When i turn on my digital camera its saying i have to format my card.......?

I was using my digital earlier today and it was working fine. But now when I turn it on a 'Card is not Formatted'. What does that mean? How am I able to remove my pictures taken earlier today and download them to my comp. Its saying that all my pictures will be deleted. But I have wonderful pics on there....Someone please help

remove the memory card from the camera and plug into pc if you have the slot, or you may have to buy an external memory card slot that plugs directly into a usb port

the same thing happened to me i ask a technition and he said that you would have to buy another card but i formatted it anyway and my pictures were deleted and yours will be to sorry. and even if you dont you still cant see them so you kinda have no choice

Does anyone ever read their Owner's Manual and become familar with their camera before using it? Seems to me that would avoid a lot of problems.