So I took loads of great pictures and then I changed the batteries on my camera and it keeps saying "Format Disk" "Yes or cancel?"

Then when I try to download the images it says "Disk not formatted"

It is an Olympus brio D-230. It has a 64MB Smartmedia card.

I've had this camera for 3 years and never had a problem chaning batteries or with the disks. I've changed the batteries again and I've tried all possible on off buttons.

Please someone tell me there is a way to get my pictures back?????

I believe that there are two possibilities here: (1) The disk reader has malfunctioned, or (2) the disk itself requires formatting.

In the case of (1), restarting your computer might correct the problem. If that doesn't help, you may be able to reinstall the card reader driver. The driver should be on the Olympus CD and you can uninstall the driver in the Control Panel, Add-Remove Programs applet. Then just put in the Olympus CD and run the install program.

If that doesn't help...

In the case of (2), reformatting the disk will result in the loss of your pictures. Do you know of anyone who has the same card reader as yours? If so, you try your disk in their reader and see if you disk can be read. If so, that would indicate the problem is with the card reader itself and not the disk.

I hope something here will help!

Dwight

Thanks for your response Dwight.

Here's what I've learned. Photos are recoverable if the disk is not reformatted. I downloaded a program at mediarecover.com and was able to save all my photos.

They offer the software free to check and see if your photos are recoverable and then to actually recover them you need to download the software and pay. I gladly paid the fee to save my pictures (30$)

Good to know for others: Pictures don't actually get deleted until they are overwritten or you reformat the disk. So just don't panic and you'll be able to get the pictures back.