Does excessive formatting shorten life of flash memory cards?

AReality · 13th December 2003

Does excessive formatting shorten life of flash memory cards?

I always format my CF everytime before shoots... And also formats them even after I only took 1 pic. & does this quite often...

Thanks..

Ian · 13th December 2003

Originally Posted by AReality

Does excessive formatting shorten life of flash memory cards?

I always format my CF everytime before shoots... And also formats them even after I only took 1 pic. & does this quite often...

Thanks..

In practical terms NO as most cards are good for tens of thousands of formats (the better cards are good for 100,000+ reformats from memory)...

goering · 15th December 2003

Originally Posted by Ian

In practical terms NO as most cards are good for tens of thousands of formats (the better cards are good for 100,000+ reformats from memory)...

That is manufacturer or theoretical rating. In practice is it really tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands?

If my experience with CD-RWs is any indication, theoretically CD-RWs can be rewritten 1,000 times. In actual practice, I find that the CD-RW can last FAR FAR fewer than 1,000 rewrites - in my case ranging from 5-20 rewrites before the CR-RW goes kaput

For that reason, I never buy CD-RWs

sehsuan · 15th December 2003

sounds hilarious, how does an electronic storage device go kaput like that?

hard disks and microdrives are physical based storage - i'll contend they'll die earlier by wear and tear. but how often does one think about how many read/write cycles your computer's RAM has gone through and whether it'll die?

Ian · 15th December 2003

Originally Posted by goering

That is manufacturer or theoretical rating. In practice is it really tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands?

If my experience with CD-RWs is any indication, theoretically CD-RWs can be rewritten 1,000 times. In actual practice, I find that the CD-RW can last FAR FAR fewer than 1,000 rewrites - in my case ranging from 5-20 rewrites before the CR-RW goes kaput

For that reason, I never buy CD-RWs

I know several photographers who are well over 2000 reformats on their CF cards.

Your point is also moot, as CDRW's have nothing to do with the topic under discussion.

Ian

goering · 16th December 2003

what i am trying to say is that manufacturer's ratings are often far less than in actual use

however, since you said that you know several photographers who have well over 2000 reformats on their CF cards, then that is reassuring ..

13th December 2003	#1
AReality Senior Member Join Date: Jun 2003 Posts: 4,395	Does excessive formatting shorten life of flash memory cards? Does excessive formatting shorten life of flash memory cards? I always format my CF everytime before shoots... And also formats them even after I only took 1 pic. & does this quite often... Thanks.. __________________ . The Visual Journalist

15th December 2003	#4
sehsuan Deregistered Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Singapore Posts: 6,674	sounds hilarious, how does an electronic storage device go kaput like that? hard disks and microdrives are physical based storage - i'll contend they'll die earlier by wear and tear. but how often does one think about how many read/write cycles your computer's RAM has gone through and whether it'll die?

16th December 2003	#6
goering Member Join Date: Sep 2003 Posts: 435	what i am trying to say is that manufacturer's ratings are often far less than in actual use however, since you said that you know several photographers who have well over 2000 reformats on their CF cards, then that is reassuring ..