Windows 7: 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.

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 Windows 7.

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

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 Windows 7 but I suppose it's possible that your old Aspire 5742Z laptop doesn't have proper Windows 7 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 Windows 7 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 Windows 7 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 Windows 7 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 Windows 7 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 Windows 7 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 Windows 7 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 Windows 7 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 Windows 7? 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.

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 Windows 7, 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.