How often to format memory cards?

[acer0001]

Bill - there seems to be something wrong with the link. Getting a 500 internal server error.

[suzyjazz]

I reformat every time. Why? Because it is SO much faster than deleting everything. ON a 2 GB card it makes a difference.

[petert]

Originally Posted by Bill

Here is Rob Galbraith's take on CompactFlash card lifespan at

Correcting the link:
http://www.robgalbraith.com/bins/mul...e.asp?cid=6007

or

link

[Bill]

Thanks for dropping the : that got caught in the url, Peter. I've corrected it in my post, above, too.

[jumpinminnow]

[QUOTE=brad]
In other words, there is no real difference between formatting a card and deleting everything.

QUOTE]

I just came upon this thread last night. I reffered to my KM manual and they don't address a regualr reformat at all, but I intend to start especially as I share cards between camera models. I'm curious though if there's no difference between deleting and reformatting then why are images recoverable after deleting but not after reformatting? It seems to me some data has to be left behind in order to recover it.

[brad]

Data is still available after reformatting .. unless you do a low level format... and even then, its still possible.

[snidow]

Originally Posted by johnastovall

I reformat my cards as soon as I've copied all the images to the mac and burned two back up DVD's.

Same here except for the mac, still on a pc.

[Vernon Theis]

My routine:

1. Pics to hard drive.
2. Pics to DVD within minutes of #1.
3. Format in camera. Never before #2.
4. Monthly all go to external HD kept off site.

Anybody know the answer to the real question asked.....does the cycle of write/delete/write/delete/write/delete .................a plethora of times make it any more likely that data storage or reteival failure occur due to the fragmentation that ocurrs???

I suspect not.

Is this all academic and of no consequence?

[brad]

Originally Posted by Vernon Theis

Anybody know the answer to the real question asked.....does the cycle of write/delete/write/delete/write/delete .................a plethora of times make it any more likely that data storage or reteival failure occur due to the fragmentation that ocurrs???

I suspect not.

Is this all academic and of no consequence?

I think that the answer to the orignal question is "Yes" .. but I think the number of times it has to happen is large enough that it won't be an issue within most camera's lifetime.

[AndrewC]

[QUOTE=jumpinminnow]

Originally Posted by brad

In other words, there is no real difference between formatting a card and deleting everything.

QUOTE]

I just came upon this thread last night. I reffered to my KM manual and they don't address a regualr reformat at all, but I intend to start especially as I share cards between camera models. I'm curious though if there's no difference between deleting and reformatting then why are images recoverable after deleting but not after reformatting? It seems to me some data has to be left behind in order to recover it.

So when you do an in camera format all you are actually doing is deleting a small file on the card called a FAT or File Allocation Table that lists where all the data for each file is on the card. Kind of like throwing away the index for a collection. Until you write something new over those locations the data is still valid and a file recovery program can probably find it and stitch it back together through some cunning algorithms. If you delete images you are telling the FAT to treat those storage areas as empty. Again they are "safe" until something new is written over the top.

[brad]

Right, Andrew.

When it comes to hard drives, there are "formatting" utilities out there that will physically write a 0 to every bit on the drive... but that seems like overkill for a CF card. :)

[AndrewC]

Originally Posted by brad

Right, Andrew.

When it comes to hard drives, there are "formatting" utilities out there that will physically write a 0 to every bit on the drive... but that seems like overkill for a CF card. :)

... and even repeatedly write 0's and 1's to completely clear vestigial magnetic memory for the truly paranoid. Personally I prefer a sledgehammer to completely render old hard drives unreadable. They are actually quite hard to kill :)