Formatting Memory Cards

pcg856 · April 13, 2009

I just recently purchased a D90 and have 2 8GB & 2 2GB memory cards,I used them in a FZ50 last, should I reformat them before I use them in D90? The 2GB cards were used for for mostly video.

williamting · April 13, 2009

You don't have to but it doesn't hurt. If you ever run into corruption problems later on you can always try a format to see if that solves the problem.

Matt Laur · April 13, 2009

Yes, reformat them in the camera you'll use them in. In fact, once you pull them out of the camera, and hook them up to your computer using a card reader (and have make appropriate backups of your transferred image files), don't trust that your computer hasn't corrupted the card's file system, and before you go to shoot again, format in your camera, again. Any time you're preparing to shoot something that matters, let the camera prep a nice clean file system on the card you'll be using. It only takes a second, and it's the best way to make sure you never lose a key shot to corrupt file system on the card.

steve_lantz · April 13, 2009

I agree with Matt. I never erase my files, I format the cards in the camera after I've uploaded the files. I also use a card reader, I don't upload directly from the camera.

peterblaise · April 13, 2009

.

SAFETY: I never format in-camera for a variety of reasons, one of which is the inability of the camera to do what Windows Explorer does so well: the ability to completely show me what's on the card first, hence the "ooops, deleted my uncopied photos" threads from people who think they copied photos off before reformatting, but hadn't yet. So, this is one reason I only clear my storage cards as part of an in-computer routine of

<ul>

</ul>

<ul>

<li>[2] verify, </li>

</ul>

<ul>

<li>[3] delete, </li>

</ul>

<ul>

<li>[4] check for errors, </li>

</ul>

<ul>

<li>[5] eject </li>

</ul>

-- always in that order, so if a card is outside my computer, I can shoot on it. All my camera ever does to a storage card is save pictures , the job it does best. My computer is best at inspecting and clearing storage, as in my routine above. My cameras never delete anything from a memory card, ever.

SPEED: Second reason is because in-camera formatting is for default "operating system" file allocation and cluster sizes, and that's fine for computer use, but for me, for photography, I care about shot-to-shot responsiveness in-camera, so I always format in-computer and select FAT/FAT16 for 2 GB cards and smaller, and I recommend selecting FAT16-equivalent cluster sizes -- 32 KB -- for larger storage cards formatted with FAT32 because (a) the card then responds up to 8 times more quickly and (b) I get more pictures on 'em.

<ul>

<li>[start], [Run], [Format D: /FS:FAT32 /A:32K], [Enter] </li>

</ul>

RELIABILITY: Third reason? Cards wear out, supposedly, so instead of rewriting everything, I delete old files and directories rather then rewrite a new file allocation table and directory over and over. I've never had a card wear out, but the manufacturers have a rating that says that supposedly they do, and they automatically move their allocation units around to avoid wearing out one bit path. So, I write as little as possible to accomplish my goals --

<ul>

<li>[1] saving pictures, and </li>

</ul>

<ul>

<li>[2] clearing only them out for next card use. </li>

</ul>

.

brodie_thomson · April 14, 2009

might as well format them

Matt Laur · April 14, 2009

Peter: New cards are so laughably inexpensive (compared to the cost of missing even one critical shot) that the many thousands of cycles needed to even approach used-induced failure of the card takes a distant back seat to the far more likely problem of FAT corruption from out-of-camera file system management. As for seeing what's on the card? If the only thing that writes data to the card IS the camera (which is as it should be) then there's no way you'll ever have any surprises. Likewise, it's far, far more likely that a computer could introduce malware (say, the conficker worm that's making rounds right now) onto the media in the course of managing the files than it is for someone to hack the camera's internal OS and cause the same to occur. So, I'll stick with my plan: when I know I've got copies of the files safe and sound in at least two places, and find that I need the card's space (though mind you, I have a dozen or more cards that I rotate through, since they cost about what a pizza costs), I let the camera do the work.

garydem · April 14, 2009

if you shot many pics without a problem, you got lucky. are you going to stay lucky?

BUT what happens on that trip to hawaii that you spent 2 weeks and $10000 on and THAT is when the card fails since you did not format.

my wife and i in the past have spent many weeks and a lot of money, not to mention about 100000 driving miles, taking pics at the national parks all over this country and canada. to take one of those trips with all the time and money involved then get home and find that i have no pics would be a disaster. the only way to get the pics again is to retake the trip. and all this just because i did not format the memory cards, no way. i put a far higher value on my images than to take that kind of a risk when it can eliminated for such a small expendature of effort.

the whole point of reformatting a memory card is not just to delete the images, but to make a new allocation table. without a fully functioning allocation table the card cannot even find the images even if they are there. or it may be unable to store any images. if the card is formatted in another camera or with the pc, THAT alocation table is not the one that your new camera uses and it may not work. or you could get lucky and it may work. but will you stay lucky? it is just not worth it to loose the images on that $10000 hawaii trip just because that is the time when the nonforatted does not work. it is far simpler to just formatt the card in the camera you use it in every time.

