SD Card Formatting

astar wrote on 6/18/2015, 9:49 PM
Apparently the SD card is not suppose to be formatted by the default windows formatting tool. The sdcard.org supplies their own formatting utility, supposedly that protects areas of the card.

Particularly interesting info on the new SDXC cards, and how formatting them with Mac/windows will lose the XC abilities.

I did not know this, thought I would pass this on in case others did not as well.

"The SD Formatter was created specifically for memory cards using the SD/SDHC/SDXC standards. It is strongly recommended to use the SD Formatter instead of formatting utilities provided with operating systems that format various types of storage media. Using generic formatting utilities may result in less than optimal performance for your memory cards.

The SD/SDHC/SDXC memory cards have a "Protected Area" on the card for the SD standard's security function. The SD Formatter does not format the "Protected Area". Please use appropriate application software or SD-compatible device that provides SD security function to format the "Protected Area" in the memory card."

Comments

BruceUSA wrote on 6/18/2015, 11:00 PM
Sd cards should only be formatted in camera before use. You do not want to format it on your computer. Doing so may results in a incompatible with camera.

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astar wrote on 6/19/2015, 1:03 AM
True. Most cameras write file structures to the disk as well. I guess I was referring to using SDcards more for storage and not only camera use.
balazer wrote on 6/19/2015, 1:42 AM
Almost...

First use the SD Card Association utility and do several full-overwrite formatting. This exercises the card and forces it to map around bad blocks. You don't need to do this often, but periodically for any frequently used card.

Then format the card in the camera.

Ignore that bit about the "protected area" of an SD card. Cameras don't use the copy protection feature of SD cards. You can format a card in your PC with no problems.
Byron K wrote on 6/19/2015, 1:05 PM
I always format the SD cards on the device that it's going to be used with before every gig or shoot.

I've encountered quirky issues like rainbow stripped photos and videos w/ blank spots in the past w/ my old point and shoot cameras when just deleting files from the cards and recording on top of them w/ out formatting.

This has worked out well for me so far. (: