This is incredibly bizarre.
After copying photos taken with my Minolta A1 DigiCam to Vista ,
the file timestamp created date always reads January 1 , 1980 !
I remove the card from the camera and use a card reader to accomplish this task.
On Vista, the flashcard itself 'seems' to contain photo files with creation date January 1 , 1980.
Windows 98SE does see the proper creation date.
If I copy the files to Win98 from a flash card connected to Win98,
and then copy back either a renamed version to the same card or the same files to a different card ( on win98 ),
Vista can then properly see the correct timestamp creation date of those files on that card connected to Vista!
Files copied to the flashcard from Vista,
a DOpus USB export for instance,
all have normal file creation dates as viewed in Vista.
At first I thought I had screwed up Vista somehow,
but my backups from May show the same results.
The card is formatted FAT 16, and the Minolta has a limit of a 2 GB card.
I could go back deeper into my backups, but I think I'll see the same.
Fortunately, all but a few cards of my photo archive were originally copied to my old Win98 system.
It really isn't all that bad.
I can easily write a 4NT script to fix this.
In fact, I once did just that to repair exactly the same problem.
The cause was a blind data dump I once made from an old PC.
It's just the idea of the damn thing.
Hmm.... could Vista be doing this deliberately ???!!??
Is there some security setting responsible ?
I don't think my computer is corrupted,
but perhaps it is possessed ....
Maybe it's time to talk to a Priest.
Yes, it is a general issue with symptoms in both Explorer and Directory Opus.
Directory Opus displays the created date/time as Jan 1, 1980 at 12:00 AM.
However, Explorer doesn't seem to be able to display anything in a created date column, it's just blank.
This is true of both original files from the camera that are still on the FAT16 card, and those original files from the camera that have been copied from the FAT16 card to Vista.
I note that Modified Date/Time does display properly,
it is only the Created Date/Time that exhibits this.
However, after Win98SE has had possession of the file from the camera,
Created Date/Time displays properly.
The camera uses a FAT16 formatted Compact Flash card.
I attempted to repeat this using my HP 50G calculator.
The HP50G has a slot for an SD card although for the calculator to display free space properly,
the free space on the card must be less than 1,000,000 KBs.
I have a pair of 512MB SD cards for this purpose.
I formatted one FAT16 and the other FAT32 and used the calculator to copy a file on the calculator to the cards.
I chose a file the calculator itself had made.
Vista saw the Created Date/Time just fine on both SD cards.
I thought it interesting that the calculator would accept either a FAT16 or FAT32 formatted SD card,
so I formatted a 1GB Compact Flash card FAT32 and tried it in the camera.
The camera worked with the card formatted FAT32,
but Vista still saw the Created Date/Time as Jan 1, 1980 at 12:00 AM in Directory Opus and as NULL in Explorer.
I've found a workaround. UltraISO can solve this problem.
[ul]
I opened UltraISO and created a new data iso image.
I added the camera files on the flash card to that iso image.
I saved the iso image.
I extracted the contents of the iso image to a folder.
[/ul]
The created date/time filestamp was then properly and correctly displayed !
Camera files already copied into my hard drive photo archive that display the Jan. 1, 1980 creation date,
can also be 'repaired' using the above method.