William Kahn · April 14, 2009

Absolutely, reformat the card in the camera. First, though, upload the images to your computer and check to make sure the upload is successful.

peterblaise · April 14, 2009

.

We all agree -- do what makes sense for us, what makes sense for our ability to manage our resources.

<ul>

<li>UNDERSTANDING FEATURES AND BENEFITS LEADS TO INFORMED CHOICES: </li>

</ul>

However, we may not even be aware of what features and benefits are possible, let alone how accurate are our understanding and resulting fears, hence the opening poster's inquiry about a new area of technology not familiar to them yet. For instance:

<ul>

<li>How many of us knew that reformatting does not remove image data? (versus those of us who believe that "... the whole point of reformatting a memory card is ... to delete the images ... " since the images are still there after reformatting. Reformatting only clears the directory and file allocation table listings, but does not clear the image data off the card.) </li>

</ul>

<ul>

<li>How many of us knew that different cluster sizes dictate write cycles and responsiveness in-camera, by as much as a factor of 8x faster or slower? </li>

</ul>

I'm not saying the awareness of new information necessarily dictates new choices, but at least awareness enhances our opportunity to make and confirm appropriate choices, and to eliminate choices made in error and in unreasonable fear.

<ul>

<li>MANAGING (REAL AND IMAGINED) RISKS: </li>

</ul>

I have no risk for a Internet virus hopping to my storage cards during image data transfer because my prime imaging computer is not on the Internet, and even when I do engage an Internet-connected computer, I am well protected from invasion by my own informed behavior and by active automated defenses. I am not worried about viruses to the point of making bad, self-compromising decisions that limit my photographic resources.

Conversely, I am worried enough to raise my level of savvy and control to get what I want without insurmountable risk. Some people may never drive because roadways are so risky, preferring mass transit; I choose to have good tires, brakes, shocks, steering, and safety belts. and so on. I may have an accident on occasion, but I reap the benefits of travelling a lot more with a car than without, and that's valuable to me. Same with camera gear choices.

<ul>

<li>STANDARD OPERATING SYSTEMS: </li>

</ul>

I have no worry over different operating file allocations because all cameras that can handle more than 2 gb already have multiple file allocation "rules" inside their brains (FAT/FAT12/FAT16/FAT32), and I am not introducing something non-native to these cameras by formatting my storage cards in-computer. Format a little 512 KB storage card and a large 8 GB storage card in our camera and you'll see that our camera already has native capabilities to handle a variety of FAT standards. This standard technology is ancient by computer standards -- at least 10 years of proven reliability and compatibility. The reason our computers can read our camera formatting is because it's not camera formatting, it's standard formatting. Same same. So our cameras can read standard formatting because it's not custom computer formatting that's foreign to our camera, but because it's standard formatting that is native to our camera. "Luck " has nothing to do with it interoperability.

<ul>

<li>WHAT'S ON THAT CARD (BEFORE WRITING OVER IT)?: </li>

</ul>

I also note the logic gap in presuming that because all that my cameras ever do is write images to a storage card, that they are the only thing that writes to a storage card. They are not. My computers also write to storage cards, frequently with non-image data that the camera cannot show me is there. Sometimes I transfer programs on a storage card, which is easier than USB flash drives for me. The camera will not show me program updates destined for the camera itself or for another computer, nor will the camera show me large word processing documents being transferred from office to home on the storage card.

Also, one camera tends to not display image files from other cameras, so, attempted in-camera review of storage contents before in-camera formatting is the blind leading the blind , and reformatting in-camera is risky for me for this reason. This is why I have cameras only write to storage cards, but one camera, or any camera, may not be the only source of writing!

If we only have one camera write to a storage card, then we have reduced our risk of deleting unseen data to an acceptable level for us, I suppose. Yet our camera still has no way of showing us absolutely everything we are about to remove from the table of contents and that we are about to risk overwriting when reformatting in-camera. But now we know the risks. (PS - Many new storage cards come with free data-recovery programs that we probably should copy before reformatting the new card, or we loose the valuable freebie from the supplier. It's not even us as the only writer to our storage cards -- the maker may have written something on our storage card for us!)

<ul>

<li>WHEN TO CHECK IF A CARD IS WORKING: </li>

</ul>

I have no idea what the cost of a vacation means to the decision to format in-camera, nor can I imagine how "... the card fails since you did not format ... ". My point is that the camera does not know nor care where the card is formatted, so I DO format, but I format in-computer using my informed choices of available standard format patterns.

"... to take one of those trips with all the time and money involved then get home and find that i have no pics would be a disaster ... " Agreed -- so download/offload daily while on vacation. Used portable laptop computers with loads of storage space start at $99. Why wait 'til you get home? Take a backup system with you.

