CF Card Formating

[Gary Modick]

Will someone please explain to me why the DSLR manufacturers say you must format a CF Card before using it. What happens if you do and what happens if you don't?

I'm from the "old school, film" and I've had to jump into digital with both feet when my company changed over to digital.

[Swampy]

I don't think I've had to format a CF card yet (5 cards running so far). I just popped them in the S2 and they were there, empty and ready to go.

Put them in the camera and format them isn't going to hurt them though. When I'm done with a card, that's exactly how I clear them. I put the card back in the camera (because I use a CF Card reader to do my transfers and not the camera), hit play, wait for a pic to come up, hit the menu/ok button and select format and ok. No problems.

[Markraw]

Hi Gary,

You normally don't have to format a card. Sometimes, however, the file system gets corrupted and there isn't a file system on the card anymore and therefore, no images can be written onto it. In this case, you need to format the card. It's better to have a card reader (PMCIA for laptops or USB for desktops) and format the card on your PC. Make sure you use FAT (which is actually FAT 16) and not FAT 32 (which the S2 doesn't support). Use regular format and not "quick." I reformat my cards as soon as I'm finished downloading the images from them. That way I'm sure there is no fragmentation on the card and it is nice and fresh for a new shoot.

Cheers,

Mark