FAT or FAT32

[thebinman]

Everyone seems to have a different opinion on this. Let's hear yours and the reasoning behind it.

I must admit I've only ever needed to reformat (FAT32) if I want to re-use my SD card for something else.

I've never needed to format a new card prior to loading it.

[Darren]

In the main it makes no difference to usage on smaller cards. However, FAT or FAT16 as it is correctly known is limited to 2GB so for larger cards you must use FAT32 which has a limit in the Terrabyte level.
_________________
Darren Griffin

[shauneco]

The file system on my original TomTom 510 SD Card is FAT

[lbendlin]

There's much more to the discussion than just the size of the FAT entries (12, 16 or 32 bit). This extends into sector size and whatnot. You can waste many months doing performance comparisons (and ruining your SD card on the way).

In the end it is more a brand question. Stay away from old Sandisk China cards, look for high end Lexar cards or whatever your friend recommends.

We don't need fast writes for the GPS application, what we need is fast reads.
_________________
Lutz

Report Map Errors here:
TomTom/TeleAtlas NAVTEQ

[neil01]

Ideally, the cards should not be reformatted from how they are supplied in FAT (rather than FAT32).

This has much wider compatibility accross systems, and I am not just talking Windows PC and PPC, but with digital cameras etc.

Although the various flavours of FAT will often work in whatever an individual has, this is far from certain, and where it has 'worked' there have been reports of reduced performance (something I have experienced first hand)

To add further complication, the type of FAT formatting done by Windows XP is not the original standard FAT, so even a FAT16 Windows XP formatted card may not work in all situations (I have come accross that one too - much to my suprise!)

My suggestion for the 'safest' way to proceed, is to format any card you are going to use in the equipment you will be using it in, this may involve obtaining software for your PPC.

So far I have only been able to find Spb Pocket Plus - http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/pocketplus/?en
or Storage Tools -
http://www.softwinter.com/storagetools.html
but both these involve a charge.

Hopefully someone else may know of a freeware alternative, or a way of formatting in 'RAW FAT' (rather than the XP flavour) on a Windows XP machine.

[mrstella]

Bah do it in NTFS or HPFS (for the ibm'ers out there) and really have some fun :D

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