Daily, I download data from storage cards to my traveling laptop, and also upload that data to my Flickr stream so I have at least a JPG copy off-computer before reusing a storage card. On-line backup services are also available -- use some form of duplicate backup before clearing the table of contents of a storage card! I also make an off-computer backup to a USB hard drive before deleting the master listing from the storage card. And, of course, the images are still on the storage card until overwritten, so on occasion, I have recovered images from a "blank" card while searching for an otherwise lost image.

"... take that kind of a risk ... " what risk? None of this fear has anything to do with where a storage card was formatted -- the card and the camera do not know nor care. And why wait to get home to check if a card has worked at all? THAT is not a risk I would take.

<ul>

<li>CHOICES, INFORMED OR NOT, MAY BE DIFFERENT FOR EACH OF US: </li>

</ul>

I'm not advocating anything but greater accuracy in understanding what's going on in our cameras and computers, to understand that they are here to support us, not to be our masters, and that we can design appropriate routines of our own choosing that match our needs and preferences. Rather than knee-jerk accepting handed-down superstition to "always format in-camera" and so on, now we all now know that if we want alternative safety, speed, and reliability, we can design your own system of capture, transfer, and clearing, and be less afraid to explore alternative ways of making the tools do our bidding reliably.

<ul>

<li>OUR CARD IS READY, WILLING, AND ABLE TO CAPTURE THE NEXT IMAGE ... WHEN? </li>

</ul>

While I appreciate the fear of loosing the chance to capture a rare imaging opportunity, I hope I have enhanced our understanding that those situations my arrive immediately after a previous shot , and if we were to only select an alternative format routine, our cameras might reduce the next-shot delay to as much as 1/8th the current delay between shots, and all this enhanced responsiveness my be available simply by formatting our cards differently. Cool. If this is not valuable, don't use it, and instead wait to take the next shot ... if the opportunity is still there, patiently waiting for our cameras to take up to 8 times longer to finish writing the previous shot!

.

garydem · April 14, 2009

if you format a memory card and then open in the pc you will find nothing. does this mean that the card is empty? no. it means that all areas of the card are available for storage and the allocation table will show what was recorded on the different areas of the card meaning nothing. but if you do not record any new data after a format is the old pics still there on the card? yes. until you record over them, THEN they are gone. so if you think that you desperately need the pics and have reformatted then do not record anything to the card, but instead use a image data program to retrieve the images before you reformat.

please note deletion does not mean removal to memory cards. old pics are really gone if you record over the same area on the card.

huperetes · April 14, 2009

I caution formating cards outside of the intended device, and forcing various cluster sizes.

The implementation of formating can and does vary from system to system, OS to OS. Cameras have their own OS.

Erasing and writing onto flash memory works very differently compared to hard disk drives. Flash memory must erase a whole block first before write. Flash memory can only erase whole blocks. Most flash memory cards are 128KB blocks or bigger.

Flash cards do wear out.

There is wear leveling and error correction built into most flash memory cards today (translation layer). The block/cluster size at formating becomes moot, as the on-board intelligence moves the whole or parts of a specific flash memory blocks (and not the formated blocks).

One loses little by formating the flash card in the device, but can save a bucket of aspirin later.

Formating, and in the intended device (camera) is a prudent procedure .

If you want to get very technical read Robin Harris's StorageMojo blog.

Just my two pence.

pcg856 · April 14, 2009

Thanks for the replies,so the best way to do this is too upload to my pc using my card reader,then put the card back(WITHOUT DELETEING PHOTOS) in camera and reformat the card for my next shots.

peterblaise · April 14, 2009

.

Peter, there is no "best" way, only whatever makes you feel comfortable that your needs are met. If you want to develop (pun) a routine where you know the image files have been copied before blanking the card for reuse ("erasing", which reformatting also accomplishes), find a routine that s flawless for you, where you are confident you are not reformatting a card that has not been copied yet.

We've explored choices and reasons to format in-camera and in-computer, and reasons to format one way or another, mathematically. Now you have choices. If you ever need more, ask away -- we're here for you.

----------

John, from the camera's and computer's point of view, the storage card is a "drive" -- RAS Random Access Storage. How the card manages itself internally is absolutely out of the camera's or computer's programming resources.

.

huperetes · April 14, 2009

Peter G, that sounds like a good plan.

Add some backup cards, and spread the shots across multiple cards if concerned about failure.

mendel_leisk · April 15, 2009

FWIW, I consistantly: Pull the card, put into card reader, copy over via Windows Explorer, verify no problems via Adobe Camera Raw, back up to a second internal hard drive, right-click the card "drive" in Windows Explorer and FAT format. Right-click the card once more and choose "Eject". No issues to date.

Larry_G1664882113 · April 18, 2009

In my view, memory cards should be formatted after each shooting. As soon as the images are on the computer, CD, storage device, or what ever you are using, I'd format the card. I personally find the 2GB cards more than adequate even when shooting in camera RAW. I also recommend really high quality cards like the SanDisk Extreme III. I'd rather load up two cards than one huge one. Cards can become corrupted, and you can lose your images, so get the stuff off as soon as possible, and try not to rely on one large card.

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Formatting Memory Cards

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