[usajet]

My xd card won't format. and there is a picture on it and won't erase either.

[shuttertalk]

Hey usajet... how are you trying to format it? Is it write protected by any chance (that little tab on the card)?

[usajet]

the card has a notch on the side of it.

[Keith Alan]

But does it have a little sliding switch?
This will lock it, causing what you describe.

[matthew]

The xD cards that I have can't be locked out this way -- if it won't format in the camera, then I suspect it's a bad card.

[usajet]

It Was The Media Reader

[Kombisaurus]

I used to have an Olympus compact digicam that took xD cards and had a similar problem. The camera refused to format the card. I think from memory (this is going back about 3 years) it would format on a PC, but the camera just wouldn't recognise or reformat the card.

I ended up taking the xD card into a local camera shop and reformatting it on a non-olympus camera that took xD cards (was it a pentax perhaps?). Anyway, this immediately fixed the problem and I could format and use it on my olympus again.

I've also seen Media Card Readers that have a write-protect tab on them, rather than it being on the memory card itself. In fact I also have a Micro-SD card where the adaptor (to standard SD card-size) has a write-protect tab on it.

Hope you get it sorted.