Re: How can a full format/low-level format be done on an SD memory card?


"Bill Funk" <BigBill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:oar1o1prm7adj8347up6g01kpbrj7t13d0@xxxxxxxxxx
> On 20 Nov 2005 05:50:32 -0800, itsme.ultimate@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
>
>>X-No-Archive: Yes
>>
>>One of my cameras only have the option to do quick format. I have a
>>data recovery software for SD media and it picks up most of the photos
>>in the card following the quick format on the camera or Windows format.
>>
>>I also have a Canon SD400 which has an option called "low-level
>>format" that's intended to be used when the writing speed in motion
>>picture or continuous shots becomes slow. The data recovery software
>>was unable to recover pictures after the card was formatted using this
>>option.
>>
>>There are things I don't like about the SD400 and I'm selling the
>>camera, therefore I need to find an alternative way of low-level
>>formatting SD memory cards. Are there utilities out there that will
>>allow me to do full formatting comparable to SD400 through my card
>>reader?
>
> I'm not sure what it is that you want to accomplish.Is there something
> about a "low-level format" that you need? Or is it that you want to
> "erase" the card's contents?
> If the latter, use your card reader to write a large file (or several
> files) to the card, enough to fill it; this will overwrite any other
> data, making it unretrievable to all but the most determined. If this
> is evidence of a felony you want to erase, do the above a few times,
> and not even the FBI will be able ot retrieve it.
>
> --
> Bill Funk
> Replace "g" with "a"
> funktionality.blogspot.com

That FBI comment is interesting. On magnetic media, erased or overwritten
data recovery (ie disk or tape) relies on sophisticated techniques involving
capturing residual data not completely overwritten. This is a function of
magnetic recording. I've never seen any comments regarding solid state
memory and wonder if such things are possible. When people tell me how
readily erased data can be recovered I think back to the infamous Nixon
tapes. I don't think they ever got much out of those erased portions and
they had the best people working the problem, so I question the whole
subject. I am aware of the theory, but have no data to judge how well that
translates into practice.
Finally, don't confuse the above with specialist data recovery services that
can often be helpful for damaged or formatted drives.
Dave Cohen


.

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