Sram cards question

I have collected a nice 110, this was supplied with 3 Sram cards.

At first, none of those cards were recognized, all but one battery cell was flat.

i removed the dead batteries, cleaned the connectors pins and had another try, this time the cards showed (i was asked to format first, but worked)

The problem is, each time i remove a card from the MessagePad and put it back... i am been asked to format the card again, loosing everything is saved.

Is this normal, or did i miss something ?