Need Help Formatting Your Memory Card? - Tech Talk

It is a step many new camera owners often forget, but formatting a memory card to work between your camera and a computer is extremely important for keeping your pictures safe and backed up. Camera manufacturers refer to formatting as “initializing” the card.

The biggest reason to reformat is that when you “erase” photos from the card using the camera’s menu or on the computer, it just signals the card that it is ok to overwrite the space currently being used by those “deleted” photos. Formatting the card removes all data and makes the card free of issues that pile up due to regular use. You should format a card before you use it first, and then regularly over the years. 

Don't forget to back up your images, videos or file stored on your memory card before you perform the format.The first step is to back up all of your images to a computer so they will not be lost. Afterwards, SanDisk actually recommends formatting the card in the camera, not the computer. This allows for increased efficiency when using the camera. 

Formatting in a digital camera:

Put the card inside the camera, turn it on, and switch it to playback mode. Then navigate to the menu option which allows you to format the card. It should be somewhere in the “memory card manager” section or one named something similar. There should be a clear option to “format card.” Once you choose this, it will happen automatically.

Formatting in a smartphone:

To format a memory card in a smartphone simply navigate to the settings menu>storage where you will then find the option to format the memory card.

If you are not able to do it with the card inserted within the camera/smartphone/device, using apps such as SD Formatter on Windows or Mac is a program which handles the formatting process for you. However, the downside is that it may not be the most efficient formatting for your camera. Mac Disk Utilities and Windows also have formatting tools already programmed in.

MemoryCow stock memory cards from the most popular brand such as Kingston, Samsung and SanDisk.

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