My very reliable Sony DSC-H2 digital camera all of a sudden threw an error, saying the Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo had a “format error”. A quick Google search says it is a not so common problem but not to worry. You just use the camera to format the stick and you’ll be good. Unfortunately all the images on the stick will also be wiped out. I’d rather recover my images before I format the stick, thank you very much.
The problem with Google search is that there are simply too many results that are not useful. Further searching and poking around yielded a utility called Memory Card File Rescue Tool, 16mb, published by Sony. This seems really reliable.