deleting pictures on memory card

[maddagascar]

this is probably a newb question or even just common sense.

but, i transferred all my photos to my mac already, but now i wanna delete the pictures from my memory card, if i ever need to develop them, can i just plug in a flash drive and drag the pictures onto them?

will it still be the same quality or will it be downgraded if i try to blow up the picture..sorry the silly question.

 

[Abyssgh0st]

Not a stupid question at all, curiosity never hurts!

But to answer your question, when it is transferred from the memory card to the computer it will remain the exact same image, regardless of it is put onto a USB drive, or whatever you'd like to do to it.

Only way you would possibly have reduced image quality/size would be if you uploaded it online and the maximum resolution exceeds the limits for whoever is hosting.

 

[maddagascar]

Not a stupid question at all, curiosity never hurts!

But to answer your question, when it is transferred from the memory card to the computer it will remain the exact same image, regardless of it is put onto a USB drive, or whatever you'd like to do to it.

Only way you would possibly have reduced image quality/size would be if you uploaded it online and the maximum resolution exceeds the limits for whoever is hosting.

sweeeet. perfect. cause i'm going to need to be deleting a lot of photos, but haven't had any time to develop them. soo i didn't want to lose a nice image i took. thanks for the help!!!

 

[Designer Dale]

To extend the info provided by others, it is recommended that when you delete oictures from a memory card, do it in the camera by reformatting the card. I don't know exactly why, but that is advice given to me here in the forum.

Dale

 

[Abyssgh0st]

If anyone can explain the formatting method instead of just deleting via iPhoto it'd be greatly appreciated.. I'm a bit confused by that myself.

 

[24jg3520]

Look in the camera's menu!

Depending on the camera you have, you should be able to look into the camera's menu, usually under tools and select format card. When in doubt, read the manual. All cameras that I know of have the format option, including point and shoots.

 

[ChrisA]

One the images are on the computer there is litle reason to keep them also on the card. But I always wait.

One the images are in the computer, they also need to be backed up. You want a couple backups kept in different locations. To protect from Disk failure, theft of the equipment, fire, stupid mistakes,...

So what I do is delete the images at the start of the nest session with the camera. So When I pick up the camera the first thing I do is delete the old images. No real reason to delete the image any earlier. I always delete them by reformating the card in the camera.

I don't understand "developing". Do you mean "printing" If so and you don't want touse you r own inkjet printer then the best thing is to send them over the Internet to a some place. Or maybe burn them to a CD or DVD or copy to a USB flash drive. and give that to the printer.

 

[Gav2k]

If anyone can explain the formatting method instead of just deleting via iPhoto it'd be greatly appreciated.. I'm a bit confused by that myself.

When you delete a photo the contents table of the card gets marked and the file is over written when you start taking photos.

If you format the card every block on the card is written out with 0's this is bad because it will cause premature failure of the card as it has limited write cycles.

Some os's with write out a file on a memory card with 0's but most don't do this no more. However a camera just marks the table so the file gets overwritten.

Hope that helps

 

[Abyssgh0st]

When you delete a photo the contents table of the card gets marked and the file is over written when you start taking photos.

If you format the card every block on the card is written out with 0's this is bad because it will cause premature failure of the card as it has limited write cycles.

Some os's with write out a file on a memory card with 0's but most don't do this no more. However a camera just marks the table so the file gets overwritten.

Hope that helps

That makes sense. I figured it had something to do with how the file is re-written after it's 'deleted.'

 

[mmoto]

If you format the card every block on the card is written out with 0's this is bad because it will cause premature failure of the card as it has limited write cycles.

Hope that helps

Not true. Formatting a card does not overwrite the card with 1's or 0's. In fact if you ever need to recover images off a corrupt card, formatting the card is sometimes your first step. If the files were written-over recovery would be impossible.
I recovered lost images and movies off a formatted card this past weekend as a matter of fact.
To overwrite a card with 1's and 0's you would need some kind of secure delete application like Apple's Disk Utility.

As to why formatting a card is better than deleting images off - I think of a freshly formatted card like a clean sheet of paper. It insures the card is ready to accept new images. Of course the biggest benefit of reformatting the card in-camera is that it's much easier than deleting the images on the computer.

-Brad

 

[MisterMe]

If anyone can explain the formatting method instead of just deleting via iPhoto it'd be greatly appreciated.. I'm a bit confused by that myself.

People like to make things hard. You can delete photos using the camera's menu, iPhoto, or the Finder by dragging them to the Trash and emptying the Trash. I have owned and used digital cameras for years and have never had an issue with either of these methods.

As for reformatting the card—sledgehammer meet gnat.

