Misc folders on my card

[Livinthalife]

Well I finally bought a card reader as MILLIONS of people here always say to do. Well when I put my card in, there are several folders with just nothing in them. Can I delete them? There is nothing in them, they arnt using any space, but it is quite annoying! What is the purpose of these folders? Thanks-

[PacAce]

If the folder names look like the folder than contains your current images, then you can delete them. They're left over from when the images you took before but have since deleted were stored there. You probably do a "Delete All" instead of a "Format" to clear your card, right? If you did a "Format", not only would it go faster but it'll also clean out those unused folders as well.

[Livinthalife]

ah, that makes sense, yea i do the clear all or erase all. I thought if you format the card in camera, then the counter would restart though. like my pics show up img1045.jpg or cr2. I dont want to start all the way over at one again.

[danedel]

Once, after a long day of shooting here in Denver I left my 1DMK2 in the trunk, with a card it, powered off. It got very, very cold that night -3 or something. Well we went out to dinner and a movie. The next day I took the card out and to my surprise in the root directory (where the DCIM folder is) there was a ton of images that I had take a long time ago. Something to do with the cold brought them back.

To further this, I always format my cards twice after use, something to do with my OCD...lol
I wasn’t really amazed to see the old images, because anyone knows, data isn’t gone until you write over a few times. Formating just erases the "link" if you will, to the file.

After that happened I wrote 4GB of useless program data on all my cards and formatted them, twice.

[PacAce]

Originally Posted by Livinthalife

ah, that makes sense, yea i do the clear all or erase all. I thought if you format the card in camera, then the counter would restart though. like my pics show up img1045.jpg or cr2. I dont want to start all the way over at one again.

formatting your card is not going to reset your sequence numbering. That only happens if you choose to do so via the menu.

[jlacoy82]

Originally Posted by PacAce

formatting your card is not going to reset your sequence numbering. That only happens if you choose to do so via the menu.

So the preferred method is to format via windows/your current OS?

[PacAce]

Originally Posted by jlacoy82

So the preferred method is to format via windows/your current OS?

Well, you can do that but you don't have to. I format the card in my camera. The only time I format the card on the computer is if i'm going to be switching the card from one camera to another. Switching cameras without formatting before hand tends to mess up the sequence numbering on one of the cameras. To prevent that, I just format the card in the PC first and then format the card in the camera (only because the 1D2 does not like cards formatted on the PC without formatting it in the camera, too).

[Jon]

Formatting in your computer will ensure that the card you insert into your camera is blank. It allows you to decide what disk structure (FAT16 or FAT32) you want to use. If you format in-camera, you'll get whatever the camera prefers (older cameras, such as my D60, don't support FAT32 - if your card is formatted FAT32, it won't recognize it). You'll also, in-camera, get the necessary directory structure created (although this happens whenever you insert a blank card into the camera). If you use multiple cameras, and don't want to bother with keeping your cards separate or messing up your numbering, always format in the computer before using the card. If you have only one camera, or don't care about keeping numbers straight, format either in computer or in camera - it doesn't matter. I always format my cards both in the computer and in the camera.

[jlacoy82]

So lets say theoretically I have 3 CF cards that will likely be swapped somewhat regularly in the camera. As long as the card is formatted (at least) by the camera before firing off some pictures, the numbering structure (shutter count) of the camera should stay correct?

[danedel]

The numbering is in the camera and has next to nothing to do with what way you format your card...I have a lot of cards! (1GB, 2GB and now two 4gb cards) also I have two SD cards (2GB) I have never had a numbering, sequence, reseting, naming issue to this day.

All cards will hold all my images, in order, on all cards at all times.

Weather you format the card in your computer or in your camera...
To me it’s a highly subjective topic

[Jon]

Originally Posted by jlacoy82

So lets say theoretically I have 3 CF cards that will likely be swapped somewhat regularly in the camera. As long as the card is formatted (at least) by the camera before firing off some pictures, the numbering structure (shutter count) of the camera should stay correct?

No; in fact just the opposite. If you insert a card into the camera,the first thing the camera does is look at the existing folder/frame number. If that's higher than the last frame number the camera has in its internal memory, it'll use the folder number's highest frame number. Formatting at that point merely clears the card, but will use the numbers pulled from the card. If the camera's number is higher than was on the card, then the camera frame number takes priority.

It's only if you reformat on a computer, thus wiping all old frame and folder information, that you can safely insert random cards into random cameras without messing up your frame counts.

[danedel]

Originally Posted by PacAce

(only because the 1D2 does not like cards formatted on the PC without formatting it in the camera, too).

I don’t format the cards in the camera for this reason...

Having a lot of cards...you have to categorize them some way I name them "card1, card2, card3" and so forth. I name them this in windows to that when I insert the card in my reader I know which one it is by the name that appears when I insert it.
Also I use a sharpie color marker to make identification easer (card1 is green, card2 is yellow, card3 is blue, card4 is red)

This also makes it a lot easier when you have a large shoot and you are trying to organize your shots (all of the reception was shot on cards 3-4 and images 5739-8734) Or you can just jot down (reception blue and red)

[Jon]

The 1D series are a special case, since you don't have to take the "stock" folder names those of us with "lesser" cameras have.

[danedel]

Originally Posted by Jon

No; in fact just the opposite. If you insert a card into the camera,the first thing the camera does is look at the existing folder/frame number. If that's higher than the last frame number the camera has in its internal memory, it'll use the folder number's highest frame number. Formatting at that point merely clears the card, but will use the numbers pulled from the card. If the camera's number is higher than was on the card, then the camera frame number takes priority.

It's only if you reformat on a computer, thus wiping all old frame and folder information, that you can safely insert random cards into random cameras without messing up your frame counts.

good point, never ran into this though...why would you ever put a card with images back into your camera? I guess in some desprate card space issue?

[danedel]

Originally Posted by Jon

The 1D series are a special case, since you don't have to take the "stock" folder names those of us with "lesser" cameras have.

I see, I see...now I get it.