Card Won't Erase in Camera?

sara505

Hi. Lately my 4-GB memory card does not erase in my camera. Can anyone shed some light on this situation? Thank you :scratch

Art Scott

sara505 wrote:

Hi. Lately my 4-GB memory card does not erase in my camera. Can anyone shed some light on this situation? Thank you

Are you eraseing ,deleting or formatting?
What camera, what type of card (brand etc etc)?

PineapplePhoto

Did you check if the "lock" switch on the card is on the "locked" position?

sara505

Art Scott wrote:

Are you eraseing ,deleting or formatting?
What camera, what type of card (brand etc etc)?

10-D, SanDisk Extreme III.
I am attempting to "erase all," as I have always done, and I always re-format.

sara505

PineapplePhoto wrote:

Did you check if the "lock" switch on the card is on the "locked" position?

Hmmm...where do I find that? Menu...protected?

Phyxius

sara505 wrote:

Hmmm...where do I find that? Menu...protected?

Nope, it's a physical little switch on the side/back of the card. It's a lot like the old computer disks. Or on some video cassettes. You can slide it into place and it "locks" the disk.

ziggy53

If you are referring to the Canon 10D, I believe you are using Compact Flash cards, and you won't find a lock on those.

See if you can just re-format in the camera, without erasing first.

sara505

Phyxius wrote:

Nope, it's a physical little switch on the side/back of the card. It's a lot like the old computer disks. Or on some video cassettes. You can slide it into place and it "locks" the disk.

I have looked and looked and I don't see any kind of switch. Just an empty guide groove and a couple of empty notches. Nor have I ever heard of such a switch, or seen it on any of my memory cards. Maybe I'm missing something.

sara505

ziggy53 wrote:

If you are referring to the Canon 10D, I believe you are using Compact Flash cards, and you won't find a lock on those.

See if you can just re-format in the camera, without erasing first.

Brilliant - that works, thanks, Ziggy!

System

Just one other thing - don't erase in camera unless you absolutely have to. Erasing can (and often will) cause the file system on the card to go gaga. Format and prosper.

sara505

juze wrote:

Just one other thing - don't erase in camera unless you absolutely have to. Erasing can (and often will) cause the file system on the card to go gaga. Format and prosper.

So, do you mean, skip erase and go directly to format? I always format after erasing.

moose135

sara505 wrote:

So, do you mean, skip erase and go directly to format? I always format after erasing.

Yes, I never erase the card, just reformat and that will take care of it.

sara505

moose135 wrote:

Yes, I never erase the card, just reformat and that will take care of it.

Ok, great, thanks. And I see it's much faster!

System

The thing is, with deleting, the camera basically goes "Delete this file. It's in this location." and does this for every single file. With so many files, things can go wrong.
With formatting, it goes "Delete them all and let g-d sort them later." One simple command, less chances of something going wrong.

sara505

juze wrote:

The thing is, with deleting, the camera basically goes "Delete this file. It's in this location." and does this for every single file. With so many files, things can go wrong.
With formatting, it goes "Delete them all and let g-d sort them later." One simple command, less chances of something going wrong.

Oh, todah raba!