For the last few days, I’ve been scanning photos and saving them to an SD memory card with no problems. All of the sudden, whenever I try to save any more, I get the same error message “Cannot copy (photo name): The directory or file cannot be created.”
What could be the problem? I’ve barely used 1/10 of the memory on the card so it’s definitely not full.
Have you created a new folder on the card for the images, or are you saving them all to the root directory of the card?
I believe that SD cards (and possibly other flash memory devices) can only contain a certain number of folders on the root directory. Try creating a new folder on the card and copying your pictures to that folder.
I had a similar problem with an mp3 player. The disc thinks it’s full but it’s not.
This is how I fixed the problem. I don’t know whether it will work with your memory card, however and you also have to be running Windows XP.
Before you do anything, make sure you have copies of all your pictures. You’re going to have to do a reformat so you’ll lose everything on your memory card.
Right click on “My Computer”
Right click on your E drive or whatever your memory card is labeled.
Select “Format”
On the next menu, where it says “File Size” make sure it says “FAT32”. If it just says “FAT” pull down the menu and select “FAT32.”
Press start
Your disc will format. You can then re-copy your pictures back on to the memory card and add news ones without problems.
Standard Disclaimer. I am not a techie and if, upon following my instructions, your memory card swells to the size of a 1000 fiery suns and proceeds to consume the universe, I am not responsible.
You may be on the right track. On older media (floppys and hard drives) the main directory had a limit of, I think, 128 files; any number of files could be placed in subdirectories. Wouldn’t surprise me if newer media are the same. (Probably a function of the file system used, not an inherent limitation in the device. Does FAT32 allow more files in the main directory?)
(I really am an old folgy. I “discovered” flash drives just a few months back when a sister-in-law used one our computer. I just got one for Christmas. 
For someone who remembers using 160 Kb floppies, I’m simply astounded that you can put 2 Gb of data in something small enough to hide in your mouth. Not that I would.)
I’ll second this. The limitation is not on the number of folders, or number of files particularly, but the space taken up by the root directory IIRC, so the length of file and folder names will affect this.
With my 512 meg RCA mp3 player, I’ve gotten into the habit of always creating new subfolders every time I load new music onto this, partly to get around this problem. Note that if you’ve gotten to this point, you will not be able to create a subfolder in the root directory without erasing some of your photos (or moving them back to another drive.)
Reformatting to FAT32 may work as well, I’ve never tried that.