Erasing file from SD card

[dodge55]

What is the proper coding procedure for erasing a file from a SD card? It looks like when I format a card using Windows, the FAT is reset to 0. If I delete a file using Windows, it sets the particular FAT entry to 0FFFFFF8. I'm assuming so that you can try and recover data, if you need to. My question is - When you create a file, do you look for the first 0 entry for the first available cluster or also 0FFFFFF8? Or, do you exhaust all 0 entries, then look for 0FFFFFF8? What is standard practice? On my card, I really don't need the ability to recover data, so the answer my be both in my case. Thanks.

Sutton

[spunker88]

What are you trying to figure out?

When you delete a file from a sd card, or any storage media for that matter, the space isnt overwritten, it is just made available to be overwritten when needed later. That is why often times deleted files can be restored.

From my understanding, a "Quick Format" does the same as deleting files, it just makes the space available. If you really want to make sure data is not recoverable, do a Full Format. These can take some time, but all data should be wiped from the card.

I just use the default FAT32 formatting settings under windows and it works fine.