Sunday, October 10, 2004
Reformatting Digital Media
Posted by James Fee in "ARTICLE" @ 09:00 AM
"When the magnetic media is inserted, most cameras will write its own type of computer code to the media when no previous user instructions have been provided. It is most advisable to insert the media and perform a format operation prior to photographing, however. The format operation allows the camera’s computer to scan the entire media card for its recording length, any bad or unusable sectors and set up its non-viewable computer codes and storage folder information. That non-viewable information is unique to each and every camera. Transferring a media card between two different cameras, even from the same manufacturer, will cause the camera computer to begin a new folder in each camera. The non-viewable information from camera number one is ignored by camera number two and vice-a-versa. The same reiteration of hidden folder information happens when a media card is shared, by say a Canon and a Nikon camera. Nothing is ruined or hurt on the media card, but camera number one cannot see or access what camera number two has done. There now are two different sets of pictures and hidden information existing on the media. When the media card information is accessed, by plugging the camera directly into the computer, it is likely that only the information for that particular camera will be displayed or downloaded. It will be necessary to return the media card to the other camera for downloading of its images. Generally, both cameras’ data folders will be seen and be accessible if the media card is removed from the camera and read and downloaded through a separate media card reader plugged into the desktop computer."
If you swap your flash media between different cameras and even other different devices, remember to reformat the card from time to time. This will help you recover space on the media that has been written to by your cameras and make sure that no images are witten to bad data sectors which can cause you to lose that image.
If you swap your flash media between different cameras and even other different devices, remember to reformat the card from time to time. This will help you recover space on the media that has been written to by your cameras and make sure that no images are witten to bad data sectors which can cause you to lose that image.
