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Installing Newer CHDK Version?

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Offline KenO

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Installing Newer CHDK Version?
« on: 21 / July / 2012, 10:40:30 »
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Have been very satisfied with my older version of CHDK but would like to install the latest version on the same SD Card to try some of the new options.

Since I have an older CHDK camera am wondering if there is any speed advantage to reformat the SD card before installing the new version of CHDK?

Thanks

Ken
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: Installing Newer CHDK Version?
« Reply #1 on: 21 / July / 2012, 11:03:57 »
Quote from: KenO on 21 / July / 2012, 10:40:30
Since I have an older CHDK camera am wondering if there is any speed advantage to reformat the SD card before installing the new version of CHDK?
I can't think of any.
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Ported :   A1200    SD940   G10    Powershot N    G16
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Offline srsa_4c

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Re: Installing Newer CHDK Version?
« Reply #2 on: 21 / July / 2012, 11:55:02 »
Quote from: KenO on 21 / July / 2012, 10:40:30
Since I have an older CHDK camera am wondering if there is any speed advantage to reformat the SD card before installing the new version of CHDK?
There's this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table#Fragmentation which you can avoid by re-formatting. Of course you should backup your CHDK folder before and copy it back after. And you'll need to make the card bootable again. "low level" formatting is a recommendation usually found in Canon manuals.
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: Installing Newer CHDK Version?
« Reply #3 on: 21 / July / 2012, 12:03:42 »
Quote from: srsa_4c on 21 / July / 2012, 11:55:02
There's this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File_Allocation_Table#Fragmentation which you can avoid by re-formatting.
Fragmentation is only a problem with rotating physical disk drives.  As files get spread around the disk in increasingly smaller segments, it takes increasing amounts of time to move the drive head everywhere necessary to access them.

With an SD card (or other solid state device),  there is no mechanical movement involved and so no delay from fragmentation.  In fact,  the controller on the SD card will purposefully fragment files to random spots to even out the wear & tear on the storage cells ( which have a large but finite number of times they can be written to).

So defragmetting an SD card will make no difference in how quickly the card performs.  It will reduce the life of the card slightly as it uses up some of the available write cycles.

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Offline srsa_4c

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Re: Installing Newer CHDK Version?
« Reply #4 on: 21 / July / 2012, 12:17:39 »
It's not the physical level, it's the filesystem level which gets fragmented. Erasing existing files doesn't make their data go away, deleted directory entries remain, FAT chains are only marked as deleted, fragments of new files will be scattered through the whole area as fragmentation grows. The card doesn't know about the filesystem.
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Offline waterwingz

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Re: Installing Newer CHDK Version?
« Reply #5 on: 21 / July / 2012, 12:24:05 »
Quote from: srsa_4c on 21 / July / 2012, 12:17:39
It's not the physical level, it's the filesystem level which gets fragmented. Erasing existing files doesn't make their data go away, deleted directory entries remain, FAT chains are only marked as deleted, fragments of new files will be scattered through the whole area as fragmentation grows. The card doesn't know about the filesystem.
I agree - it looks messy.  But I don't think it slows anything down ?
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Offline srsa_4c

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Re: Installing Newer CHDK Version?
« Reply #6 on: 21 / July / 2012, 12:31:18 »
Quote from: waterwingz on 21 / July / 2012, 12:24:05
But I don't think it slows anything down ?
Well, it's in the Canon manual:
Quote
Perform a low-level format (p. 110) of the memory card when the camera
does not operate properly, the recording/reading speed of a memory card
has dropped, when continuous shooting speed slows down, or when
movie recording stops suddenly.

 I also remember reading it in the Magic Lantern forums written by people who use high speed cards for their high bitrate video recordings.
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Offline KenO

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Re: Installing Newer CHDK Version?
« Reply #7 on: 21 / July / 2012, 12:31:56 »
Hi Everyone,

Thanks for the comments!

I am not that technical so will defer to the more knowledgeable CHDK users.

Still unanswered, is there a significant advantage to Reformat SD card before installing new CHDK version?

Hope a more technical person had done test
1.  delete old CHDK directory and then install new CHDK version and test speed.

2. reformat SD card and install new CHDK version and test speed.

To date have not found anything like this.

Ken
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Offline KenO

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Re: Installing Newer CHDK Version?
« Reply #8 on: 21 / July / 2012, 12:38:47 »
Hi srsa_4c,

"Perform a low-level format (p. 110) of the memory card when the camera does not operate properly, the recording/reading speed of a memory card has dropped, when continuous shooting speed slows down, or when movie recording stops suddenly."

Never did any recording speed tests so do not know?  Do you have any test recommendations so I can keep it as a baseline for future reference?

" I also remember reading it in the Magic Lantern forums written by people who use high speed cards for their high bitrate video recordings."  Do you have a link to this post?  Sounds interesting!

Ken

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Offline waterwingz

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Re: Installing Newer CHDK Version?
« Reply #9 on: 21 / July / 2012, 12:44:35 »
Quote from: srsa_4c on 21 / July / 2012, 12:31:18
I also remember reading it in the Magic Lantern forums written by people who use high speed cards for their high bitrate video recordings.
I'm curious about the mechanism at work here.  Maybe some sort of streaming DMA mode that works better with "continguous" sectors ?  As you said,  its more likely a file system limitation than the physical access to the card.

Quote from: KenO on 21 / July / 2012, 12:31:56
Still unanswered, is there a significant advantage to Reformat SD card before installing new CHDK version?

Hope a more technical person had done test
1.  delete old CHDK directory and then install new CHDK version and test speed.

2. reformat SD card and install new CHDK version and test speed.
You could run these test yourself ?  To test speed,  CHDK Debug menu has a Benchmark option that will test how fast it can read & write to the SD card.   I've used it to validate the speed rating of various no-name brand SD cards in the past.

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