msmoto said:
And, another

If it is not reading in the computer also I would maybe think about the card being faulty. I would try another and if the new one works fine send the bad one back to Sandisk for a replacement.

This happened with an offbrand card I had...I couldn't even recover anything from it because nothing would even recognize the card. I lost the pics...I sent the card back and got a replacement, but I haven't use that brand card again. Bought a Sandisk card and haven't had a problem since.

The easy answer to both of these is to reformat the card and try again. The harder answer is if you want to try and recover any of the data from the card before reformatting. SanDisk used to bundle a product called Rescue Pro. You can still download a demo version for free to see if you can recover before buying a license.

Honestly, some sort of data recovery software should be in every photog's bag. It's just as important as a sensor cleaner :-)

The reason I'm digging this thread up is that we should probably put together a sticky trouble shooting thread and put all of the first answers in there:

Did you reset your camera? Did you pull the battery? Try a different lens? Is the cap off? Etc... Anyone else think this is a good idea?

And, another

diamondz said:
I just purchased a Nikon d5100 from Besy buy and along with it a new 16gb sandisck sdhc card. when I turned it on today..it said that there was no sd card installed..when in fact it was there... i had taken some photos and some videos..just trying to get the feel of the new camera..but i cant get any of them to pull up. I have been reading about this issue and my firmware is already up to date. Has anyone had this issue with up top date firmware? I will get e new card and try it..any reccomendations. The card is also not readable in my laptop either..it could be the card..but i could preview my pictures in the camera at one time..now it insists that there is no card installed.

stillriver said:
We bought a Nikon D5100 for a trip to Tanzania this past month. For the first several days, everything worked fine. My husband downloaded and cleared the 32G SD Card onto a MacAir computer each night. He was taking mostly still shots. On the day that we saw a leopard and a couple of Cheetahs, he switched to shoot video. The camera went blank after a minute and the hourglass displayed stating "can't read card data". He turned it off and on again but had the same issue. When we got back to the lodge, he inserted the data card into the computer and it didn't even register that the device was inserted! There was no icon on the desktop noting that the SD card was inserted. So--has anyone else had this problem? The camera is 3 weeks old. We are hoping against all odds that there may still be a way to capture the data on the card. BTW, we had another data data card we used for rest of trip with no problem but we never used video again. We're not sure if it was a card problem or switching to video or a lemon camera problem? Thanks for your help! Glad to have found this Forum.

Nope...SanDisk cards are the best. It is a firmware problem.

CrawfDJC said:
I have just bought a D5100 and a Sandisk Extreme 16GB SDHC card. I put the card in, formatted it and then over the next couple of days I got a "NO SD CARD INSERTED" error. It is an intermittent fault - I would pull it out, put it back in and it would work for a couple of shot but them the error would return. I returned the card and swapped it for a new Sandisk Extreme 16GB SDHC card but the same issue is still happening.

Is there something I am missing or is there an issue with the D5100 and these cards?

I am about to update the firmware - a new release on the 10/11 - to see if this helps but any help would be appreciated.

Thanks everyone. I updated the Firmware and the problem was resolved. Loving the camera, shame the original firmware could not handle a common SD card.

There have been tons of refurbished D5100s for sale. I wonder if everyone was having this problem and just returned them where the firmware could have fixed them. Nikon should have put out a message to all the stores telling them to try the firmware first (but I guess it would have to be somewhere other than a big box store to get that kind of service).

I had the same issue with the 16gb card. I did the firmware update and the problem was resolved.

Normally if you buy a camera after a firmware update has been released you should expect it to come with the latest version. Obviously if the one you bought had been on the shelf or left the factory before the update, it won't have the latest version. Have a check and let us know if that was the problem. From what others have said it seems likely. Let's hope so.

I purchased recently D5100 and it is not having any problem with 8GB card but when I inserted 16 GB card, it started giving problem for the first time after taking more than 200 shots, started showing " NO SD CARD INSERTED" message, I removed card and re insertged again, It just worked for a few minutes and later it started giving problem.

Now I have to try the suggestion given by tcole1983

Thanks @tcole1983. This firmware update seems to have resolved the problem.

I suggest updating the firmware with the new version. It seems to have been addressed in the newest version that was just released 11/10/11. Check it out...

http://support.nikonusa.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/17547

I am having the same problem with D5100 and a class 10 SDHC from SanDisk. I tried formatting using the PC and the camera. None work reliably. Most of the times, the camera does not recognize the card. Intermittently, it does and I can take stills. Video is choppy. This is quite frustrating.

Hello Nikon support team, Speak up or risk a loss of reputation.

Try to insert the SD card on a PC and see what format it has. (The filesystem should be FAT32), if not, format the card on the PC using a FAT32 filesystem format and try again.

I don't remember where I saw/read that Nikon cameras do not like NTFS formatted cards.

Disclaimer: I never tried to check if my cameras are capable to read NTFS formatted cards... I guess that the only problem that could arise is that the camera will not recognize the card, and you will be forced to re-format the card back to FAT32.

Hope it helps.

I am having the same problem with my D5100 and a Sandisk 4GB SDHC. Both cards are on Nikon's approved list for the D5100.
http://support.nikonusa.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/17353/~/approved-sd-cards-for-d5100

I have just bought a D5100 and a Sandisk Extreme 16GB SDHC card. I put the card in, formatted it and then over the next couple of days I got a "NO SD CARD INSERTED" error. It is an intermittent fault - I would pull it out, put it back in and it would work for a couple of shot but them the error would return. I returned the card and swapped it for a new Sandisk Extreme 16GB SDHC card but the same issue is still happening.

Is there something I am missing or is there an issue with the D5100 and these cards?

I am about to update the firmware - a new release on the 10/11 - to see if this helps but any help would be appreciated.