I have a lexar 4gb ms duo pro and sony orig 2GB both of these sticks shows . (dot) file and when i try to copy these files to my PC it asked to overwrite another dot (.) file, what are these dot (.) files.

Ort Scr
http://i13.tinypic.com/4p17vxt.jpg

any idea what are these dots (.)
this dots shows up in intervals of 20s or so.

there was a time that i got an error - something like "unable ... card..."

I have never come across that with either of my cards (TwinMOS and Sandisk). After you transfer your photos, try formatting the card within the camera then put it back in your card reader and see if it reappears.

its my SOP already after i dump the photos to the storage(pc/hdd) i will format the card on the camera and resume shooting. Again today it still has the . (dot) thing.

There are viruses floating around that infects flash drives and removable memory devices. It's possible that it's a virus on your pc thats putting the file on your CF card. Try formatting the card in the camera and transfer the files on another PC. If you don't see the dot files your pc is the culprit.

There are viruses floating around that infects flash drives and removable memory devices. It's possible that it's a virus on your pc thats putting the file on your CF card. Try formatting the card in the camera and transfer the files on another PC. If you don't see the dot files your pc is the culprit.

Ouch! Good call.

There are viruses floating around that infects flash drives and removable memory devices. It's possible that it's a virus on your pc thats putting the file on your CF card. Try formatting the card in the camera and transfer the files on another PC. If you don't see the dot files your pc is the culprit.

yep,good call. my advice is always have an anti-virus installed on your computer to detect harmful ones like the one you mentioned. if that does not work, the only thing you can do is to format you computer. i encountered a virus like this that even affected my regular flashdisk as well as my ipod. good luck.

i believe these are config files for certain programs.. maybe they're created by your camera.. have you tried an antivirus utility?

I Googled your issue and seems this happens only on Mac formatted flash or CF cards. The dot file contains metadata of your card. Also happens if you are doing a cross platform copying i.e. from PC to MAC vice versa.

What is the format of your flash drive? FAT, FAT 32 or NTFS?

According the users forum I checked, this dot file are harmless.

Hope that helps.

Dan T

@all -hello - thanks for the responses.

i am transferring files in my CF cross platform.
maybe this is the reason. but the only question is, even i reformat the CF using the FORMAT button in the Sony Alpha these dots (.) will do appear again and again.

scenario:
i shoot 50 jpg there are 2-3 dot (.) files in it with different file sizes.

@all -hello - thanks for the responses.

i am transferring files in my CF cross platform.
maybe this is the reason. but the only question is, even i reformat the CF using the FORMAT button in the Sony Alpha these dots (.) will do appear again and again.

scenario:
i shoot 50 jpg there are 2-3 dot (.) files in it with different file sizes.


I believe they will disappear after you reformat your CF. But as soon as you populate the card again with photos, the metadata for the jpgs is again inserted in the card. Try inserting the CF without any file in it. See if that works.

Dan T

after transferring the dot (.) file to my PC i did tried to open it and hola!
it can be opened by Windows Image Fax Viewer and MS Office Photo Manager but CS2 cant open it.

heres the screenshoot
http://i16.tinypic.com/4km20sm.jpg

@delfinotiongco - yes dots (.) will only appear whenever i start populating the CF card (CF Adapter + MS DUO PRO Lexar 4GB / MS DUO PRO Sony 2gb). But if we mention about METADATA i dont think it could be that case as above mentioned I opened the file (.) and it was clear the file was one of the subjects i am shooting.

Possibility:
The camera was unable to filename (series) correctly the file.
or something wrong with the camera or memory.
Let me try another card...

I think what I mean with the metadata is actually the Thumbnail of the file currently in your CF. Is your (.) always 1KB size? If so, and there is one photo instead of a few, the (.) file will not be produced since there is no need to create a thumbnail for the series. It is more like a simple database built in the algorithm of you specific DSLR.

Dan T

the dot (.) file size will depend on the shooting mode quality (L) = est. 1mb - 2mb JPG but not 1kb.

If I find a file of this sort in my CF cards, i just ignore and delete it right away...nothing special about it!:)