Pentax k-x stopped saving photos

I have a pentax k-x camera which I love but have a encountered a huge problem today. Yesterday I took some decent pictures and was looking forward to taking it with me to the farne islands today!

I took alot of photos but for some reason they haven't saved on my memmory card, the last one I have is from yesterday which is very frustrating! When I take a few pictures I can view them and it seems like they have saved, if I turn the camera off and back on again they have gone and the last photos which show are from yesterday!

It's so frustrating as paid a fair bit to get to the farne islands today and have lost all the pictures I took!

Any ideas?

Copy the contents of your card onto your pc to confirm what is present

Thanks done that and there is a folder which should have photos from today but it's empty

Do the contacts on the card look a bit grotty?.. If so, a wee drop of isopropyl alcohol (or vodka) on a cotton bud should shift the muck. Otherwise, all I can think of is that either the contacts inside the camera are dirty, or they are no longer touching the contacts on the card. If other cards are okay, then try holding the camera so that the card slot is pointing to the floor, then scoosh a puff of air into the card slot using a blower brush. Other than that, it might be a wee trip to the camera hospital!!

Hmm the memory card looks fine to be honest and never had a problem with it before but I'm hoping it's just the sd card! I'm going to buy another memory card to try tomorrow! I read online about a programme called active undelete which someone with a similar issue tried on their memory card so going to see if it can find any of the photos I took today!
If anyone has any other idead I'm happy to hear it!

The camera didn't come up with an error or anything to say the images weren't saving or that there was an error with the sd card at all it just functioned as normal any ideas?

And if you right click the folder and check the properties does it show the size as 0 bytes?

Yes it does

Hook the camera up to the pc. Browse to it via the control panel, then look to see what's on the MASS STORAGE DEVICE (it might actually name your camera, but at this stage, it's "seeing" it as another hard drive). It's possible that the photos (well, some anyway!) were saved to the camera's internal memory. This being the case, import as you normally would to your pc's photos folder.

Also - I just had a wee thought... What position is the sd card's lock switch on the upper left-side in? Is there a chance that you inadvertently locked the card prior to inserting it in the camera yesterday??

Have you got a fake card?

If the card was faulty or locked I think the camera would be showing errors as you take the shots. If all seems OK except you find the photos aren't there that sounds like a fake card I got caught with once. Basically they misreport the card size and can seem entirely normal until you actually put a lot of data on them, at which point old data just silently disappears.

Hmm it's not locked or anything comes up on the camera saying locked when it is just tested haha! It could be a fake card I suppose I'm going to buy a new one and see if that works

Just thought I'd update you all! Tried a new sd card and it's working fine so the card must have been dodgy! Do you think I've lost the photos from yesterday then?

Thanks for all the help guys I really appreciate it I'll give that programme a go now it's at least worth a try!

Thank you so much that has found most of the photos I took yesterday! Thanks for all the help and advice I really appreciate it! I've now learned to always keep a spare memory card!

More importantly - I think you've also learned a valuable lesson in not skimping on the cost of buying quality branded sd cards!