Why You Should Format Your Memory Cards

by camerarepair on

memory cards, photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/jasleen_kaur/

Image by flickr user jasleen_kaur

Depending on the make and model of your camera, figuring out how and where you format the memory card can be a challenge in itself. Remembering to do it on a regular basis can be an even bigger feat. Many do not realize the importance of formatting memory cards but doing so will help to ensure you get your precious pictures when it is most important.

There are a few reasons to format your memory cards. The best reason is that it will keep your card functioning properly. What formatting does is it will clear your entire card and set it up for reuse, good as new. By only deleting images one by one or all at once there are small remnants of the images data that gets left behind and over time this builds up and can cause the card to become corrupt. When the card is corrupt the data is unreadable by your computer (it’s kind of like having a really scratched DVD in your disk drive). While rare, the worst case scenario is you lose all the photos you had on the card and the card is permanently damaged. Most commonly all that happens is you have to format the card there by losing all the pictures.

However, while not a bad idea it isn’t necessary to format your card every time you need it cleared. It should be done fairly often, perhaps about once a month, depending on how often you use it. When you delete photos they are put in a sort of limbo where the camera recognizes that they can be written over (making it possible to recover so long as they haven’t been written over yet). Formatting on the other hand, erases anything on the card and sets up brand new folders for images to be saved; it literally makes the card as if it were just bought brand new and put into the camera for the first time (making it next to impossible to recover anything).

It is better to do formatting of a memory card in your camera as oppose to the computer. This is because the camera sets up the folders it is going to use when you begin to take pictures. It’s also a good idea to format your memory cards any time you use them in a different camera/device than you previously used the card in. And always when you purchase a new memory card, format first before you put it to use. Unfortunately, I cannot tell you how to format because it differs greatly from model to model. Consult your user manual or local camera shop if you are unclear on how to do it. If you are given the option to do a “quick format” as opposed to the “normal” format it is recommended to just do the normal format; it shouldn’t take more than a minute longer depending on the size and it’ll be better for the card in the long run.

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