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How to Get Pictures Off an Unformatted SD Card

After a day of shooting when you have filled up one or more memory cards with pictures, you need to transfer them to your computer's hard drive before formatting the card. Depending on the resolution of the sensor in your digital camera and the quality settings of the pictures you are shooting, you may need to transfer the pictures from the card to the computer on a regular basis as the card fills up.

Things You'll Need

Card reader

Instructions

- 1
  Remove the SD (Secure Digital) card from your digital camera. Insert the SD card into the appropriate card reader slot on your home computer. If your computer does not have a card reader, attach an external reader to your computer.
- 2
  Wait a moment for your computer to acknowledge that the card has been inserted into the reader. A new window will open up when the card is acknowledged, containing all the images on the card.
- 3
  Position your cursor on the first file in the folder and click the icon to select the file. Press and hold the "Ctrl" key and press the "A" key to select all of the image files in the folder.
- 4
  Right click on one of the images and select "Send to" from the drop-down menu. Select the location on your computer where you want the images to be sent and click "OK." The computer will then start to copy the images from the card to the computer. Once all the pictures are downloaded, remove the card from the reader and format the card to make it ready for use again.

Photography