Erase ALL images SX540 HS

[woozie123]

It's not in the manual, and google is not helping either.... I just want to erase ALL the images on the Powershot SX540 HS. I see how to delete them individually, but there has to be a way to delete them all with a click?

Help!

[Tronhard · Accepted solution]

Hi and welcome to the forum:
You don't use the erase function, once you have copied the files you want from the card,  you format the card itself in the camera, using its format command. Formatting is actually recommended as erasing images does not actually clear them off your card.  All erasing does is clear the first characters off the File Allocation Table of the card and essentially indicate that the space occupied by that file can be over-written.  The problem is that the next file will more than likely not be an exact size match, so that part of the file will be written elsewhere, leading to a phenomenon called fragmentation, where the file is broken up into different locations.  Eventually this causes issues with the FAT table and will corrupt your card.

Formatting clears the whole table and low-level format will fill the card with 0's for a total wipe - you don't have to do a low-level format each time, but formatting in the camera is the best solution.

Look on P97 of the manual - see: pssx520hs-cu2-en.pdf (c-wss.com)

[BurnUnit]

Also remember to format a new card, in the camera, before its first use. The same also applies to cards that have been used previously in other cameras or equipment.