Small Capacity CompactFlash No Longer Works in PB

Question

Is there a known backward compatibility problem with smaller capacity (<256MB) CompactFlash cards and newer MacOS?
I have a PowerBook G4 running Tiger MacOS X 10.4.11. I keep a 32GB CompactFlash card in the PCMCIA slot as an extra hard drive which works very nicely. Today I was cleaning my office and came across several 80MB, 64MB, 256MB CompactFlash card which I used to work. I tested them and they still work fine in the cameras I used to use them with. All the cards, from various manufacturers including SanDisk, work fine in my older PowerBook G3 running Tiger MacOS X 10.4.11. However, only the 256MB card works in my PowerBook G4 and Tiger.
The cards are known good because they work in other computers and cameras.
I also tried using a USB card reader with the PowerBook G4 but that also didn't get the smaller cards to work.
Ideas?

Answer 1

Hi, pubwvj. The fact that all the cards work in 10.4.11 on the G3 indicates that there is no inherent problem reading them in that OS version, even if they aren't read on the G4 running the same OS version. Are you using the same reader(s) with each computer? If not, do.
If you reformat the cards as HFS+ volumes, they'll work in your Macs but not in your camera. I would reformat them *in the camera* instead of in the Mac, then try reading them on the G4 again.
Message was edited by: eww