Trouble downloading photos from card reader-OS9.1 G4 Cube

Question

Trying to download photos shot with Casio EXP600 onto Toshiba SD 512MB Card, inserted into Thunderbolt SD/MS card reader plugged into USB port on computer. Camera "Photo Loader" software downloaded OK onto computer. Get error message when try to download either .jpg or .tif files: AN ERROR OCCURRED IN THE PREVIEW FILE CREATION PROCESS. THE FILE WAS NOT CREATED. I can open a file on the card and see the photo on the screen OK, but not download it. If try to drag a photo from card to Photoshop Elements 2, get a .tif file with horizontal white lines every 1/4 inch or so; with .jpg files, get horizontal [possibly overlap] bands. [Also have trouble with .jpg files created with Microtek i700 scanner: get error message if try to open on desktop, though those open OK in Photoshop. Don't know if this is a related problem]. Thanks for any help. Jim Gerstley
Question is: am I missing some critical software or need to update something in order for these photos to download to the computer? The picture files meet the DCF protocol and are supposed to be compatible with MAC OS 9, 10.1, and 10.2 though not 10.0. I do have quicktime player 4.1.2.

Answer 1

Hi, James. Try this simple experiment.
1. Create a new folder on your desktop, then connect your card reader. Double-click one of the photos on the camera card to confirm that it opens properly, as you've said they normally do. Drag-copy the same photo from your camera card into the folder on the desktop. Now double-click the copy. Does it behave exactly the same way as the original, or not?
2. Now drag-copy a different photo — one that you've never opened on your computer — from the camera card into the folder on the desktop. Double-click the copy to open it. Does it behave exactly the same way as the photo that you had previously opened from the camera card, and then copied into folder on the desktop?
It may be necessary, for the results of this experiment to be most informative, to reformat your card in your camera and shoot some new photos before conducting the experiment. Reformatting will erase the photos currently on the card. But since they seem to be corrupt anyway, you've already lost them. Copy them all to your computer first anyway, in case any of them are not yet corrupt.
If the results differ between Step 1 and Step 2, then I suspect that what has queered things for you is the act of opening your photos while they still reside on the camera card, before copying them to the computer. The application they're opening in has made some obscure change in the files that isn't being saved properly on the card, and is corrupting them; consequently, they're corrupt when you then copy them onto the hard drive.
It's a good rule of thumb not to do anything at all with photos while they reside on the camera card: always copy them onto your hard drive before opening, editing, emailing, deleting, or doing anything else to or with them. It's an equally good rule not to do anything to the card itself while it's connected to your computer: to format it, erase it, or delete individual photos from it, always use your camera's controls, while the card is in the camera and disconnected from the computer.
By the way, a folder on your desktop is just another folder in a particular location on your hard drive — there's no functional difference between a folder in the hard drive window and a folder on the desktop, except that the latter is more conveniently accessible. The desktop itself is actually a folder on the hard drive, albeit an invisible one with a special display mode managed by the OS.