 

[Westside guy]

Reformatting a card generally just clears out the directory pointers to those files - it doesn't erase the actual data. I believe the main reason people recommend reformatting the card vs. just deleting the images is as insurance against filesystem corruption. Remember, these cards use the rather simple FAT32 filesystem, so it's fairly easy to create errors in it (if you're old enough to remember DOS or early Windows, you might remember having to run "chkdsk" every so often for the exact same reason).

I'd heard Derrick Story and others talk about being systematic and making sure your images are always in two separate places, and I think it's a good idea. So what I do is this: I download the images onto my computer, but I don't delete/wipe the card until I've run a backup of the computer (which I usually do immediately afterward). Once the backup is complete, my images are on my computer and on my backup disk - at that point I can safely delete them from the camera's memory card.

 

[dareuss]

Can't delete files from SD card using Finder

People like to make things hard. You can delete photos using the camera's menu, iPhoto, or the Finder by dragging them to the Trash and emptying the Trash. I have owned and used digital cameras for years and have never had an issue with either of these methods.

As for reformatting the card—sledgehammer meet gnat.

It's probaby a silly question as I couldn't find anyone having this problem besides myself but I am hoping to get helped in this forum.
I am unable to delete files from my SD card (taken out from a Canon camera). The file contains jpeg files and when I try to delete them either using Cmd Backspace or drag-and-drop into the Trash, I get no result. The files are still there. What's the solution? Hope MacBook Pro has a way to perform this simple task

 

[ftaok]

It's probaby a silly question as I couldn't find anyone having this problem besides myself but I am hoping to get helped in this forum.
I am unable to delete files from my SD card (taken out from a Canon camera). The file contains jpeg files and when I try to delete them either using Cmd Backspace or drag-and-drop into the Trash, I get no result. The files are still there. What's the solution? Hope MacBook Pro has a way to perform this simple task

Is the SD card locked? There a little switch on the card that prevents the card from being messed with.

Also, perhaps the permissions on the card's file system got messed up and the "write" permissions got turned off.

Ohter than that, you might want to re-format the card with your camera and see if that solves the problem.

 

[dareuss]

Is the SD card locked? There a little switch on the card that prevents the card from being messed with.

Also, perhaps the permissions on the card's file system got messed up and the "write" permissions got turned off.

Ohter than that, you might want to re-format the card with your camera and see if that solves the problem.

Thanks for quick response.
The card is not locked, and I can easily format it using the camera, so the problem is not with the card. I find it quite annoying that I cannot perform as simple task as deleting files using Finder on my Mac. Any hint on how I can check the permissions on the card's file system?

 

[Designer Dale]

I have no issue with this procedure with my MacBookPro running Snow Leopard. If there is a glitch with the card, reformat it in the camera. To repair Permissions on your system, download Onyx for Mac OS. It's a good tool to repair glitches with your system. free, too.

This leads to the question of why you are using folders to manage pictures when apps like iPhoto, Aperture and the like do it so well?

Dale

BTW: Reformatting a card in the camera after off-loading the images is standard procedure for most of the regular users of this forum.

 

[snberk103]

To extend the info provided by others, it is recommended that when you delete oictures from a memory card, do it in the camera by reformatting the card. I don't know exactly why, but that is advice given to me here in the forum.

Dale

People like to make things hard. You can delete photos using the camera's menu, iPhoto, or the Finder by dragging them to the Trash and emptying the Trash. I have owned and used digital cameras for years and have never had an issue with either of these methods.

As for reformatting the card—sledgehammer meet gnat.

I have one camera where deleting photos in OS X (Finder) seems to work fine, and the dealer merely cautioned me to occasionally reformat the card in the camera to "clean up the file directory". Not sure that makes sense, but it's what he said.

However, my other camera (a Lumix) needs to have the card formatted in camera. If I delete the photos in Finder, the space that the deleted photos took-up on the card is not recovered. Let me tell you I got a little frustrated when 4GB card was only able hold 20 or so images! Requiring me to purchase a new card while travelling until I could sort it out.

Now I just reformat in the camera for both, and as previously mentioned I reformat just before I need the card so that my backup has had a chance to pick up the images imported into LR.

Ironically, the camera that doesn't really need to reformat in camera is very easy to reformat. And the camera that needs to be reformatted in the camera is not nearly as easy to do.

 

[dareuss]

I have no issue with this procedure with my MacBookPro running Snow Leopard. If there is a glitch with the card, reformat it in the camera. To repair Permissions on your system, download Onyx for Mac OS. It's a good tool to repair glitches with your system. free, too.

Just downloaded. Nice tool, need to learn it. I tried permission repair but it hanged and did not go on further than 25% for over 10 hours, so I canceled. I guess it's not normal but this probably belongs to another discussion thread.

This leads to the question of why you are using folders to manage pictures when apps like iPhoto, Aperture and the like do it so well?

Yeah, this must be my old habit from PC times, uh...