery from an inaccessible hard drive, I have prepared two other articles for you:

• Recover Data From Dead SD Card With This Easy And Safe Way.
• “Hard Drive Is Not Accessible. Access Is Denied” Error – How To Fix.

Repair The Card – 5 Practical Methods for Your Information

After you have finished the work to recover lost photos from the camera card, it’s time to resolve the error that the camera says card cannot be accessed. In order to make your card usable again, you are expected to format the card. But how to format a camera card properly? Here, I’ll offer you several options.

Format The Card in the Camera

1. Make sure the SD card is inserted properly into your camera. In general, you can find the SD port in the battery compartment (but its location is not fixed in all cameras). Please gently push the card into the slot you see; then, you’ll hear and feel it click in the right place.

2. Turn your camera on, and then press the “Menu” or “Preferences” button. Remember, the name of the button changes with the camera.

3. Press the Multi-controller in order to navigate to the “Camera Settings” menu. Then, look for the “Format” or “Format card” option.

4. Select the format option and click on the “OK” button to confirm the action. Please note that all the data on the SD card will be lost during the formatting process, as the prompt message says.

5. Wait for the formatting, which may take a few minutes, depending on how many files need to be erased from the card. Once this process is completed, you’ll get a blank card ready to store new photos.

Format The Card in Computer – 4 Choices

Also, you can take out the memory card from the camera, and then connect it to your computer for formatting. Under such circumstances, you can format the card through 3 ways.

Method 1: Format in Windows File Explorer

1. Connect the SD card to the computer via a card reader (or connect it directly if your computer has an SD card slot) and then open Windows File Explorer.

2. Click on the “This PC” option from the left pane and then find your card from the right pane, by looking at the drive letter and label.

3. Right-click on the SD card and choose “Format…” from the pop-up menu.

4. After that, you’ll enter the format window, in which you should click on the “Start” button to confirm your selection. (Please note that you should get to know the file system types that are compatible with your camera; if the default file system is not suitable, you have to choose another one in this window)

Method 2: Format in Windows Disk Management

1. The first thing you should do is also connect the card properly to the computer. Then, you need to open Windows Disk Management with a few clicks (the detailed steps are not the same in different Windows operating systems).

2. Find your card from the volume list and then right-click on it.

3. Choose “Format…” here and then follow the prompt messages to finish formatting easily.

Method 3: Format in Command Prompt

1. Connect the card to the computer and make sure it appears in Windows Disk Management.

2. Open Command Prompt on your computer and run it as administrator.

3. Type “diskpart” and press “Enter“.

4. Type “list disk” and press “Enter“.

5. Type “select disk *” (“*” stands for the number of the card you see in current command prompt window). Please make sure that you have selected the correct disk and then press “Enter“.

6. Type “create partition primary” and press “Enter“.

7. Type “format fs=*” (“*” is the file system that you want the card to be formatted with; as I said before, you must make sure that the file system you type here is compatible with the camera). Then, press “Enter” and wait for a while.

8. Type “assign letter=*” (“*” represents the drive letter you want to assign to the card; don’t use the letters that have already been taken by local disks) and press “Enter“.

9. Close the command prompt window by clicking “X” in the upper right corner or by typing “exit” & pressing “Enter“.

Method 4: Format with MiniTool Partition Wizard

MiniTool Partition Wizard is a tiny but powerful tool that helps you manage your disks and solve disk problems easily. In addition to this software, you can also choose another third-party program that you trust for memory card formatting.

1. Install the software correctly on your computer and then connect the memory card to the same computer.

MiniTool Partition Wizard FreeClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

2. Launch the software and locate the partition of the SD card.

3. Do the following things to format it quickly.

Select the card > choose “Format Partition” from the left pane > set the “Partition Label“, “File System” and “Cluster Size” and press “OK” button > click on the “Apply” button in the upper left corner of the software main interface > click on “Yes” button to allow changes.

Then, the formatting will be finished very soon.

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Draw a Conclusion – Camera Card Recovery Is Not Difficult

The error – the camera says card cannot be accessed – is not as terrible as some of you thought it would be. When you really encounter this error, please stay calm and keep this in mind: you can fix the error totally on your own.

After that, you should read the tutorials given above carefully to know how to recover data from camera card and how to fix the error when the memory card is not accessible. Please be careful when operating and I believe you will eventually succeed.