Sandisk CF Card Issue

[scottycam]

I have two 1GB Sandisk Ultra II cards that I use. I removed pictures from both cards. One shows that I have 223 pictures left with 97MB available and 37MB used. The second card shows 102 pictures left with 449MB available and 527MB used. Does anyone know why this could be? I'm not sure how long this has been going on but just noticed it today when the card got filled up faster than usual. I suppose I can format and see what happens but figured that I ask first.

Thanks!!

[SHULTSIE!!!]

How exactly did you remove your photos? I used to clear/delete all, until I ran into the same problem you're having now. Reformatting them will get you back to a clean slate.

[scottycam]

I remove them by just transferring them via the card reader. Any idea what the used space could be?

[SHULTSIE!!!]

To be honest, I don't know what the left over data is. I use a 4gB Extreme IV... it got as far as having about 1/4 of it's capacity left before I finally started formatting my card. There's a thread similar to this that was posted just recently. There's a few more people that are quite knowledgeable about this thing.

Edit:
Here's that thread I was talking about. I read through it... didn't find anything about that left over data.
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=382864&highlight=formatting+cf+cards

[scottycam]

Yeah, def weird. I'll try to do some research and see what else I can find. I'll let you know.. Thanks Justin....

-T

[modemanual]

usually i format my cards after i unload them, it reduces on errors in the card probably.

[PhotosByEric]

I remove them by just transferring them via the card reader. Any idea what the used space could be?


When I transfer I have to click a button on the import screen for whether or not I want the card reader to delete the photos.

So for me just because I import the pics to my comp doesn't mean the pics are off the card.

Once I'm done importing I check to make sure they all improted correctly and then I put the CF back in the camera and format the card, there by erasing all the images on the card.

Eric

[scottycam]

yeah, I went ahead and formatted the card in-camera and it is back to normal. However, being the way that I am, I'm curious to see what the hidden files could be. I can't see the card structure being 500 or so MBs. 37MB for that is understandable...

Thanks everyone for their input!!

-T

[WMWARD2]

Scotty,

When you delete a file, some data is retained to recover a file if needed.

If you format a CF card, it gets rid of all data.

[Jon]

Scotty,

When you delete a file, some data is retained to recover a file if needed.

If you format a CF card, it gets rid of all data.
Not so. All deleting a file does is change the first character of its directory entry to mark that space empty, and the first link of the file's FAT entry to mark the space available. The actual data hasn't been touched. When you reformat the card, the root directory and FAT are overwritten. The subdirectories and the file's actual data haven't been touched. You can still recover the files. But because you wiped the root directory and the FAT, when you start to reuse the card there aren't any stray subdirectories hanging around helping to use up storage space and leave you a fragmented disk.