Formatting too often a bad thing?

[Trip]

I got a 128 MB SD card that my *new* digital camera, and my *new* handheld share. But I've gotten into the habbit that...whenever I take some pictures on the camera and decide I don't like them, I format the card. It gets rid of all the pictures for me and allows the card to have ultimate space/quality available. But will it ruin/wear down the card?

 

[Arden]

Only in the long run in that it means a little more usage wear-and-tear on your card.

 

[Giaguara]

Format? Isn't deleting them enough?

 

[Cheryl]

I just delete the images.

 

[Trip]

But is formatting ok? Will my card one day end up eating its self?

 

[bobw]

Formatting is fine.

 

[phatcactus]

I format too. Just seems more pure to me. And my picture numbers reset.

 

[lurk]

Each little bit in flash memory only has a finite number of times it can be turned on and off. So after you have rewritten a bit enough times it will quit working. One trick they flash people use is to transparently remap the addresses of the sectors on the card as they are written to spread the wear and tear across the whole card; that way one file that constantly gets updated won't ruin the card too fast. By formatting you are touching all of the bits and defeating optimization like that so you certainly are shortening the life of your card by reformatting it.

The important question is do you care? How much does a new card cost versus the value you place on the convenience of reformatting? I figure it will still be obsolete before it breaks so what if it only lasts 2 years when it could have gone 10...