C300: CF Card Reading Problem: MAC & NEXTO

[Run&Gun]

First let me say that the footage/data is(or appears to be) safe a working, but I haven't had or seen this problem before and I'm wondering if anyone here has or knows what happened.

I was on a three camera shoot(2x C300's & 5DMKIII) for four days. Besides shooting I was data wrangling. I was dumping the cards to client supplied drives and redundant back-ups to my NEXTO. Normally I would hook the ext drive to the NEXTO and do two simultaneous copies, but the ext drive was limited to USB 2.0 connection to the NEXTO(it didn't have an eSata connection), so after the first day I made a copies to the client drive through my RMBP and then my NEXTO. It actually ended up being MUCH faster this way.

Over the four days I copied about 23 cards. Everything was going smoothly until one of the last copies of the last day on one card. I inserted the CF card into the USB 3 reader hooked to my laptop and it almost immediately started throwing an "improperly ejected" error message. The message would disappear, then the card would disappear from the desktop. Then it would reappear and the cycle would repeat. I quickly clicked on the card and opened it up before it disappeared one time and the CONTENTS folder was not showing(nothing was). I almost felt sick, but I knew I was recording. I pulled the card, put it back into the C300 and it played fine. Tried it on my laptop again and the same error cycle happened again. Pulled the card AGAIN and re-booted my laptop. Tried it again. This time it works. I transfer the data and then open XF Utility and play the contents on the ext. drive. All good. Thank God. So I insert the card into my NEXTO for the second safety copy and it hangs. It detects the card, says it's PARSING the card(like normal), but will not get past that. I pull the card and try it several more times with the same result. I copied the remaining two cards with no problems.

So, any ideas what happened?

 

[marvinhello]

Sounds like a glitch with CF card, what brand is that particular one? I'd say stop using that card for critical jobs.

Also I believe Hoodman Steel CF card offers better reliability than Sandisk and Lexar.

 

[Noel Evans]

No idea as to whats happened. But the positive is that it's reading in the c300. We can fix that.

1/ Put that card in slot A.
2/ Put another card into slot B and format it.
3/ Switch the camera to media mode.
4/ Select Slot A.
5/ Hit the menu button on rear of camera.
6/ Scroll down to other functions.
7/ Scroll to CLIPS > Copy all clips
8/The next screen will show how much content there is on CF A with an arrow telling you how much is available on CF B. Hit OK.
9/ Wait and let the camera copy all the clips.

Once complete use the card in slot B to copy your clips.

 

[Jon Roemer]

I inserted the CF card into the USB 3 reader hooked to my laptop and it almost immediately started throwing an "improperly ejected" error message. The message would disappear, then the card would disappear from the desktop

I had issues like this on a Macbook Pro and they all seemed to be tied to the Micro USB connector (the thin flat one.) I had it happen with external HD's and with a Sonnet USB CF card reader. I have since switched to a Lexar CF card reader, it takes the full size USB connector, and to an external HD which connects via Thunderbolt. Since switching to those - no problems at all.

 

[Run&Gun]

Thanks for the replies, guys.

The cards for my C300 are SanDisk Extreme(or Extreme Pro) 32 GB. The reader is a Lexar Pro USB 3. Client drives were G Raid desktop 2TB, USB 3/FireWire 800.

I guess the scariest possibility is that it could be a card issue. I have done double-slot recording before, but we had four days of interviews and I was trying to avoid reformatting my cards, even though I was making multiple copies and checking for proper playback, until everything was safe "back at the ranch". Generally card usage is not a big issue, I may use one or two cards for any given shoot. I used five of six this time.