Format Cards to FAT or FAT32?

[scottie]

Just curious if I should format the SD cards for my D40 to FAT or FAT32, or something else? On my XP machine it dafults to FAT for the format option and on my Vista machine it defaults to FAT32. I am unclear as to the difference between the two and what I should be choosing when formating my cards for my D40.

 

[seashoreCM]

FAT (FAT16) has some limitations on total usable storage capacity that the more modern FAT32 overcomes. There are a few other idiosyncrasies with FAT too but that does not really affect digital camera usage.

I suggest doing the formatting in the camera as opposed to in the PC. Do a camera "low level" format (if offered) to start with and again every third time after you empty the card onto your PC. Most likely the camera does not tell you whether it is FAT or FAT32 in which case you should accept what the camera gives you.

Digital camera hints: http://www.cockam.com/digicam.htm

 

[blackjackdelta]

Agree with the above, always format in the camera.

Jack

 

[JR6ooo4]

Agree with the above, always format in the camera.

Jack

Format in your camera, then check out what it did on the PC. Just so you know.

Mikeeee

 

[Groucho]

Generally, 2G cards are formatted in FAT format, and 4G and larger cards are formatted FAT32.

If you format your 2G or smaller card in FAT32, your camera may not be able to read it (if it can't handle SDHC cards.)

 

[ssanders79]

Just let your camera do the work. I never format my cards on my laptop. I prefer to let the camera do what it wants.

 

[OctMtnWoods]

I delete my pics from the card by doing a low level format EVERY TIME in the camera. Been doing it that way for years. Its just the way I do it & have the camera set up.

Why the advice to do it every 3rd time? Am I doing something bad doing it too often? Multiple cards & cameras & never had a problem. Knock on wood. And I delete / format after each move to PC after each outting. I don't wait for lots of pics on card.

 

[seashoreCM]

Anecdotal (perhaps rumoral) evidence has it that not doing low level formatting increases the chance of a memory card corruption that causes pictures to be lost. (Low level formatting on the spot then fixes things except for recovering the pictures!) Low level formatting more often won't hurt but at least after every three emptyings (uploadings) should be safe.

 

[blackjackdelta]

I delete my pics from the card by doing a low level format EVERY TIME in the camera. Been doing it that way for years. Its just the way I do it & have the camera set up.

Why the advice to do it every 3rd time? Am I doing something bad doing it too often? Multiple cards & cameras & never had a problem. Knock on wood. And I delete / format after each move to PC after each outting. I don't wait for lots of pics on card.

I agree, the camera work the card. Format after each transfer, conditions the card.

Jack

 

[Groucho]

Just a minor technical point - formatting in the camera is not a low-level format. It's a "quick" format, and I'm pretty sure it's just overwriting the basic FAT table, boot sectors, etc. Heck, even your PC can't low-level-format modern hard drives, much less memory cards. That format is done at the factory, never to be redone.

You can "wipe" a memory card on your PC (write zeros to every sector), but there is no reason to unless you want to securely remove any data stored on there, and the card would be left unformatted at that point. There are a finite number of times your card can be written to, therefore it's not a good idea to do this unless you need to. (Similarly, don't bother trying to defrag a memory card.)

Of course, your memory card is just as likely to be corrupted after its first time in your PC as its 100th. However, if the data does get scrambled, the effects will be more evident as it is used more, hence the idea of formatting it every few times. The data does not scramble on its own, it will get damaged if the card is not removed properly. Windows is decent about removing external card readers but not so good at giving info about safely removing cards from internal card readers - you're stuck right-clicking the drive letter, selecting "Eject", and waiting a few seconds. There is no confirmation of when it's safe to remove the card or if there is still something writing to it.

Generally, as long as you eject it properly, you never need to reformat the card - but doing it regularly in the camera is pretty quick, safe, and easy insurance.

 

[boBQuincy]

I have always formatted my CF cards in the PC, using FAT16 (cards of 2GB and smaller) usually not using the quick format which as Groucho says does very little. I have never had a problem, ymmv.

When cameras started offering a low level format option (Rebel Xsi) I started formatting in the camera.

 

[safetymom]

Nikons sometimes give a CHA error. The recommended fix is to format the card in the computer, and then format in the camera.

Every now and then I follow the advice to format in the computer, then format in the camera. Haven't had any problems since I started doing this.

 

[FertilityDoc]

I agree with the other posters that you should let your camera do the formatting. I recently ran into a problem copying jpegs onto an SD card for my digital photoframe. Apparently the number of files allowed in the root directory for FAT and FAT32 formatted cards is different. I could only copy about 280 jpegs to the root directory on a 2 Gb card. There is a physical limit of 512 but it is diminished further by the number of characters in the filenames. After reformatting to FAT32, I was able to fit a larger a much larger number of file names. Good luck.