Delete or Format The Flash Card?

You are done! After you’ve copied all of your photos from the memory card to the computer, should you:

1. Delete all the photos from your memory card?
2. Format the memory card on the computer?
3. Format the memory card in the camera?

My preference, and that’s what I’ve been using for a while, is none of these three alternatives.

I move the photos to the computer. Done! Finished!. One simple operation and that’s it. I have done it for thousandS of times. I have never had a problem.

Now there are some people, the anal retentives, the paranoids, that will copy the files to their computer, and keep the files on the card, in case the copy didn’t work or there was a corruption.

Is it possible? Yes, especially if you do something stupid like:

• You disconnect the memory card the computer before the copying is finished.
• You remove the memory card without asking the OS to eject the memory card and flush the USB port.
• You turn off the computer without a proper shutdown.
• You run out of disk space on your computer and do nothing about it.
• …

In other words, you have to work at it. In today’s modern operating system, all the copying of files from one place to another is validated by something called a checksum. A checksum is a calculated number based on the whole file. It’s extremely quick and guarantees that the copy of the file is identical to the original file. Your computer will report an error if there’s a problem.