# Is it necessary to format a CF card after every photo transfer?



## malkav41 (May 28, 2011)

Hi all, 

Being as I am new to the DSLR world, I was wondering if it was necessary to format my CF card after I transfer the photos to my computer. 

I downloaded some shots I took last night, and today I noticed that my D70s was showing [FOR] on the top LCD. When I pressed the playback button it stated that the card needed to be formatted. 

So, I guess what I want to know is, do I need to format everytime I download photos as I stated at the beginning?

Thanks in advance,
Ed


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## 480sparky (May 28, 2011)

I don't format after every transfer, but I format before every major shoot.


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## chaosrealm93 (May 28, 2011)

correct me if im wrong, but i think its one of those things where formatting too much will make it "die" faster...


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## usayit (May 28, 2011)

Does make sense although I have no facts.  I do know each area of a solid state disk has a life span specified in terms of number of writes.   It is the responsibility of the controller to "spread" those writes throughout the disk to prevent premature failure in a single location.   I would guess this is the same for these cards... assuming that each format writes to a specific location on the card (or the whole card) it just might cause them to fail early.


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## Overread (May 28, 2011)

Myself I typically keep my shots on the cards even after I've transffered them to the computer (it acts as a short term backup solution just incase anything goes wrong on the computer before I can backup the photos to another harddrive). Thus I tend to only delete all/format just before I need the card itself - though if going out for a shoot I'll also clean out all the cards (so in the field I can change cards fast without having to format them in the field).

Myself I typically formate each time I wipe the card, it just helps keep the card clean of building up dead space inside. The reason for format over delete is that delete doesn't actually delete the data, just removes the references to it (ergo restoration software can bring it back because it just has to find the info again) whilst formatting scrambles the data (sometimes you can get it back though with restoration software). 

Also never format outside of the camera, formate using the cameras own menu - that way the card is always formatted for the camera to use; some external format options will change the cards configuration which can confuse the camera.


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## 480sparky (May 28, 2011)

How can formatting a card 'wear it out' and 'make it die'?


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## usayit (May 28, 2011)

480sparky said:


> How can formatting a card 'wear it out' and 'make it die'?


 
As already mentioned, the speculation is that each format cycle results in writes to the card.   Non-volatile memory has a life span in terms of the number of writes.  The concern is that frequent format will shorten the life span thus "wear out".  The situation can be further aggravated if a format is continuously writing to a specific location on the card.


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## 480sparky (May 28, 2011)

I'd rather hear about facts instead of speculation.


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## usayit (May 28, 2011)

well.  of course.... Duh...  you got a better answer or response to contribute?


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## 480sparky (May 28, 2011)

Nothing man-made is permanent.  Format at your own risk.  You pays your money and you takes your chances.

Is that good enough for you?


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## usayit (May 28, 2011)

here is your question



480sparky said:


> How can formatting a card 'wear it out' and 'make it die'?



and your answer




480sparky said:


> Nothing man-made is permanent.  Format at your own risk.  You pays your money and you takes your chances.


 
your response exudes laziness with attitude.


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## 480sparky (May 28, 2011)

usayit said:


> here is your question
> 
> 
> 
> ...


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## Christer (May 29, 2011)

Well, the answer is YES, formating the card will eventually destroy it eventually. Although it is estimated that you can format them around 10 000 times. Which is plenty in a normal lifespan. 
The reason is simple - wear and tear. The SD-cards or what ever other form of digital storage device (analog storage device store information using magnetic fields) is made up of loads of electrical components (mainly transistors), when you use the card, the camera sends an electric charge through the circuit, telling the transistor to make a 1 or a 0 also know as active high or active low (which normally is 0 volts for a 0, and +5 volts for a 1 - but its most likely different for an SD card, as +5 volts seems like a lot to me) , which the camera can later read, and  will compile as an image. 

Whenever an electric charge is sent through the circuit, it creates heat, this is because  of resistance, even the small coper wire on a circuit board is not (what we might call) ideal, this means it doesn't measure 0 ohms (ohms is the measurement of resistance), which ideally would be the best, because that it wont create any heat, and it wont create any static/noise. If you heat up, and cool down something enough times, eventually it breaks. This is the equivalent of cutting the cable to your table lamp, and then trying to turn it on. 

This is quite possible also the reason why the camera is never completely switched off, (at least my camera isn't even when it is set to off - the LCD display is still on). This is  because when you turn on anything electrical, as soon as you hit that "on" button, there are sparks on the circuit board, if you're camera could cry and scream - this would be the time! So basically, the manufacture lets the camera trickle the battery really slowly, maybe draining 1µA/h or something, so that when you switch it on, its not as "painful". Which will result in a longer lifespan of your camera (as you avoid the excruciating painful resurrection of your camera every time you hit that on switch).


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## Formatted (May 29, 2011)

Lots of Formatting going on in this thread...


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## Garbz (May 29, 2011)

480sparky said:


> 480sparky said:
> 
> 
> > How can formatting a card 'wear it out' and 'make it die'?
> ...



The empirical data you ask changes from card to card and manufacturer to manufacturer. It also varies with age. Also this isn't speculation, and until your post I actually thought that a limited write cycle of flash was as common knowledge as film having an expiration date.

Many cards in the past used to die from overuse. This is how many of the original digital shooters developed a distrust for the technology. Some cards being as bad as having sub 100k rewrites, and some cameras re-writing the same area of the FAT table over and over again eventually lead to the death of many.

These days though... Well there have been two tests to claim the manufacturer specs. Dangerous prototypes managed to write 11.5million counts to the same area of a Microchip flash based EEPROM chip which had a manufacturer spec of 1million read write erase cycles, and a hackaday post showed some guy managed to burn the flash memory in his microcontroller after 1.23million writes with a manufacturer claimed spec of 100k re-writes. 

In summary I highly doubt there is a credible threat to damaging flash from overuse these days. Replace your card with your camera and you should be good.


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## Joshonator (May 29, 2011)

Well it's certainly not necessary, I've gone years without formatting without problems.


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## 480sparky (May 29, 2011)

So basically, if a card has a lifetime of 100,000 formats, I'm pretty safe with loading a card into my camera, taking two shots, then reformatting the camera, taking two more shots, reformatting, taking two more shots, reformatting.......... 

The shutter of my camera has a rating of 150,000 cycles.  I'll wear the camera out long before the card dies.  And that's formatting every two shots, which would be incredibly silly. I typically shoot 50-300 frames before I format.

And if a card somehow dies a premature death, I've got 17 more in the bag.  I don't think I'm going to lose any sleep over this.


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## Psytrox (May 29, 2011)

Also, by the time you've rewritten your SD-card so many times that it no longer works, it's probably about time to invest in a new and far more better SD-card anyways


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## 480sparky (May 29, 2011)

Psytrox said:


> Also, by the time you've rewritten your SD-card so many times that it no longer works, it's probably about time to invest in a new and far more better SD-card anyways


 

As well as a newer camera.  And you can pick up those 5-2000mm f/1.4 zoom lenses while you're at it.


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## KmH (May 29, 2011)

It is a best practice to reformat the card in the camera it will be used in after every download to ensure the File Allocation Table (FAT) in the controller is properly configured.

CF and SD cards use flash memory. It's 100,000 cycles, not 10,000 cycles.

From: Flash memory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



> flash memory has a finite number of program-erase cycles (typically written as P/E cycles). Most commercially available flash products are guaranteed to withstand around 100,000 P/E cycles, before the wear begins to deteriorate the integrity of the storage.


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## CCericola (May 29, 2011)

Wikipedia FTW!!


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