Sunday 29 May 2011

How to clone Minolta RD-175 cards


First you have to install a freeware Windows Program called "Easeus Todo Backup".
You may get it with this direct link or here or here (72Mb file).
or find it at their website

You don't need to install the "Professional" version. The free version is enough.
After install, restart your computer.

Download this RD-175 card image. Alternative links here and here (59Mb file).
I made it from a 160MB PCMCIA card formatted with the RD-175 camera.

Connect a CF (CompactFlash) card to your computer directly or through a usb card adapter.
This card must have a capacity of 160MB or more.

Open the Easeus program.
Click the on the tab "Recovery".
Select "Disk and partition recovery".
Click "Browse". Find the card image that you downloaded (rd175.PDB) and select it.
Click "Next".
Select the box "Disk3" and click  "Next".
Select the CF Card you connected to the computer.
VERY IMPORTANT#1: you MUST select the CF card, otherwise you will erase your hard drive or other disk in your computer.
VERY IMPORTANT#2: click the box "Sector by sector recovery" below. Otherwise the card won't work on your RD-175.
Click "Next" 2 times and "Proceed".
Click "OK".
Now wait for about one or two minutes depending on the speed of your computer and card.
Click "Finish".
Exit the program.
Eject the CF card.
Insert your CF card into a "CF to PCMCIA or PCCard adapter".
And your camera should be working!...
This card image contains a sample raw photo and a tiff converted photo that you may delete.
I tried this with Windows XP, Windows 7 computers and Windows 7 running on an Apple Macbook Pro.
I tried with success several CF cards and an IBM microdrive, with sizes ranging from 256MB to 4Gb.


It also worked with all CF to PCMCIA card adapters.


At the right of this image is the original PCMCIA 160Mb card.
These two pictures were taken with a Minolta RD-175, a Sigma 10-20mm EX Zoom and a Sony Alpha HVL-F56AM Flash.
Remember that the card image is only 160MB.
If you copy it into a 4GB card, the space available will be only 160MB in one partition. The rest of the card will be empty.
The space will be enough to take about 138 pictures.
If you have any doubts, leave a comment.

(Soon in the next posts: Kodak DCS 460, a milestone in the history of digital cameras;  Nikon Coolpix 100;  Nikon D1; the Foveon X3 sensor; and more...)

16 comments:

  1. Thank you very much, many RD175-owners have the problem to get new CF-cards running. I reproduced it and all works fine :o)

    You find the image of an 256MB-card (good for 199 pics) at https://rapidshare.com/files/3702087035/RD175-256mb.PBD

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  2. WoW at last someone else who is altruistic :-)
    Great way to get Compact Flash cards to be read by the Minolta RD175. Only issue I have is that as soon as I use it... plug back into my PC via a card reader.. and copy the MDC files... the camera says "err" when I put it back in.
    No doubt those using Apple Macs and the leads do not experience this. It's a minor irritation a bit like a very clunky "re-format" every time I download to my PC.
    However the difficulty getting good images out of the MDC files is a bit dissapointing. I have so far only found 1 free to use converter.. Picajet and the results on my first trials are dissapointing. Anyone know of a better in effect RAW editor that's free or inexpensive. I only use Adobe elements [Adobe 6 is the latest I have, but I actually like the free version 2 I got years ago]. Anyway absolutely great you went to the touble of doing this in such a profeessional but accessible way. minolta4me-kevin

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  4. Any idea where I can find the mdc.ctl program? I need to put one on a blank flash card.

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  5. Seems like the links to the disk image are all expired, so here's another one: http://ge.tt/48WLLBO/v/0?c

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  6. Hi
    Please, I'm Pascal from France and I downloaded the RD-175 card image with success. I get on the new compact flash one picture .tif with an angel, a files .mdc and a file .ctl. If I took one picture with my RD-175, I get only one new .mdc file. Do you know why I don't get a new picture? All seems to work correctly on the camera. The counter of pictures count one picture took...
    Thank youBest regards
    Thank you

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  7. Hi! Could anyone post a valid link to the card image file, please? All links mentioned above don't work (((

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  8. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  9. The EaseUs interface looks like it has changed, anyone can help me with the steps I should take?

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    Replies
    1. You can find the older version for download here, http://forum.easeus.com/viewtopic.php?t=36074#p74056. I also didn't have any luck with the new version.

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  10. anyone can help to open the MDC files? Thanks

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  11. Thank you so much for posting this! It worked like a charm!

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  12. Thank you so much, worked perfect. All I need now is a SCSI cable to connect camera to PC. if anyone has a link to a cable with correct connections it would be great.

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  13. Hi I just bought an RD 175 and wondered if you still have the card image? I tried all the links above, but it seems like they're too old. Any help would be greatly appreciated :)

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    Replies
    1. I am trying to find the same. Please share if you get it, I will do the same.

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