What make/model is the card and where did you get it? Unfortunately, many cheap memory cards and flash drives on eBay tend to be fake (a small drive reprogrammed to masquerade as a much larger drive). As such, they look fine but cause all kinds of read/write errors when you try to use them.

Obviously you can’t use the advertised space, but it’s possible to reprogram it to reflect the true size and at least use that much reliably.

Before resorting to that, check that the card-reader is good by trying another card in it and trying the questionable card in another reader. It is possible that the reader has failed or, if you are lucky, it’s cable has come loose.

Also, check the contact pins on the card and the reader to make sure they are clean. For the card, just look at and wipe them. For the reader, use an emery board to light rub them. What likely happened in your case was that one (or more) of the pins were dirty or something and thus not making good contact with the readers’ pins. Either your sister cleaned them, or the repeated inserting caused the pins to get scraped a bit, wiping off the patina and allowing the electrical circuit to get made correctly. This makes sense because memory cards have several pins, and if some of them connect while others don’t, then it can result in a variety of symptoms including it being detected but unreadable as you saw.

What make/model is the card and where did you get it? Unfortunately, many cheap memory cards and flash drives on eBay tend to be fake (a small drive reprogrammed to masquerade as a much larger drive). As such, they look fine but cause all kinds of read/write errors when you try to use them.

Obviously you can’t use the advertised space, but it’s possible to reprogram it to reflect the true size and at least use that much reliably.

Before resorting to that, check that the card-reader is good by trying another card in it and trying the questionable card in another reader. It is possible that the reader has failed or, if you are lucky, its cable has come loose.

Also, check the contact pins on the card and the reader to make sure they are clean. For the card, just look at and wipe them. For the reader, use an emery board to rub them lightly. What likely happened in your case was that one (or more) of the pins were dirty or something and thus not making good contact with the readers’ pins. Either your sister cleaned them, or the repeated inserting caused the pins to get scraped a bit, wiping off the patina and allowing the electrical circuit to get made correctly. This makes sense because memory cards have several pins, and if some of them connect while others don’t, then it can result in a variety of symptoms including it being detected but unreadable as you saw.

What make/model is the card and where did you get it? Unfortunately, many cheap memory cards and flash drives on eBay tend to be fake (a small drive reprogrammed to masquerade as a much larger drive). As such, they look fine but cause all kinds of read/write errors when you try to use them.

Obviously you can’t use the advertised space, but it’s possible to reprogram it to reflect the true size and at least use that much reliably.

Before resorting to that, check that the card-reader is good by trying another card in it and trying the questionable card in another reader. It is possible that the reader has failed or, if you are lucky, it’s cable has come loose.

Also, check the contact pins on the card and the reader to make sure they are clean. For the card, just look at and wipe them. For the reader, use an emery board to light rub them.

What make/model is the card and where did you get it? Unfortunately, many cheap memory cards and flash drives on eBay tend to be fake (a small drive reprogrammed to masquerade as a much larger drive). As such, they look fine but cause all kinds of read/write errors when you try to use them.

Obviously you can’t use the advertised space, but it’s possible to reprogram it to reflect the true size and at least use that much reliably.

Before resorting to that, check that the card-reader is good by trying another card in it and trying the questionable card in another reader. It is possible that the reader has failed or, if you are lucky, it’s cable has come loose.

Also, check the contact pins on the card and the reader to make sure they are clean. For the card, just look at and wipe them. For the reader, use an emery board to light rub them. What likely happened in your case was that one (or more) of the pins were dirty or something and thus not making good contact with the readers’ pins. Either your sister cleaned them, or the repeated inserting caused the pins to get scraped a bit, wiping off the patina and allowing the electrical circuit to get made correctly. This makes sense because memory cards have several pins, and if some of them connect while others don’t, then it can result in a variety of symptoms including it being detected but unreadable as you saw.