THANK YOU, squid. i actually finally figured that out this morning, but that's really all i needed to know for now. the packaging that the card was in made it sound like you had to remove the software before using the card. shows you how much i knew about these cf cards before today! well, now i can just go on my merry way and take pictures and deal with getting a card reader after i have some time to look around and see what's out there and what i want to buy.