[twit]

I was in the middle of loading a Scan Disk 2. GB card with photos from my hard drive. The card is used in a digital photo frame we got as a gift. After successfully loading almost 200 pictures, I had to stop. When I began to load more photos I'm getting an Error Message Titled "Error Copying File or Folder" Cannot copy "file name": "The directory or file cannot be created"

I've barely used 20% of the available space, yet cannot get any more photos to copy over. Can someone tell me what's going on and how to correct this problem? Thanks in advance.

Andy

[slipe]

I haven’t used a photo frame but cameras with the old FAT formatting could not use an image with a filename that didn’t comply with the old DOS protocol. That’s 8 digits and no spaces. You will notice the filenames created by cameras do comply. My guess is that things stopped when you tried to feed it an image you had renamed.

You could format the card in the computer and start again if all of your filenames are the same as they were when they came from the camera. Unless the frame says otherwise I would format the card in FAT rather than FAT16.

[twit]

Thanks for the suggestion. It makes sense. Of course, for me to load many hundreds of pictures onto the memory card, I can't have multiple instances of DSC_0003.JPG. Because the camera numbers the photos sequentially, every time I start over with a clean card, I'll get another instance of the same number. It's OK where there's a directory structure in place (like on my hard drive), but the memory card just operates with the file name. Means I have to re-name many photos before loading them onto the card.

Technology is supposed to make things easy, huh?

Andy

[twit]

Since my last post, I checked the image files that I had already copied to the ScanDisk memory card and found that they contain all variations of file names. Thus, I'm not limited to the old 8-digit, no spaces format of old.

Trying to copy either type of file name from my hard drive to the Removable Disk E: results in the same error msg - " Cannot copy "file name": the directory or file cannot be created." I have 1.83 GB free space on the memory card, yet cannot copy any more photos to it.

Any other ideas out there, please?

Thanks again,
Andy

[slipe]

How are you transferring the files? Have you tried transferring individual files to find out what it is taking and what it is choking on?

Whether the camera starts the numbering from scratch with each format or clean card, or continues the numbering is usually a menu setting. I know it doesn’t help with what you are trying to do, but you might consider changing it. Every digital camera I have owned has continued the sequence by default, so you probably changed it when you got the camera. None of my cameras repeat a file name. In your case it appears you will have to start a new folder after each 9,999, but that is better than having them the same IMO.

Did you format the card? That sets up a new file allocation table in case something got messed up on the card.

[twit]

Thanks again for the advice. Here's the process I was using: I inserted the new card into the card reader on my printer. It registered as a removable disc, E:

I opened the My Pictures folder, selected the photos one at a time that I wanted to copy to the memory card, right-clicked and selected "Send To", and selected E:. This worked just fine for 194 photos before I started running into duplicate file names. Whenever I'd get a duplicate, I'd go back to the My Pictures Folder, rename the photo, and repeat the "Send To" command.

At first, it worked, but now I cannot get ANY images to copy over to the card, regardless of file name.

No, I did not format the card when I began. The card shows it having a FAT file system. If I format the card now, I'll lose all the photos I've already transfered, correct? Probably no guarantee that the problem wouldn't happen again.

Thanks for your input. I'll have to let this set for a couple of weeks as I'll be busy, but I'll take another look at it when I next get a chance.

Andy

[wfwsew]

i would try using a card reader/writer instead of the printer. seems to me that my printer will only print pics from the card reader in it, not allowing me to load pics to it (I might be incorrect on that). a card reader will do either a read or write to the card.

frank

[slipe]

If the reader is showing as a drive and you have already transferred 200 photos I wouldn’t think your card reader would suddenly decide it wasn’t the right reader for the job.

That is such a laborious transfer method that you could probably transfer the entire folder of photos in a much shorter time than it has taken so far. I understand that you are probably selecting photos rather than just transferring everything, but there are still faster ways.

I assume you have a digital camera. Your camera probably shows as a drive and it can be used just like a card reader. Put the card in the camera and try transferring some of the photos using the camera. That will tell you whether something has gotten messed up through the printer’s reader or whether you have a file system problem. It is immaterial whether the camera LCD will display the photos.

If it turns out you have to format the card I will tell you how I would make the transfer. Download the free Irfanview. If you do that you might also find the free plug-ins useful.

Open one of the photos in Irfanview and hit the “t” key. Irfanview will make thumbnails of the entire folder. In Irfanview thumbnails Options: > Select All. Hit the “b” key. Select batch rename in the box that opens and hit the “Options”. In the Name Pattern I would probably put P#######. If you select Help under that box you will find lots of options. OK and Start Batch. If it were me I would make a folder for the renamed photos rather than take a chance, albeit small, with an overwrite. You could just have both the old and renamed files in My Pictures, but that would be a mess IMO. I would make the new folder in My Pictures.

Make thumbs of the renamed photos. In thumbnails: View and uncheck “Directory tree”. Options > Set thumbnail options. I have mine at 150 pixels, but for your job I might select 200. Fine tune it so you get four or five horizontally. Now you can make most of your decisions in thumbnails rather than have to open every photo. If you want to look at one full sized just double click it. Irfanview and the thumbs are separate windows.

Hold the Ctrl key while you select photos to move to the card. You can scroll without removing the highlights. After you have a couple dozen highlighted hit the F8 key. In the box that opens navigate to your card reader, Put a check beside it and click the number of that destination on the bottom – probably #1. You have to do that only once. For future transfers just select #1.

It seems like a lot, but once you are set up it goes very quickly with the large thumbnails and moving selected photos in bulk.

[twit]

Thanks again for the help. Since returning from my trip, I believe that I have found the answer to my problem. I went to the ScanDisk Support site and got the following information: "the issue here is the file system on the card. all cards lower than 2GB are formatted in FAT16. FAT16 has a limit of the number of files that can be stored on the root directory. you have 2 options. delete a couple of the files and create a folder then copy files into that folder or reformat the card as FAT32 if you dont know how a google search will show you). only problem is your picture frame may not support reading subdirectories or it may not support FAT32. best to check with the photoframe manufacturer to be sure."

My photo frame does support multiple folders, so I think that's what I will have to do. I'm just not sure if it will automatically display photos across all folders or if I'll have to select each folder individually to display the pictures contained therin. I suspect it's the later.

I'll post again if it doesn't turn out as expected.

Twit

[slipe]

If it doesn’t work there is an alternative. There is no reason to transfer a file with larger pixel dimensions than the frame. High end frames are now displaying 1024 X 768 pixel images. Cheaper frames are VGA or lower.

Determine the frame size in pixels and have a program like Irfanview bulk reduce them to that size. Make sure to not overwrite the originals. And I would save in the highest JPG quality since you will have many thousands of pictures before you exceed the 2 Gb.

[twit]

Thanks to all who helped. The soultion suggested by ScanDisc worked. I deleted enough images from the root directory (E to allow room to created folders for each year's worth of pictures, and then copied the photos into each folder. The good news is that my photo frame DOES display all the pictures across each folder without having to specify each folder.

Twit