Trojons on SD Card

Avast is not the most highly rated anti-virus program in a group test in the current Computer Shopper (that's the UK one, not the US one). It's not even the best rated free program. A quick Google search suggests that it has never been highly rated. But there are two other issues:
- How old is the basic program? Most AV programs are upgraded annually or better.
- How recently was the virus definition file updated? As example, I am on a daily update for my main AV program - anything more than weekly is asking for trouble.
Geoff

Seconded Jeff. I'd be slightly underwhelmed by the thought of a business using free download antivirus software in that sort of environment. I'd be tempted to steer clear.

There's a switch on all SD (SECURE DIGITAL) cards.

To the OP, where did you buy your card? 99.9% of cards bought on the internet are fakes. It's common for these cheap copies to come with a virus pre-installed. Watch out for this with cheap software bought on line too.

BTW it's better for the card of you reformat it rather than just delete files too. Makes better use of the space available and is more stable.

Really?

I have heard that 99.9% of all statistics quoted on the internet are wrong.

Dan

Maybe 99% of all cards bought on Ebay .. but not the internet as a whole.

Just another thought ...
When you pop a card in the camera and "Format" it, what really happens?
My guess is that the camera creates a folder in the card - and nothing else.
So I just plugged in the card-reader, inserted a spare card that has been formatted in a K100D, and found that there is indeed a folder called "DCIM" just like I would expect to find. I could test this further by taking a brand new card (2GB Kingston, sealed pack) and plugging that into my reader, checking, and then formatting it in my K200D and reading it again.
Maybe someone here knows more about card memory than I do, and can tell us all, but I can see how disks and some tapes need to be formatted - as a process that imposes track (sector as well for disk) data prior to any other recording. I cannot see how one can similarly format a chip where the connections are hard wired - all that seems possible is to impose a folder structure. Must play with this some time.
And, I agree with 99.9% of Dan's comments .
Geoff

I think this happen when you format a flash card, of course other file system formats apply as well.
- The FAT entries are cleared.
- The root directory is cleared out.
- Format then checks each cluster to see if it is good or bad and marks it in the FAT.

So basicly formatting destroys the "map" to the files so an operation system can't find them any more.

There is also a form of formatting that you change the file-system, this can also be done with flash memory.
By the looks of it the exFAT would be the new standard format for the upcoming cards and it will remove the 4gb file limit meaning you can record video till the card is full, maybe if Pentax would get a license to use it then they would have the longest video record time of all the cameras out there, might look interesting on paper.

That the camera makes a folder during formatting is quite normal since the camera assumes you would use it for in the camera and DCIM is a standard camera folder to drop your photos in and other information.
It has nothing to do with formatting.

Hi Stefan
Your last comment made me look up Flash Memory (in general and SD cards in particular) I really had not realized just how complex they were. I suppose that I am not alone in taking them for granted. Two more outcomes from this:
- - My PDA/satnav stores its maps on an SD card - I have never thought of backing it up!
I have just looked for my spare SD cards - can't find them! I know where they are to within a small volume of storage - another chore to take up time.
Geoff

Yes indeed they work differently.

I also just found out that a card must first erase the data before he can writes on it so it can not write over it like on hard-disk and forms of magnetic data.
So ever write would always means two actions so erase and write.

So what I said about formatting, might not be true.
- The FAT entries are cleared.
- The root directory is cleared out.

This starts to explain why the K100DS wrote a folder DCIM and put a folder Pentax inside that, and saved the pictures in there.
BUT
The K200D makes the DCIM folder and then the Pentax folder and then writes another folder inside that for each day.
And, did you know that you can have copy protection on an SD card? Just like on a DVD.
This thread has opened up a whole lot of new questions.
Geoff

I know about the copy protect, it's the same as with floppies, it's a little switch at the side, the mini and micro version don't have such a switch though.

Did you also know that they are very robust, they can survive a trip in a washing machine (with a bit of luck?).

ALso the new generation is being prepared, the standard is already here.
It's called SDXC and can go up to 2 TB.
It seems they are already out.
http://www.toshiba.com/taec/news/press_releases/2009/memy_09_572.jsp

Also the new format is exFAT of the SDXC so a simple update might not do it, although you can probably flash the card to FAT... or not, don't know if it's hitting the limits of the FAT format.

You can switch off the writing to new folders on each date - have a look in the camera menus.