Absolute Beginner's Guide to Digital Photography

CHAPTER 8 FILE RECOVERY: FINDING “LOST” IMAGES 107

Preventative Maintenance: Defragmenting Flash

Media

A defragmented hard disk drive can speed up disk writes and reads because files will

be stored contiguously (next to each other). As flash media increases in size, defrag-

mentation will become more of an issue. Currently, flash media is not large enough

to warrant defragmentation.

If you would like to experiment with defragging a large flash media device (any-

thing over 512MB), you will need a Windows PC. All flash media uses the FAT 16 or

FAT 32 filesystem, a byproduct of DOS and Windows. If you are a Mac user, bother a

friend with a PC and ask to defrag your camera’s flash media. The read and write

process on flash media is much slower than on a hard disk, so be prepared to wait

while this operation takes place.

The following steps are Windows-specific because only Windows is capable of defrag-

ging a flash media device (FAT 16 or FAT 32 filesystem). If you are a Mac user, use

the digital camera to reformat the flash drive, which will erase images and clean up

the flash drive in one operation. Follow these simple steps to defragment a flash

media card:

1. Plug the flash media into your PC. You can do this using a flash media
   reader that plugs into a USB port or FireWire port.


2. In Windows, double-click on My Computer.


3. Find the flash media drive and right-click on it, then select Properties.


4. When the Properties menu appears, click the Tools tab, then choose
   Defragment Now.


5. When the Disk Defragmenter appears, click Analyze to determine whether
   the disk needs to be defragmented. If a pop-up with the message “You do not
   need to defragment this volume” appears, you can either close the applica-
   tion or defragment anyway.


6. If you analyzed the media and still need to defragment, click Defragment.
   Depending on the size of the media card, you should be finished in a minute
   or two.


7. When the defragmentation finishes, you can view a report of the defragment
   operation, or click Close and then choose File, Exit to exit the application.


8. Remove the flash media card from your PC. For Windows 2000 users, remem-
   ber to detach it properly by clicking the Remove Hardware icon in the system
   tray in the lower-right corner of the Start bar (next to the clock).