re-format or delete CF card.

[gtirman]

I have 20x 4gb CF cards brim ful of images that i no longer require [i saved them all to my HDD and to DVD ]and i was wondering how best and easiest to delete all the images.......by....

Reformatting them: Does continual re-formatting harm the card?

OR

Select and delete each individual raw and jpeg image? [there are alot of images and this sounds very time consuming ]

Any tips chasps ?

[GeoffWessex]

I came across some advice, only a couple of days ago, that strongly recommended Formatting cards regularly. I can't remember where I saw it but I just had a quick search and found the same advice from PCWorld on this page.

[Cathus]

I reformat my cards in camera after I have uploaded the contents to the PC, it only takes seconds.

[OldBoy]

Very seldom do I format cards. I use to use the move option in WindowsXP, which deleted the images from the card, but Vista doesn't have that option, so I use cut and paste which does the same thing.

When you format a card in the camera, all you are doing is deleting the File Allocation Table, called the Fat file for short, and not the image files themselves. This is why file recovery software can recover them, as the images are still there.

You don't have to delete each image, just select the folder they are in and delete that, and all reference to those files will be deleted from the FAT file. Reformatting doesn't harm the card, as all you are doing is clearing the FAT file.

[hssutton]

I've always formatted my cards since buying my first digital DSLR Canon D30 at the end of 2000, I still have my old cards from then and they work perfectly, but as I can only get 2-3 images per card when used on the 7D these old cards are now used on my daughters old Minolta Diamage 7.

I see Cathus mentions he only formats via the camera. As part of my workflow for the past 10 years I've always formatted via the PC.

[nick_gray]

Originally Posted by OldBoy

Very seldom do I format cards. I use to use the move option in WindowsXP, which deleted the images from the card, but Vista doesn't have that option, so I use cut and paste which does the same thing.

OldBoy,

If you mean the 'move to folder' option when right clicking a file or folder, there is a way to bring it back in Vista and Windows 7, detailed here http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...ht-click-menu/. I've successfully done it with my Windows 7.

[donoreo]

Originally Posted by hssutton

I see Cathus mentions he only formats via the camera. As part of my workflow for the past 10 years I've always formatted via the PC.

I have seen it recommended in several places (including I think this website and both magazines it supports as well as other photo mags) to format in camera.

[Cathus]

when you delete files you are not deleting them, merely deleting the index for them so you can recover them the same way with recovery software, similar to reformatting, it's just that a quick reformat utilises different software.

I always used to just delete them in the card reader once I'd dragged them on to the PC. I started reformating the card each time because I read somewhere that reformating in the hardware which is used to write to the card is better than reformatting on one system & using it in another as each piece of hardware has its own foibles, I can't recall the exact details now.

[OldBoy]

Originally Posted by nick_gray

OldBoy,

If you mean the 'move to folder' option when right clicking a file or folder, there is a way to bring it back in Vista and Windows 7, detailed here http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windo...ht-click-menu/. I've successfully done it with my Windows 7.

Thanks for the info. Can't understand why Microsoft removed it.

[KeithT]

I always reformat in-camera. Apparently it's better for the life of the card.