Solved Can't read JPEGs in Win 7

I run a GET digital video recorder which turns out still JPEGs onto an SD card. On my old XP laptop I could just load and view using PS 2. I now have PS 9 in my Win 7 machine and when I insert the SD card I am told that the file type is not recognised and I need to format the disk. There is no apparent driver for GET Jpegs on my XP machine.

anjou2 said:

I run a GET digital video recorder which turns out still JPEGs onto an SD card. On my old XP laptop I could just load and view using PS 2. I now have PS 9 in my Win 7 machine and when I insert the SD card I am told that the file type is not recognised and I need to format the disk. There is no apparent driver for GET Jpegs on my XP machine.

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What is the format of your SD card?

Is it FAT, FAT32, NTFS, or something else??

Of course, if the SD card was readable on XP, I'm surprised it's not readable on Win7.

The card was always read OK in XP, and still is if I use the old Laptop, very strange !

anjou2 said:

The card was always read OK in XP, and still is if I use the old Laptop, very strange !

Click to expand...

But what does that card show, if you plug it in to XP and get a screenshot from DISKMGMT in XP... what is its format? FAT? FAT32? NTFS?

Sorry, it's FAT32

You didn't mention whether you were running 32-bit or 64-bit Win7 but I suppose it's possible that your old Aspire 5742Z laptop doesn't have proper Win7 drivers for the card reader. Though if that were the case, I'd expect to see some indication of that in Device Manager... you know, an item in "other devices" with a yellow exclamation mark.

Anyway, in your Win7 Device Manager, does your card reader show up properly?

For example, on my own desktop I have a Mitsumi combo-drive, with floppy disk drive as well as two SD card readers (USB interface). And these USB card readers show up in Device manager like this:




Now your Aspire laptop may simply be in need of current Win7 drivers. It looks like the SD card reader is from Realtek. I haven't done much research, but it looks like you can get all the Win7 32-bit drivers for that laptop from this particular web site (I don't vouch for it). They also have a 64-bit version of that page.

Note that there are specifically Realtek drivers for that card reader. Perhaps you should try installing them manually, if they're not already the drivers you see installed from Device Manager.


I've also looked on the ACER site, and they suggest that all drivers for the laptop are pre-packaged into Win7 with the exception of the following:



But since you have your laptop up and running, I'm going to guess that these drivers were actually downloaded and installed successfully from the Microsoft Windows Updates catalog site during your Win7 install.


I'm just fishing around here, because if it's really hard to figure why this particular piece of hardware on the laptop would cause difficulty, since it appears from the ACER site that Win7 is supported for that laptop.

Oddly, the ACER site driver screenshot doesn't even show support for WinXP, so I'm a bit puzzled how this is an "old laptop" that you used to run under WinXP? Or am I not understanding something?


EDIT: Oh... I think you have TWO machines, though your system specs show the Aspire 5742Z laptop, which is what I was thinking you're trying to use now that's causing problems.

Can you please straighten out your specs: do you have TWO machines? And which one is the Win7 machine that is causing the problem?

Your Autoplay should open the SD card or ask what you want to do. If you have PS9 set as the default program for jpg's, that may be the problem.

First let me say how much I appreciate the time and effort spent on my problem, this is a great site.
To further clarify things : my XP machine is an Aspire 1363WLM (which I still run but is getting a bit tired now ) My Win 7 machine is an Aspire 5742Z just about 2 months old. This came with everything installed, along with the built in SD reader which functions with every SD card I have offered it (apart from the one in question, which still reads in the XP machine)
I've looked in W7 Dev Manager and can't find any ref to a particular card reader, this is the case also in the XP machine.
Incidently I've just un-installed the freebie McAfee protection and am running MSE etc, which is installed with no probs. I don't really want to upset the apple cart by any deep tinkering (I'm still learning !) and I can live with having to read the GET card on the old XP if necessary, but I would really like to understand why it won't read a simple Jpeg.
Again many thanks.

