Base format on SD cards: FAT or FAT32?

[prototype]

I replaced my Sandisk 256mb SD card with a new Lexar one just recently, and while transfering my data over I saw something that made me curious.

The default format on the Lexas (as shipped) was FAT. Are there any advantages to FAT32 on the SD? Wasn't sure if it affected performance on a PPC.

-Drew

[Janak Parekh]

It's not really worth using FAT32 on a 256MB card. 1GB+ cards can benefit from FAT32 if you're storing a lot of small files.

--janak

[PapaSmurfDan]

In the end, it doesn't matter. I would stick with FAT16 However, there might be a slight perforamce gain to a FAT16 formatted card above 512mb. There is a slighly higher overhead to FAT32. But if you are storing videos and other large files, the cluster size is not going to effect you as much.

[bmhome1]

Do cards such as the Lexar SD come pre-formatted with FAT16 and sector/cluster sizes that maximize the reported speed difference from slower cards such as SanDisk (which possibly may come pre-formatted for maximum space storage efficiency at the cost of speed)?

[Dave Beauvais]

I have a Lexar 64 MB SD card that came preformatted with a FAT12 file system. Two SanDisk 256 MB SD cards shipped with FAT16, as did my 512 MB CF card from Viking. (I reformatted the CF card with FAT32.)

--Dave

[Janak Parekh]

No storage card to date (except, perhaps, the 5GB Toshiba PC card) comes formatted for FAT32 -- for a very simple reason: many cameras and accessories can't handle that filesystem. That's one key factor to keep in mind...

--janak

[Hyperluminal]

Hey, just out of curiosity, would it be possible to format a storage card for NTFS?

[Janak Parekh]

Hey, just out of curiosity, would it be possible to format a storage card for NTFS?
Probably. But you won't be able to use it in most devices. I don't think CE .NET supports NTFS, and certainly no cameras or other periphals do.

--janak

[Dave Beauvais]

Hey, just out of curiosity, would it be possible to format a storage card for NTFS?
I've been able to format removable disks such as Zip Disks and old 1 GB and 2 GB Jaz cartridges using NTFS under Win2K and WinXP, but NTFS does not show up as an option when formatting flash media, even on large cards such as a 512 MB CF.

--Dave

[[email protected]]

Even if you could format it for NTFS, wouldn't the machine scramble the data if you moved it from one machine to anouther? I messed up a HDD that I used for storing mp3's that way. moved it from one machine to anouther, both using NTFS, and the drive just baked in front of me. i had to reformat, and lost alot of mp3's.

[Janak Parekh]

Even if you could format it for NTFS, wouldn't the machine scramble the data if you moved it from one machine to anouther? I messed up a HDD that I used for storing mp3's that way. moved it from one machine to anouther, both using NTFS, and the drive just baked in front of me. i had to reformat, and lost alot of mp3's.
No, it shouldn't. I've slaved NTFS hard drives frequently to back up data. Unless you're using NT3.51 or NT4, which can't support the new NTFS formats, you should be OK.

Having said that, don't expect a W2k/WXP install on one machine to work on another. 50% of the time, you'll get a blue screen. What you need to do is to do a fresh Windows install on a new hard drive, attach the old one as a slave, and copy it over.

--janak

[Dave Beauvais]

Even if you could format it for NTFS, wouldn't the machine scramble the data if you moved it from one machine to anouther? ...
No, it shouldn't. I've slaved NTFS hard drives frequently to back up data. Unless you're using NT3.51 or NT4, which can't support the new NTFS formats, you should be OK. ...
Yes, as long as you are logged in as a user with administrator rights, you should be able to access the data on the other drive. If you had to, I suppose you could just take ownership of all the files on the drive. Users or even Power Users may have problems with file permissions. About the only time you may run into problems is if any of the data was encrypted on the old drive.

But to get this somewhat back on topic, NTFS probably isn't a suitable file system for flash media. (Or other removable storage for that matter.)

--Dave

[Looxer]

Which application you recommend using for formatting?