Formatting CF and Microdrive

Hi,

I use two Microdrives and one CF card when shooting with my Fuji S602. I've
filled all the cards up several times over and now I am considering
formatting the cards as I understand this will (ever so slightly) improve
speed.

My question is - what is the best way to do this? I read a lot about FAT,
FAT32 etc without really understanding what it means and what
benefits/issues each could bring. The camera seems to just have one option -
Format - so should I just go ahead and format in the camera? Or should I be
doing something else?

I use a Dazzle Fusion card reader to download direct from the cards, or
alternatively if I am shooting a lot of pictures without access to my
computer I download my cards onto an Archos Multimedia portable hard drive
and transfer to my PC when I get home.

Any advice regarding formatting my cards would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

Just formatting in the camera is fine.
What can be a problem is if you leave files on the camera while deleting others,
and then continue to take pictures.
If you do this several times over, especially with a microdrive (due to its
slow seek time) then it may slow down a bit.

Deleting all the files, or formatting does pretty much the same thing.

 

I use two 512MB CF cards & a single 1GB Microdrive, myself.

It won't improve it to any noticible degree, but there's no harm in
doing so if you feel the urge. After transferring my photos to my
computer, I often format the card in the camera because it's actually
faster (in my EOS 10D & Powershot S30) than doing a 'delete all'.

Do it in the camera. That ensures that the format will be 100%
compatible with the camera. This may not be the case if you format it in
your computer.

Hope this helps, etc.