ntfs hard drive vs. fat cg card does this equal problems?

[that dan guy]

I have a 1 gig cf card and it is fat formatted but my os for my desktop is win xp which is ntfs and i seem to be transfering slow and it seems to delete files from the cf kind of slow. Is the file format causing an issue? I am also having problems when I reencode mpegs and avi with virtual dub for divx (using divx codec5.05) my files are sometimes bigger and don't always play on divx or they cause my payer to freeze. I just got my dell axim advance and this thing is way cool but the video playback is still a little finnicky. I also am wondering if updating to the a03 update would help and where in the hell is that file anyway?

thanks

danno

[prismejon]

Not exactly help for you, but if anyway knows of a good app to format the CF card and SD card in my ppc I'd love to hear about it.

[Pony99CA]

Not exactly help for you, but if anyway knows of a good app to format the CF card and SD card in my ppc I'd love to hear about it.
There's CNetX's Flash Format (http://www.cnetx.com/format/) for about $12.

If you want more than just formatting, like analysis and defragmenting, there's also SoftWinter's Storage Tools (http://www.softwinter.com/storagetools.html) for about $15.

I haven't used either of them, but I'm sure you can find reviews using :google:.

Steve

[prismejon]

Thanks Pony99CA!
Now I can format the old MMC-card from my Ericsson Mp3-player - 32 mb yahoo!

[Jason Dunn]

In most cases, your memory cards should be in FAT format, possibly FAT32 depending on the size of the card (ie: over 2 GB). Forget about NTFS though - it adds overhead and slowness that you don't need. :mrgreen:

[prismejon]

So it doesn't matter what kind of format you use on your desktop?

[Jacob]

So it doesn't matter what kind of format you use on your desktop?

Not really - Windows will convert everything back and forth without any problem.

There are some versions of Windows that don't support reading NTFS, but if the card is FAT or FAT32 there should be no problem.

[Will T Smith]

I have a 1 gig cf card and it is fat formatted but my os for my desktop is win xp which is ntfs and i seem to be transfering slow and it seems to delete files from the cf kind of slow. Is the file format causing an issue? I am also having problems when I reencode mpegs and avi with virtual dub for divx (using divx codec5.05) my files are sometimes bigger and don't always play on divx or they cause my payer to freeze. I just got my dell axim advance and this thing is way cool but the video playback is still a little finnicky. I also am wondering if updating to the a03 update would help and where in the hell is that file anyway?

thanks

danno

First, best to leave it as FAT. You're handheld will not understand NTFS, nor will any Win9x computer, nor will any camera.

Second, try defragging your card to get better performance. You should be able to do this using Windows standard defrag utility.

Just plug the card in, right click on it's icon and select _Properties_ then:
|DiskTools|->[Degrament Now]

[Don Tolson]

It's most likely the 'slowness' you're seeing is due to the transfer mechanism bandwidth (serial, USB, IR) rather than any difference in formatting between the card and your PC's harddrive.

[Fishie]

I use a card reader and WinXP does a nice job of formating, defraging and whatever else I want with my cards just like it does with a HD.

[Janak Parekh]

It's most likely the 'slowness' you're seeing is due to the transfer mechanism bandwidth (serial, USB, IR) rather than any difference in formatting between the card and your PC's harddrive.
Exactly. There is absolute zero conversion overhead between NTFS on your hard drive and FAT on the CF card. Make sure you're not using ActiveSync to transfer -- and that you have a dedicated USB reader. ActiveSync is waaay too slow.

--janak

[PetiteFlower]

It also seems that if you use ActiveSync to copy large files and you have an Axim, that could cause your SD card to fail. I'm glad I got a card reader when I bought my card! $20 well-spent for sure.