Formatting Your Compact Flash Card

Formatting Your Compact Flash Card

Formatting a Compact Flash card means putting a layout on the card so that your camera's firmware could recognize and use it. A card needs to be formatted only once; but, you can certainly format your card as many times as you want. Keep in mind that all images, including the protected ones, and information stored on the card will be erased after the card is formatted. You should use your camera to format your card, although your computer also recognizes and formats your Compact Flash card. This is because to ensure proper control and file system compatibility, the camera may add additional information into the card. If for some reason your card was formatted by your computer, you need to reformat it using your camera. To format a CompactFlash card, make sure that it has been inserted into the card chamber. You should not remove the card or battery, or unplug the AC adapter while formatting is in progress. See Inserting and Removing Compact Flash Memory Card for the details.

In the following, the multi-selector will be used to browse the menu system and to make selections.

Use up and down to browse Use right to select

Here is the procedure:

  1. Slide the mode selector to the shooting position:

  2. Press the MENU button to bring up the menu system:

    Press MENU to bring up the menu system

  3. Press the left arrow followed by the down arrow and the right arrow of the multi-selector to enter the SET-UP menu:

  4. Press the down arrow of the multi-selector to highlight the CF Card Format item:

  5. Press the right arrow of the multi-selector to select this item. Then, a warning screen appears as shown in the left image below. If you do not want to format the card, press the MENU to return to the shooting mode. Otherwise, press the down arrow to highlight the Format item (below right).

  6. Now, press the right arrow of the multi-selector to select Format. Then, the following formatting message is shown on the LCD monitor:

  7. After the card is formatted, the card format menu reappears. Then, press the MENU to return to the shooting mode, and your CompactFlash card is ready to use. So, happy shooting!