Card Tricks - a small utility to help manage SD cards [currently v. 1.44]

[whim]

@fe50

i've stopped working on this, ewavr's gonna do it in-camera:

Save RAW files in DNG format instead of RAW

wim

[fe50]

Hi wim,
yes, this would be the best choice...

[rgray1736]

Hello All!
To the point quickly-

Does anyone know what would be involved to use a pocket PC to run card tricks?  Is there some version already available?

The situation-
I travel for months with my camera (and pocket pc!), and it would be good to perform low-level formats on the memory cards.  The PC can easily re-load the required CHDK software, which is great, but it's that bootable part that seems elusive.  Not sure what happens to make the SD card bootable, it doesn't take but an instant (so probably not much?), but that part seems to require a regular PC (so far).
Beyond the issue of needing access to a PC (which isn't too big of a deal in itself as many public pc's are usually available in developing countries), there is the issue of being able to load software (i.e. card tricks on public computers), and virus contamination is always a concern (particularly in developing countries).  Fortunately, regular viruses don't seem to bother the PPC's (very different architecture), but who wants to risk the media that photos will reside?
Love the CHDK project, I've spread the word to all users that I know!


Regards,
Rob G.
rgray1736   "at"  hotmal  "dot" com

[europanorama]

1. it must have an info that fat-formatting(also the remaining steps?) is only possible with admin-rights.
2. after making it bootable it says to write-protect. that is too early.

[whim]

@europanorama

1. Works without demanding privileges on a vanilla standard user account on Vista SP1 for me.
    On vanilla XP Home as well: 'Users' group has read/execute rights on format.com (just checked)
     Obviously, if your security settings won't allow limited rights users to format removable media,
     you will need admin rights to successfully do this. Requiring Admin rights for the whole program
     would rob limited rights users of the possibility to use other functions (getting card info, copying, etc.)
     

2. Last time I looked it said:

Do not forget to set Write Protect
on the card (slide tab up, away from
the electric connectors) to take
advantage of this feature.

Don't know about you, but for me the bolded sections are just reminding
the user to lock the card before putting it back into the cam ...

[e144539]

AVG free is currently detecting a virus in CardTricks143.exe
"Worm/Autoit.JDC"

I guess its a false positive? 

[whim]

Yes (but I would say so, wouldn't I ? - just kidding)

Seriously: if you suspect false positives on whatever file, try uploading the suspected file(s)

to a site like
                             VirusTotal - Free Online Virus and Malware Scan -

                        or  Virus Chief

they will run them through a whole bunch of virus scanners.

hope that helps,

wim

edit:  added links to main download page as well ...

[Joe 1956]

Is there a chance that Card Tricks can be made to work with Windows 9x? It can see the card in the card reader and place the build on it, but it won't format the card or make the card bootable.

[whim]

There's no need to:  CardTricks v.139 (last to support 98/Me) is what you want ...

get it on fe50's drop here: http://drop.io/chdkdev 

or (if zShare works for you) here: http://www.zshare.net/download/1982625511b5e97d/

cheers,

wim

[fe50]

@Joe 1956 & wim

Is there a chance that Card Tricks can be made to work with Windows 9x? It can see the card in the card reader and place the build on it, but it won't format the card or make the card bootable.

It's not Cardtricks fault: the bootable.exe (an also the winbootable from the russian forum) doesn't work on Win98 / WinMe (we tested this in the german forum).
CT just calls the bootable.exe with the fitting parameters, but if bootable.exe fails (errorcode is 3 as i remember) CT can't do anything...

So the easiest way to work on a OS < Windows 2000 is:

Format the card from a Windows command prompt with  format X: /fs:FAT

Make a card bootable with a disk editor (i suggest HxD from http://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/ )
  There are also portable versions in many different languages there to use it without installation: HxD Download site...
  A pictured guide for this in german language can be found in the wikia: Manuelle Bootkennung...
  With the screenshots there it should be also usable for non-german speaking users...

[whim]

@fe50

thanks for clarifying that, fe50 !

i guess i should check out if i can convince ANY compiler to make a win9x/ME executable ...

*adds to (imaginary, but growing  ) to-do list*

wim

[Joe 1956]

Thanks for the quick responses.

With 1.39 I "formatted" the card, and it put a "vers.req" on it, but make bootable is grayed out. My attempt at formatting with DOS failed. Got an invalid switch response.

What's an old guy to do?   

[whim]

@ Joe 1956

well, supplying more information would help.

How big is the card you're trying to format ? (cards > 4 Gb can not be formatted as FAT)
If your card is 4 Gb or smaller try formatting as follows:

1) find your card in 'My Computer' and remember it's drive letter

2) Open a DOS box and type:  "format  X:  /FS:FAT  /X" but replace the first X with the drive letter you found in step 2
    (don't type the " ) and press Enter
 
3) If format complains about invalid switche(s), check which one by typing "format /?" - this will show you format's help
    if you can't figure out what the problem is, please dump the help to a file: "format /? >fhelp.txt" , and post or PM this
    file (i don't have '98 handy, and can't remember if the options for format changed)

4) If the 1956 in your nick reflects your year of birth then you're 3 years younger than me 

wim

PS Once we got formatting sorted, we can do the hex editing ...
 

[Joe 1956]

Yep, '56 is when I hit the ground.

I have a couple of 4 gig cards and a couple of 1gig cards. Have used Card Tricks with all cards on a friends XP machine with no problem. Just can't get it to work at home after formatting a card in the camera, and I don't get to his place all that often. I still have a couple of cards with CHDK on it, just want to get it down pat with what I personally have, and my brain doesn't grasp things like it did even 5 years ago, especially DOS. 

Here's how I did the DOS:



Thanks for all the responses.

[whim]

Sorry Joe, can't see anything in you post

wim

BTW You should also be able to format without DOS: 'My Computer' -> right-click card -> choose format
        Just make sure it uses FAT not FAT32 (there should be an option for that)