This message may be one of the worst-worded communications of all time! It says that your Internal (or PC Card) memory is damaged, and gives you the option of formatting or canceling. To understand what's going on, you need to know how designs are stored in memory. Let's suppose we have 3 designs of different size, A, B and C. they might store something like this:

AAABBCCCC

Now let's delete design B, which leaves a gap in memory: AAA..CCCC

Next, add design D, which is bigger: AAADDCCCCDDDD

As you can see, this design is now fragmented into 2 parts. As you add and delete designs repeatedly, this process causes the memory to become more and more fragmented. Eventually nearly all the designs will be split into many small parts. When this happens, the MC10000 is supposed to detect it and advise you. In the case of the built-in memory, it's supposed to prompt for a PC Card to be inserted. The designs in memory will then be copied to the card, internal memory will be cleared, and then the saved designs will be copied back. In actual practice, this rarely happens. Instead you will get the Damaged warning. Sometimes choosing the Format option will correct the problem, but if it doesn't you can usually correct the problem with this procedure:

1. Copy all of the designs that you wish to save into a folder on your computer. (Menu option MemoryCraft -> Receive Designs). This must be done twice, first with the Use Open/Save Folder option unchecked, and again with it checked.

2. Delete all of the designs in memory. (Menu option MemoryCraft -> Delete Designs). This must be done twice, first with the Use Open/Save Folder option unchecked, and again with it checked.

3. Turn the machine off, then back on again. You should now be able to send designs to the machine without any error message.

In persistent cases, you can force the memory to be cleared by reloading the latest machine software update. Of course you will lose all saved designs, but there is no way to recover them once you get this error.

In the case of a Damaged Card message, when using a PC Card, the Format option usually does not work. You can try the procedure above, selecting the PC Card for each step instead of the Built-in memory. If you have the ability to read and write the PC Card in your computer, you can delete all files and folders from the card, after copying whatever you need to save. Remove the card from your computer and put it back in the sewing machine. Then replace the saved files, either by sending them through the cable or by copying them with the card in your computer.