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SD card // overwrite or formatting... what is the best option


bert c

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That's pretty impressive Stephen! :eek: But at least my way gives an entertaining light show without sucking satellites out of orbit. :D

 

Most military instruction manuals have a section at the end on how to destroy the item. I liked the methods for the 70mm Combat Graphic which includes blowing it away with a hand grenade.

 

In the days when disc drives were as big as top-loading washers (like the 20mb DEC RP04), SOP was to crush and crash and burn the disks to dust. No grenades. They weren't powerful enough.

Edited by pico
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  • 6 years later...

I Just formatted my sd card for the first time using SD Formatter. 

 

So I don't have to format the card in camera anymore before shooting after using SD Formatter? Just go and shoot? Or is it wise practice to do that in camera formatting anyway?

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Most military instruction manuals have a section at the end on how to destroy the item. I liked the methods for the 70mm Combat Graphic which includes blowing it away with a hand grenade.In the days when disc drives were as big as top-loading washers (like the 20mb DEC RP04), SOP was to crush and crash and burn the disks to dust. No grenades. They weren't powerful enough.

My personal favorite was Thermite.

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Every legit card has a program on it, one to direct the computer or camera to the storage location when you ask for XYZ.  That is the table of contents or directory.  Balance of card is storage locations.

 

To maximize life,  the "program" utilizes file locations #1 to however many are required.  After formatting in camera,  the next sequence of locations are used so in theory all the locations on the card get equal use thus prolonging its life.  

 

The "program" also deletes the directory for the files that are deleted.  Failure to delete directory may lead to "card is full"  when only the directory thinks it is full.  

 

How some computer program handles these tasks is unknown,  but it is your card, your choice.  SD formatter may delete the manufactures algorithm substituting its own.  There is no way to tell.

 

 

Overwrite keeps using the same locations, not good.    Also forsenic people have an easy task to reconstruct data from just one overwrite.   I am a simpleton here, but I think 7 are required. 

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  • 5 weeks later...

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May I point out that we are reviving a six-year old thread here? I'm sure   are out of date.

 

I was replying to a current post, regardless SD technology is backwards compatible so comments made a few years ago still apply. I mention this with great appreciation for SD standards and methodology. To me it is stunning to have a memory device the size of a little fingernail that a room full of disc-drives the size of top-loading washers could not match when I entered the field. Okay, now I am drifting. :)

 

Funny picture. This is a Digital Equipment disk drive model RPO4, 67 Megabytes capacity (0.065 Gb considering cluster factor) sitting next to clothes washing machines for scale. (The PSD version of this photo would be to large fit on the drive!)

 

rpo4.jpg

Edited by pico
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Every legit card has a program on it, one to direct the computer or camera to the storage location when you ask for XYZ.  That is the table of contents or directory.  Balance of card is storage locations.

 

To maximize life,  the "program" utilizes file locations #1 to however many are required.  After formatting in camera,  the next sequence of locations are used so in theory all the locations on the card get equal use thus prolonging its life.  

 

The "program" also deletes the directory for the files that are deleted.  Failure to delete directory may lead to "card is full"  when only the directory thinks it is full.  

 

How some computer program handles these tasks is unknown,  but it is your card, your choice.  SD formatter may delete the manufactures algorithm substituting its own.  There is no way to tell. [...]

 

Sorry, I cannot let this disinformation go without correction. Persons looking to the post quoted might forward myth which is not helpful to any of us. It is ALL WRONG. Negate every statement in the post quoted.

 

For one, the  'program' on an SD card is called the Host Controller, and SD Formatter cannot replace it. Second, there is a partition on the SD card that is untouchable; it tracks bad blocks, next available cluster, and so forth.  SD Formatter does not mess with it.

 

I will not go on. Just ignore the post quoted.

Edited by pico
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