K-30 sd card problems

Hi I just bought a K-30 and it is my first DSLR. I am pretty impressed with the camera.
However I have a problem.

I have four different types of SDHC cards all new Class 10 8/16/4 GB.
I have used Linux and Windows 7.
I have two old card readers both work with SDHC and a new one I just bought.
I have the original Pentax battery, a aftermarket battery, the AA holder with new batteries and some old good quality batteries.

This problem occurred with the Firmware V 1.0 that was on the camera when I got it and after I have upgraded the Firmware to V 1.04.

All the above work perfectly with other SDHC cards I have containing mainly Raspberry Pi images or just files and folders.

My problem is,

I place the sd card in the camera. I have tried formatting on the pc and in the camera (I get the same results).
I take some pictures.
I take the sd card and put it in a reader and view the files on the pc. I have also connected the camera to the pc directly(I get the same results)
I either leave the files on the sd card or copy or move them to the pc (I get the same results)
I take out the sd card from the reader and place it back in the camera.
I take some more pictures.
I put the card in the reader and I get -- see screenshots at the link below


https://copy.com/iPBL1YYx0WF9

In linux I can not read the card and I get a message telling me that I have the wrong file type.
In Windows 7 I see variations of the above. I can not delete any of the files or folders and I can not read any of the files.

When I put the card back in the camera the camera tells me that the card needs formatting.

Do I have a faulty camera ?

Thanks in anticipation of some replies.

Trying to narrow it down:

Just to check you are saying that you have the same problem with all four cards?

If you format one of the cards in the camera (the smallest one may be most convenient) then fill the card with images are you able to store roughly the expected number of images? Can you see them *ALL* on camera or have some gone missing. If you delete a few can you then shoot roughly the same number before it fills again, if you then scroll through the images are they still *ALL* there, excluding the ones you deleted of course

If it passes those tests

I have the four different cards
I have formatted them several times both in the camera and on Windows 7 and Arch linux
The pictures show/copy/move as normal when I first place the card in the pc
I take the card out put it in the camera take some more shots and when I put it back in the pc I get what is shown in the screenshots.

So basically the camera corrupts the (any) card if it already has pictures on it?

That seems about right.

Which seems to suggest a camera fault. But as a sanity check, is it corrupted from a camera point of view i.e. are you still able to see and browse the photographs using the camera screen? i.e. is it only a problem when you read the cards on PC?

Yes I can view the pictures on the camera.
I can view the pictures on the pc when the camera is attached by cable.
I can view the pictures on the pc when the card is in a reader.
I can copy or move the files to the pc.

When I eject correctly the card from the pc and re mount it on the pc I get the garbage in the screenshots.

When I eject correctly the card from the pc and put it back in the camera and take some more pictures when I connect the card to the pc by the above means I get the garbage shown in the screen shots.

I'm not a happy bunny.

Hmmm. If you can see the pictures correctly both in the camera and on the PC when you put the card in the PC's card reader that tells me that the problem is not the card nor the camera.

From your description it seems the problem occurs only when you eject the card from the PC, not when you eject it from the camera. Maybe your pocess for 'correctly unmounting' the card isn't actually working properly?

You say you have tried on Linux, could you perhaps try this (overkill) unmount sequence for testing purposes and see if that still causes corruption:

A) First make sure you have no photo programs running, no windows open on the card's directories, if you are running some PC based utility that automatically loads photos from a card when it sees one turn it off.
a) open terminal and in it type sync;sync;sync
b) If you know the mount point for your card type without the quotes " sync && umount your_mount_point " if you don't know the mount point just type sync then fairly quickly eject it however you normally do it from the gui.

That should hopefully eliminate any problems to do with unmounting the device. If that isn't actually the problem then something a bit exotic is going on and we will need to think harder.

Problem sorted.

Seems that after all my protestations about all me kit being tikety boo. It was not.

I had a intermittently faulty usb port on my monitor. It worked ok when I did a test run but I must have caught it just right for it to seem ok. Obviously it was throwing wobblies in future tests as today it has died and there is not a glimmer of life in it.
All other ports work fine and now the sd cards are behaving as they should.
Seems I need to work on my testing methodology.
I feel such a fool. Happy but foolish.

Nowt new there then.

Thanks for the help folks.

i guess if there were virus in ur pc before i get to the end. good luck.