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how to delete pictures all at once from a memory card?


tara_ratliff

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<p>Or scroll through the menu to the 1st menu under the 3rd symbol at the top, the forward arrow to the right of "AF". The 3rd item down is "Erase images"; hit the set button and it will give 3 choices, including "erase all images". Go to that, hit the set button and the display will show them being quickly erased. Then when you press the arrow button on the left hand side of the back of the camera that is to display an image on the LCD, you will get "No image".</p>

<p>I also erase all images on the card(s) after I am sure they have been downloaded to the computer.</p>

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<p>That<em> is</em> old school. I don't suppose there is any harm in it though.</p>

<p>Yes, formatting the card is about eighteen times faster than any other 'delete all' commands. It takes (my) camera ~ 1-1.5 seconds even for full 32gb cards. The last time I used the 'delete all' command, it took it about 15min (though on a slower camera).</p>

<p>Should note that formatting does not erase the card, in laymens terms it simply 'reallocates' the space, and lets the card tell the camera that all that space is now free to be used again, simply 'forgetting' where it put all your originals - no dif in performance between that and a truly 'clean' card of course, and I don't recall if 'erase all images' does the same, but I like being able to recover the images that are <em>not</em> overwritten (by new pictures) with appropriate software, should my computer (and backup drive) unexpectedly explode.</p>

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<p>I prefer to format the card in the camera, rather than when connected to the PC.</p>

<p>Also, I don't format the card (or erase any images from it) until I have copied all the images to both my PC <em>and</em> my back-up drive.</p>

<p>Technically, a format rewrites the file allocation table, while deleting any/all images simply marks each file as deleted within the table.</p>

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<p>On my two Canon cameras, the A590is P&S and the T2i, there's an option to "low level" format the card. I believe that does completely erase the card, not just delete all the files. I tried running Recuva after a low level format, and it couldn't find anything on the card.</p>

<p> </p>

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  • 2 weeks later...

<p>To render unreadable you could copy an equivalent size block of random data or nulls (00) onto the car.<br>

In Linux you'd use dd <br>

Then format it in the camera to make it ready for use again.</p>

<p>What pattern does an unused CF card from the manufacturer have before it has been used at all? On some hard drives this used to be DEADBEEFDEADBEEF . You might choose to copy the relevant pattern to the card and drop it in a pocket with some bits of wrapping, if your requirement for erasure is more extreme than most. <br>

Formatting 3 times is I think only going to be convincingly better for magnetic rotating storage media.</p>

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