Problem reading some CompactFlash cards SandDisk Extreme Firewire reader and Mac

[lkidney]

Hi,
I am having problems reading some of my Compact Flash Cards with my SandDisk Extreme Firewire reader and my MacBook Pro I7 I work as a full time professional photographer.  This problem has only came about in the last few days and is very frustrating.

I format the cards using the 5dmark II.
I then shoot as normal but when I connect some of my cards to the firewire reader it wont read them or mount them for some reason. When I connect these cards to the usb reader they work fine and I can down load the photos but it is very slow.

I use all Sandisk Cards, mostly the Extreme Compact Flash 60mbs 8gb cards.

What is annoying me is that some cards work and others don’t.

I have reset the PRAM on the mac but it makes no difference. I have changed the cable and it still doesn’t fix the problem.

Any other suggestions or feed back would be appreciated.
Liam

[drlucky]

see if you can check the pins on the reader. i have seen where bent or pushed back pins can cause these issues.if you can not straighten or push the pins back into the correct place the reader would need to be replaced. 

[chadpil]

I’ve had a similar problem. I restart the computer and the card shows up and usually transfers at that point. I also have the problem that some of the images will show corrupt. I checked the pins and they all seem to be straight. Once I go to a USB reader the images transfer without a problem. The Extreme reader is the the third device on a Firewire chain and I was reading 4GB Extreme III cards shot on a NIkon D200. It’s very scary when you are told 300 images are corrupt.

[jeffery]

You are not alone. I have a Quad 4 Mac, MacPro Laptop, 4 card readers, new 23GB and 16GB Sandisks AND CANNOT GET MY PHOTOS ONTO EITHER MAC. I can read very old 2GB SD cards, but no new cards will mount. None. 

So I took all my cards to the college where I teach and tried them on 21 card readers in the computer lab. Every conceivable card reader of various ages. Eventally found one reader that would read both cards, but didn’t have any DVD to burn. Drove home, got DVDS, drove back, tried to read cards… NOTHING.

Google the problem and you’ll see hundreds of angry people with this problem. Bottom line: SANDISK HAS A MAJOR COMPATIBILITY PROBLEM AND THEY ARE NOT ADDRESSING IT!

I’m back to using an old Nikon with KINGSTON COMPACT CARDS until a solution can be found.

SANDISK - GET TO WORK ON THIS! YOUR PRODUCT IS FAULTY!