Is formatting the CF card often good?

I try to make it a habit to dump my cards as often as possible and format them...is this a good practice? Is formatting the cards once every 2 weeks on average good or bad?

thanks
-Tamas

What are you trying to accomplish? Quick Formatting a card doesn't check the card for errors or actually delete the data on the card, it just marks all the space as free. So if you simply want to quickly dump all the data on a card, formatting works just fine, but it won't get you any more than that.

I format every time I download the card.

manutd101 wrote in post #6065519
I format every time I download the card.

Likewise. Reformat in the computer to leave them all clean and shiny and ready for use in whichever camera I need one in next.

Jon wrote in post #6065545
Likewise. Reformat in the computer to leave them all clean and shiny and ready for use in whichever camera I need one in next.

Do you have a Mac? I don't know how to format on one, so I just do it on the camera.

manutd101 wrote in post #6065575
Do you have a Mac? I don't know how to format on one, so I just do it on the camera.

You use the Disk Utility to format them in a Mac.

Formatting won't harm your card, but to get the full service use low level formatting once in a while, it will check your card for bad sectors and will erase the data (actually erase the data) so nobody can make bad use of the pictures in it should you missplace the card. ^_^

awesome...thanks for the info so I guess it's neither harmful nor helpful

Well... a lot of low level formatting will actually wear your card a leeeettle every time, so use it once in a while.
Other than that is just a quick way to completely erase a card, specially if you only erase/format in camera
Cheers ^_^

I always let the camera format the card after I've downloaded the photos. That way there's no chance that Windows will put some incompatible format on it.

Modern CF cards can take something silly like a million write cycles (from memory, looked up on wikipedia a while ago), so don't worry about that wtr full formats. I format in-camera, I don't bother on the PC, and i've never had a problem. I only use Sandisk cards.

Mark_Cohran wrote in post #6065713
You use the Disk Utility to format them in a Mac.

Thanks. So here's a question for y'all: do you usually format on the camera or in the computer?

manutd101 wrote in post #6066722
Thanks. So here's a question for y'all: do you usually format on the camera or in the computer?

Yes

DAMphyne wrote in post #6067111
Yes

Hehe, nice.

Formatting a card doesn't really make any difference. It doesn't matter if you just cut the images, copy paste and delete the images, or copy paste and then format the card. Result is the same, It makes no difference, as long as you do delete the images somehow from the card and the space is marked free on the card.