Thumbnail vs open photo

[FunEmom]

Until a few months ago I had no problems downloading any of my SD cards to my external hard drive or PC photo file. When I view the thumbnails, the photos are perfect. When I open the photos, there are problems! Some, not all, photos will have a large box of a single color covering a portion of the photo or the photo will look cut in two and off set along the cut line and the two 'halves' are of different color and lighting values. I discovered I can download the same photo from the same SD card three separate times, saving each one individually and while one photo may be fine, the other two will have problems. I think the phrase to describe how the photos are being saved is 'willy nilly.'
I have tried using the canon zoom browser software and camera to download directly and bypass the card reader. I have tried different SD cards. I have used Picasa and windows to download and get the same results.
I have ruled out the PC card reader, SD cards (even bought a new one with same results) and software. Not sure what to try next? Firmware update for the camera?
I am technologically ignorant and am going through a process of elimination. Since the thumbnails look perfect, I am hoping that the photos are also perfect and I'm just not smart enough to figure out how to get the PC, camera and SD cards to like one another again. I know if I've updated a program on my computer that another program might not work with it because it needs updated to be compatible. HELP!!!

 

[muckshifter]

What camera ?

I use the supplied USB cable to transfer my pics to the PC ... not got a card reader, the one I did have was more trouble than its worth.

I only use Picasa to copy my pics over. I don't do much post processing.

Can't remember the last time I took the card out of my camera.


oh, welcome to the Forums.

 

[FunEmom]

Okay - I've got it narrowed down to the Verbatim external hard drive I'm using. I've downloaded pix from the same SD card to the Verbatim drive and directly to my hard drive. Again, all thumbnails are perfect. When I go quickly through the photo previews, I can briefly see the photo but if I select a photo to view, I get the large colored boxes and distortions.
I ran anti-virus software on the hard drive and nothing found. I cannot locate my box or contents that the hard drive came in nor can I locate my model on their website. Perhaps I need an update on the Verbatim? If I cannot locate the style on their website, how do I know if I have to do this and would this be causing the problems I described?