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Erasing CF Cards on D200?


jwallphoto

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I just got Lightroom, in part, to replace PictureProject, which I got with a D40. I've

since bought a used D200 that didn't come with any downloading software, so I

was still using PP. Anyway, in Lightroom you can't check a box to delete the

photos from the card after downloading them. Is there a quick and easy way to

erase the card myself after downloading?

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It's best to reformat the card in the camera. That clears out all images and directories, including those which you might have added with the computer (e.g., deletion protection).

 

First, though, make sure the images are not corrupted and are backed up on CD's or DVD's in addition to the hard drive before clearing the memory card. Whatever you might think of DVD's (they're archival in my opinion), they can't be accidently erased and withstand considerable physical abuse.

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Just as long as you don't use re-writable ones ;-) They are the curse of the planet, mainly because there are so many different formats and they all seem to have propriatory software to read and re-write. Complete waste of time and money and very dangerous archivally speaking. Write once is THE way to go especially with the specialist 'Long Life' gold discs.
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CD-RW's are OK to a point. You can erase the entire disc but not individual files, nor can you alter files. The only time you need proprietary software is to emulate floppy discs, which is a bad idea at best. If you corrupt a file when adding to such a disc, the entire contents can be lost.

 

CD-RW's (and CD-R's) are best written disc-at-once, wherein all discs and burners use the same standardized instruction sets. You can write with nearly any software package and read them on any CD-ROM reader interchangeably. CD-RW's have an excellent signal-to-noise ratio the first time they are written. Unfortunately, the SNR drops considerably after erasure and the error rate increases 10-fold. With write-once CD-Rs costing pennies, there's no compelling reason to use RW's.

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At Nikon you can download Nikon Transfer and View NX for downloading and viewing your pix on the computer. I should never use an option as "delete after download', but format the card myself after I had confirmed that the pix were on the HDD. DVDs are a not so handy back-up medium: at least you need 1 DVD per CF card(2GB), so you have a load of DVDs and a catalogue system. DVDs sometimes loose there info after a few years. I prefer 2 external HDDs: 1 for the pics and 1 for the back-ups.
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Thanks for all info, everyone. I've actually never reformatted a card in-camera.... I use 2 externals as Hans mentions, but I only back up those images I convert to TIFF format, which means all my NEFs are on one drive. I should probably think about archiving those to DVDs....
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John,

 

You never formatted in camera? I recommend that you get ALL your CF Cards, and as a matter of habit Re-Format before every use. This will allow a native habitat for your new images that is clear of all un-needed electronic distractions and files.

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John, on the D200, you hold down BOTH the trash pail button and the mode button

(both labelled format in red) for a few seconds until the display blinks "For". Then you

click the buttons again, and bam...you're done. Card is formatted with no fuss, no

muss.

 

I do this every time I put a card into the camera.

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