I recently made the foolosh mistake of renaming the folder on a Lexar 80x CF card, replacing the DCIM designation with a name appropriate to the picture content of the shoot. I then successfully dragged the newly named folder to the desktop in the usual way. So far so good. However, when I reinserted the card into my Canon 5D, the camera told me to format the card. When I tried to do so, the attempt failed. When I inserted the card into the computer's card reader, it crashed the machine which also failed to read the card. Am I the only fool on planet Earth who has brought this problem upon himself? I now realise I should never have renamed the card's DCIM folder in the first place. Is there anyone out there with a solution? I don't want to have to dump what is an excellent CF card - not to mention the footing the expense of replacing it here in Ireland.

You should be able to both recover your files and get the card back in working condition.. if you don't get help here, try dpreview, there are lots of people with info on those things there.

Here's a place to start - point 3 and 8 specifically

http://www.edgetechcorp.com/support/produc...aqs/default.asp

Renaming the DCIM folder will not cause any of these types of issues. The card had to have been corrupted by some other means. Perhaps it was pulled out of the PC while it was reading/writting, the card was just plain bad (hardware issue), or Windows Explorer flaked out and hosed the card (happened to me once). Then there are possible errors by the reader or camera.

Your best bet is to send the card in to the manufacturer for warranty repair. Most pro-level cards from both sandisk and Lexar have 10 year warranties so there should be no need to buy a new card.

If there are important pictures not yet retrieved from the cards I would strongly suggest trying to retrieve them with software first before sending in the card.

I highly recommend Photorescue for recovering photos if that is needed.

Thanks very much for all your help. Finally the 'wiped' CF mystery card has been solved. I contacted Conns Cameras, Dublin where I bought my 5D and they kindly agreed to sort out the problem even though I hadn't bought the card there. A phone call from Conns today informed me that Lexar had had a faualty batch of their 80x Professional cards, one of which was mine, and they have agred to replace it. Excellent result - not least from a helpful camera shop who had no involvement in the transaction in the first instance. I'm told I'll have the new card in a few weeks as there is currently a shortage. Keeping my fingers crossed. Again, thanks everybody.