How to format a compact flash

Compact Flash disks are getting cheaper and cheaper and bigger and bigger. In order to maximise the most space from your compact flash it is important to be able to format it correctly.

In the past this had to be done on the Psion itself, either from the system screen or using the third party Essential disk tool from Atileier. However, now that external compact flash readers for PC/Mac are more availabile and affordable formatting is easier than ever. In fact a number of printers are now being produced with in-built compact flash and smart card readers. Once installed the readers appear as another drive in Windows Explorer and can be treated as you would any other hard drive.

Formatting is best done from a command window (select Start, Run and then enter cmd). The "Format" command allows a drive to be formatted with the parameters of your choice. Obviously it is important to ensure that you format the correct disk!

The command itself is as follows:

format i: /FS:FAT /V:Documents /A:16K

With parameters as follows:

i:

The drive to be formatted - take care!

/FS:FAT

The format to create the disk with - for a Psion this must be FAT in order for it to be read.

/V:Documents

The name to allocate to the drive, "Documents" in this case.

/A:16K

The sector size.

Other useful Psion/Compact Flash resources:

CompactFlash issues

PScience5 - Compact Flash

Atelier Software - Essential disk utilities

Foxpop - Saving space on your memory cards