Storage forum: Is it possible to reformat Compact Flash cards?

Both cameras that I own use CF's, my gps an SD...rule of thumb, format the card in the device that it will be used in. Your computer should see the card when you put into the card reader and format from there if you choose..and that is where you use it. But, I would try the device it came out first.

If I format a CF in my Nikon 5700 and place it in my Nikon D-100 I need to reformat in that camera. The format isn't acceptable even though they are both Nikon. I've also encountered the same issues formatting with WinXP.

From my experience, follow the following steps:

1) Disk Clean, Defrag and reformat using Windows. This will "clean" the CF card.

2) Put the CF card into your device (eg. camera), then use the format feature using that device.

If you don't reformat with your device (step 2 above), then the CF card may not work or most likely, not use the full capacity.

I hope this helps.

David

has little or none use, in fact. Defragging minimizes the mechanical movement of the recording arm between different tracks on a hard disk. But there are no moving mechinical parts on such a card. So rearanging the data only has a minor effect, if at all.

Kees