Maybe the GET card is just not compatible with Win7? dunno.
Something to try is to copy you jpg's from it to another media, use the XP machine to reformat it too NTFS and give it a try. I have no other ideas on this.

Britton30 said:

Something to try is to copy you jpg's from it to another media, use the XP machine to reformat it too NTFS and give it a try. I have no other ideas on this.

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My hunch is that this formatting of the card to NTFS wouldn't work with the recorder. It's not really a generic Windows "drive", it's the device supported by the recorder... and apparently that device supports FAT32.

I have the same story with the microSDHC card used in my portable music player. It's got to be formatted to FAT32, because the OS in the PMP supports FAT32. You can't just choose to format it as NTFS.

Fortunately the card (inserted into a separate USB reader and getting a Windows drive letter assigned when the USB cable from the reader is plugged into the PC, or inserted into the PMP and getting a Windows drive letter assigned when the PMP is plugged into the PC using a USB cable) is 100% usable for me, as it is USB-connected through an acceptable intermediate device. Interestingly, I've not been able to use it at all when plugged into a MicroSDHC->SD adapter, and then plugging the adapter into the USB card reader in my Mitsumi combo drive on the PC. Don't know why, but it just doesn't work that way at all.

It might be a worthwhile investment of $10 or so for the OP to try this same IOGear 12-in-1 GFR209 external USB card reader as a solution for Win7, to read the SD card. The USB connection will get a Windows drive letter assigned, and the inserted SD card should be usable as an ordinary FAT32 drive, containing JPG's in this case.

True Dsperber, odd thing is all his other SD cards work fine with Win 7. The external card reader is a good idea.

@anjou2, you could try this free program SlimDrivers with the card inserted to see if there may be a stray, odd driver out there.

Hmmm strange, could you try this maybe. Copy all the jpegs first of all to the XP machine. Then go to your Windows 7 machine and plug the SD card in, and let Windows 7 format it (to FAT32 of course). Then when the formatting is done, plug the SD back into the XP machine, copy the jpegs onto the SD again, then see if your SD card will work on Windows 7 or not?

Thanks, I'm sure this is worth trying but I'm losing the will to live over this project and I think I'll pass. Again I'm very grateful for all inputs but the spouse is complaining the jobs are piling up else-where !

This shouldn't take more than 10 minutes, but of course you have your priorities.

anjou2 said:

Thanks, I'm sure this is worth trying but I'm losing the will to live over this project and I think I'll pass. Again I'm very grateful for all inputs but the spouse is complaining the jobs are piling up else-where !

Click to expand...

Been there myself...came back a few days later and my fix seemed oddly very simple.

I'll try later then.

Lol take your time...

Thanks Slasher, I've got round to it now. Geronimo ! It works, brilliant, I'm up and running.Sorry for the delay.

Good job!!!

anjou2 said:

Thanks Slasher, I've got round to it now. Geronimo ! It works, brilliant, I'm up and running.Sorry for the delay.

Click to expand...

You mentioned that your XP and Win7 systems were two separate machines. And if two separate machines, are they on a home network so you can get to one from the other?

So does that mean you performed:

(1) read the SD card in XP and copied the JPG's to hard drive on your XP machine,

(2) insert the card into Win7 machine and FORMAT the card to FAT32 using Win7

(3) reinsert the card into your XP machine and copy the JPG's from hard drive of XP machine to the card (meaning the card formatted to FAT32 by Win7 is obviously readable by XP)

(4) reinsert the card into your Win7 machine and it now opens fine.


If so, or close enough, then obviously the original formatting to FAT32 is the suspect culprit here. Surely FAT32 from either WinXP or Win7 should have been perfectly compatible to either OS, just as they are right now apparently.

Was the card formatted go FAT32 when you bought it? Was it formatted to FAT32 by your recorder device?

Note that the recommended FORMAT utility for SD (and microSDHC) cards is from Panasonic. Just for future reference. Results seem to be improved performance, and reliable formatting... based on comments by others. I know I've used it to format my own SDHC cards to FAT32 (for my portable music player).

Anyway, glad you finally got your problem resolved.