Why reformat?

[C.S.I.]

Silly question, Im sure .... but why is it a necessity to reformat a card after every shoot? Why cant you just erase the images, then proceed with your next set (as Ive been doing up until now 2+ years)?

Sorry if this has been discussed, I did a quick forum search and found nothing specific.

Thanks in advance,
Bill

[BrianEE93]

I don't know if it really matters that much. A CF has a certain number of writes it can take before failure. This number is very high and most people probably wouldn't ever reach it. The way I understand it is that if you erase all images you are writing more to the card as compared to formating which just basically tells the card it is empty with a quick command.

[mgbeach]

I'm not sure that one method is that much better than the other, but on my rebel the format command on a 1GB card takes about 5 sec. versus a little more than a minute to erase all.

[Halliday]

Because it's easier :)Like was just posted, time. It takes under 5 seconds to reformat a 1gig card on my 10D, 20-30 seconds to erase it.

[Leorooster]

Not 100% certain ..., but if you keep erasing images before the card is full, the images would always be written on the same spot of the card, which will somewhat adversely affect the life of the card.

[Citizensmith]

I always cut (ctrl-x) my photos from the card, effectively moving them and deleting them at one time. Never had anything go wrong in about 4 years of doing. Don't find any particular need to reformat.

[deedas]

I don't see how it could be easier. I have to go into menu, scroll down to format, etc, etc, when you could just press the trash button and choose erase all. Sure it takes longer to erase all the pictures but it probably takes just as long to get to the format option. At least this is true for me on my 20D.

I do reformat the card about once a week, to avoid any snafus.

[RichardtheSane]

Fragmentation of files.

Potentially by simply erasing the files on the disk and writing over them again files may become fragemented on the disk. This can lead to slower access times/write times and also should any data corruption occur it could be more costly in the number of images lost...

[ScottE]

I don't see how it could be easier. I have to go into menu, scroll down to format, etc, etc, when you could just press the trash button and choose erase all. Sure it takes longer to erase all the pictures but it probably takes just as long to get to the format option. At least this is true for me on my 20D.

I do reformat the card about once a week, to avoid any snafus.

I always have my 20D set so it returns to the last function used when I last accessed the menu. This is almost always either Custom Functions or Format, which are right beside each other. There is certainly not much scrolling. I find this much quicker than Erase.

I avoid using erase very much because I understand it can leave file fragments on the card that can either waste space or interfere with other files.

Scott

[FlyingPete]

Fragmentation of files.

Potentially by simply erasing the files on the disk and writing over them again files may become fragemented on the disk. This can lead to slower access times/write times and also should any data corruption occur it could be more costly in the number of images lost...

Fragmentation doesn't cause any issues on a solid state device, as the performance hit from fragmentation is caused by head movements; however file systems have a habit of deteriorating over time (why you should regularly run check disks on your PC’s hard disk), especially when filled almost to capacity. FAT16 & FAT32 (as used by Canon Cameras) are particularly prone to corruption of the file table over time; the most obvious sign of this is loss of free space, and then file loss/corruption.

You can combat this by running a check disk on the CF cards, or simply reformat the card in the camera.

[C.S.I.]

Fragmentation doesn't cause any issues on a solid state device, as the performance hit from fragmentation is caused by head movements; however file systems have a habit of deteriorating over time (why you should regularly run check disks on your PC’s hard disk), especially when filled almost to capacity. FAT16 & FAT32 (as used by Canon Cameras) are particularly prone to corruption of the file table over time; the most obvious sign of this is loss of free space, and then file loss/corruption.

You can combat this by running a check disk on the CF cards, or simply reformat the card in the camera.


Thank you all...... this seems like a good enough explanation to me to start hitting the menu button:rolleyes:

[pierrot]

FAT16 & FAT32 (as used by Canon Cameras) are particularly prone to corruption of the file table over time
You're right. Next generation will have NTFS, for sure! :mrgreen:

[BoySpot]

Not sure if this is a real benefit or not but I did read that formatting identifies any bad parts of the disk and excludes them from use. According to the theory, this prevents the camera trying to write to bad sectors. Could be rubbish but I have always formatted and they have been fine. It is really quick, as well!

[penguins_rock]

Not 100% certain ..., but if you keep erasing images before the card is full, the images would always be written on the same spot of the card, which will somewhat adversely affect the life of the card.
Not actually true with modern solid state storage (at least the well manufactured ones); they will automagically write with a randomization schedule to provide the longest useful life of each cell, and ultimately the card. It is quite probable for that to happen with other media (HD's, floppies, ZIP, et cetera) and FAT FAT16 or FAT32...a little harder with the flavors of NTFS.

p.s. sorry, I think this is my first post here...been lurking a couple weeks and finally found something I actually know a little about :-) Learning tons here from everyone, thanks!

[deedas]

I just wish my camera used hfs+ ;)