First, the basics... There are three kinds of SD cards (SD, SDHC and SDXC). Not all computers are designed to accept all three types. SD cards can store up to 2GB of data, SDHC can store up to 64GB of data, and SDXC cards can store up to 2TB (terabytes) of data. If you are unsure which types of cards your laptop or computer will accept, visit the manufacturer's web site and look for the specifications for your particular model to be sure. It's tempting to want to buy an SD card with a large data capacity, but it's wasted money if your computer will not work with the high capacity card.
Make sure you have inserted the card correctly (and fully). The card is 'keyed' (with a notch in one corner) so it should only fit into the SD card slot one way *easily*. Obviously you can try to force the SD card into the slot the wrong way, but the position which goes in the easiest is probably the right way. Some devices have a symbol beside the slot indicating which way the card should be inserted. Be careful, though. It is natural to think the the card should be inserted with the manufacturer's label facing up, but I've seen devices where the card should be inserted 'upside-down', contrary to what I thought.
If you are using a Windows computer with a 'recent' version of the operating system (Windows Vista or later), the computer should recognize the card (as a newly attached piece of hardware) and show the card as a new drive letter when you open the Windows Explorer program to view your files and folders.
If the card is new, it should be formatted already and can be used immediately, BUT...your computer may need to have a driver program (software that enables the use of specific hardware items). My laptop, for example, uses a driver from Ricoh to enable the SD card slots, and that driver had to be downloaded from the HP support site and installed before my SD card slots would recognize SD cards.
If you know you have the correct SD card device driver installed, have an SD card that will work with your computer but still do not see the card in Windows Explorer, you can check in the Windows Device Manager to check its status. You can also use the Disk Management features of Windows to check what drive letter has been assigned to the drive. If the SD card has been assigned a drive letter already used by another drive, then it will not be available in Windows Explorer.
If you think any of these last problems I mentioned are part of your issue, reply here and I can see if I can help you further.
Answers & Comments
First, the basics...
There are three kinds of SD cards (SD, SDHC and SDXC). Not all computers are designed to accept all three types. SD cards can store up to 2GB of data, SDHC can store up to 64GB of data, and SDXC cards can store up to 2TB (terabytes) of data. If you are unsure which types of cards your laptop or computer will accept, visit the manufacturer's web site and look for the specifications for your particular model to be sure. It's tempting to want to buy an SD card with a large data capacity, but it's wasted money if your computer will not work with the high capacity card.
Make sure you have inserted the card correctly (and fully). The card is 'keyed' (with a notch in one corner) so it should only fit into the SD card slot one way *easily*. Obviously you can try to force the SD card into the slot the wrong way, but the position which goes in the easiest is probably the right way. Some devices have a symbol beside the slot indicating which way the card should be inserted. Be careful, though. It is natural to think the the card should be inserted with the manufacturer's label facing up, but I've seen devices where the card should be inserted 'upside-down', contrary to what I thought.
If you are using a Windows computer with a 'recent' version of the operating system (Windows Vista or later), the computer should recognize the card (as a newly attached piece of hardware) and show the card as a new drive letter when you open the Windows Explorer program to view your files and folders.
If the card is new, it should be formatted already and can be used immediately, BUT...your computer may need to have a driver program (software that enables the use of specific hardware items). My laptop, for example, uses a driver from Ricoh to enable the SD card slots, and that driver had to be downloaded from the HP support site and installed before my SD card slots would recognize SD cards.
If you know you have the correct SD card device driver installed, have an SD card that will work with your computer but still do not see the card in Windows Explorer, you can check in the Windows Device Manager to check its status. You can also use the Disk Management features of Windows to check what drive letter has been assigned to the drive. If the SD card has been assigned a drive letter already used by another drive, then it will not be available in Windows Explorer.
If you think any of these last problems I mentioned are part of your issue, reply here and I can see if I can help you further.