Help please - strange behaviour between Mac and SDXC cards

[learningtofly]

I recently bought a couple of new cameras, and with them two 64GB SDXC cards (both UHS-1, Class 10 Ultra HD, but one is Samsung and the other SanDisk). The cards behave perfectly well in-camera, but when I mount them on my Macbook Pro I get the following error message:

OS X can’t repair the disk “Untitled.”

The annoying thing is I can't edit/save or delete them from within Finder, unless I copy them to my hard drive first. Thereafter I have to replace the cards in the camera and delete them that way, which is a major pain when there are a lot of them. I've tried to different card readers; have formatted both cards a couple of times; and have switched cards between cameras... all to no avail.Anyone come across this before, and/or know of a solution? I'm running El Capitan with the latest updates, by the way.

TIA!

[JasonM]

Found this on a Apple help page. Any help?
Does the SD slot work with cards that exceed 32 GB?

Yes. However, most media manufactures preformat the media using common block-and-cluster sizes that do not approach the theoretical limits of a given file system. Most SD cards use the FAT32 file format. Preformatted FAT32 SD media is commonly available up to a capacity of 32 GB. Media that exceeds 32GB usually uses the exFAT file system. Some smaller capacity cards use the FAT16 file format. Preformatted FAT16 media is generally available up to a capacity of 2 GB. To determine which file system you are using with Mac OS X v10.6.5 or later, insert the media into the SD card slot, go to the Apple menu, select About this Mac..., click on More info..., click on Card Reader in the hardware section, and locate the File System field.

[learningtofly]

Found this on a Apple help page. Any help?
Does the SD slot work with cards that exceed 32 GB?

Yes. However, most media manufactures preformat the media using common block-and-cluster sizes that do not approach the theoretical limits of a given file system. Most SD cards use the FAT32 file format. Preformatted FAT32 SD media is commonly available up to a capacity of 32 GB. Media that exceeds 32GB usually uses the exFAT file system. Some smaller capacity cards use the FAT16 file format. Preformatted FAT16 media is generally available up to a capacity of 2 GB. To determine which file system you are using with Mac OS X v10.6.5 or later, insert the media into the SD card slot, go to the Apple menu, select About this Mac..., click on More info..., click on Card Reader in the hardware section, and locate the File System field.

Thanks Jason. That won't work for me as my MBP doesn't have any installed card readers (mine are both USB) but I'm certainly wondering if the essence of the problem isn't in there (i.e. the file system). Presumably this isn't something that'll be fixed with a software update, so it looks like I'll have to live with it )or try a 32GB SD card).

[learningtofly]

Ah - just discovered that I need an SDXC-compatible card reader, so I'm hoping that'll be problem solved.

[JasonM]

That sounds promising.

[magirus]

I recently bought a card reader to use with an iMac I bought from my son, Tony, a Kingston FCR-HS4. It's worked flawlessly and is pretty quick for my RAW files (that's why I bought it after some research). I could have spent a lot more of course, but the improvement would have been negligible.

[learningtofly]

I recently bought a card reader to use with an iMac I bought from my son, Tony, a Kingston FCR-HS4. It's worked flawlessly and is pretty quick for my RAW files (that's why I bought it after some research). I could have spent a lot more of course, but the improvement would have been negligible.

Thanks Bob. I actually picked up this Transcend one yesterday, so all being well I won't have to worry come Tuesday! Don't talk to me about RAW, though - I need to run Sony files though DNG Converter to get to them in PS

[Thewatchbloke]

I found El-Capitan to be a mistake Tony, there are a number of issues around CS6 (not least the file open window returning to it's default size every time you use it) and my camera imports (always import RAW and JPG now even though I only select RAW). As reverting to Yosemite's a bit of a faff it's a pain in the arse for me!

[learningtofly]

I found El-Capitan to be a mistake Tony, there are a number of issues around CS6 (not least the file open window returning to it's default size every time you use it) and my camera imports (always import RAW and JPG now even though I only select RAW). As reverting to Yosemite's a bit of a faff it's a pain in the arse for me!

My problem's with Photoshop CS4 rather than the Mac OS, Duncan. Adobe are the absolute masters of tying people in to continuous upgrades, and CS4 will only work with (up to) Adobe Camera Raw plug-in version 5.7 (which is a few years old now and won't read a lot of the newer RAW file systems such as Sony and Olympus). All I can do is convert them to .DNG files with a standalone converter, but it's a pain in the backside doing that each time I upload a batch of image files.

The alternative is to move away from PS, I suppose. Will have to give that some thought.

[learningtofly]

For anyone interested, or who has a similar problem in the future - it was the card reader. SDXC cards need an SDXC-compatible reader.

[JV]

Thanks - been struggling with that myself.