Re: WTF!!! angry canon user...

On Sun, 16 Apr 2006 00:28:26 -0700, "Mark²" <mjmorgan(lowest even
number here)@cox..net> wrote:

Hmmm... I'm thinking that's not quite how formatting works...
I believe formatting simply writes over the indexing of the drive, and
doesn't actually do a low-level format, or write anything within the bulk
of the other addresses on the card. It couldn't do a low-level format in
three seconds...and that's about all the time it takes to format my
microdrives. I would think the opposite would be more likely true...that
deleting all files would mean individually accessing all files and deleting
them one at a time. Wouldn't *that* lead to far more write counts?

You've got most of it. The formatting done by cameras is not a
low level format, which would wipe out everything on the card or
drive, including partitions not seen by either the camera or by
Windows. These would include database partitions, unix partitions,
hidden partitions, etc. The two remaining formats are "full" and
"quick". The former overwrites every sector on a particular drive,
and only a single drive in the case of partitions containing
multiple drives. The quick format gives you the same end result,
but does so by limiting itself to overwriting only the two FATs and
the creating the drive's new root directory.


I also wonder if perhaps microdrives aren't quite so tied to the "count"
concept, since they are spinning hard drives rather than solid state
memory.

Sort of, but not because they're spinning and not solid state.
They have the same life and MTBF type specifications as most other
hardware, including solid state memory. Most solid state memory can
be written to indefinitely. It's only flash memory (which is much
slower, even the 133x memory) that "wears out", and this wearing out
is only due to writing to it. Reading the memory doesn't wear it
out.


Others here will have a more informed opinion, but as far as my trusty
drives are concerned, I've seen nothing to indicate that the drives are
being adversely effected by...well...anything! :)

Your microdrives won't survive really hard shocks or powerful
magnets! But those magnets are not the type you'll often come
across. If you do, you should worry more about your fingers being
crushed by getting too close to the magnet when it's near something
made of iron or the right type of steel.

.

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