SD card formatting

[Trailryder42]

So the SD card for the Skydio has to be formatted ExFAT. Does it have to be done in the drone or can it also be done on a Window 10 PC, as it will do ExFAT too. Or is there something special about how the drone does it?

 

[ETdronehome]

I started using my drone with a new out of package SD card and didn’t do anything to it other than put it in the drone. It created its own folder structure and recorded video and stills. I have chosen to “format” the card once from the app and it either formatted the card and recreated the folder structure or just deleted the folder contents (don’t know for sure) but all of the “old” content was gone. The format process only took a minute or less.

I actually make it a practice to only copy the files from any camera card to my PC. Any deleting files or formatting I do with the actual recording device but maybe that’s just me.

I’m curious why you would format in your PC?

 

[Ridefreak]

I started using my drone with a new out of package SD card and didn’t do anything to it other than put it in the drone. It created its own folder structure and recorded video and stills. I have chosen to “format” the card once from the app and it either formatted the card and recreated the folder structure or just deleted the folder contents (don’t know for sure) but all of the “old” content was gone. The format process only took a minute or less.

I actually make it a practice to only copy the files from any camera card to my PC. Any deleting files or formatting I do with the actual recording device but maybe that’s just me.

I’m curious why you would format in your PC?

I always do the same, format with the recording device.

 

[somewhereinusa]

I format, and erase, on my computer. I have been doing it for years on all of my cameras and electronic devices. Much easier than scrolling through some menu on the camera. For my event photography I have the whole process automated. Insert card, everything is dumped onto two hard drives, then card is erased.

 

[TonyPHX]

like @somewhereinusa I have been doing the formatting on my workstation as well. I am a big fan of scripting and automating the workflow and find that with owning a large variety of drones that finding (and remembering) to format cards via different menus is a challenge versus just always putting a freshly formatted card into the drone.

 

[Trailryder42]

Workflow was what I was thinking as well. Windows will format in ExFat. So after having downloaded my footage, I could format it right then instead of going thru the process in the app later.

I don't have my drone yet. So, I'm guessing then that formatting it in the drone, the app puts some kind of special folder on the card that the drone expects to see to put video files in, Like a DCIM folder that a regular camera does. If that's all it is, I could do that on the PC.

If one had multiple drones that used different file formats, it could be hard to remember which drone uses which file format, so letting the drone do it is fail safe.

 

[TonyPHX]

Well you are going to enjoy it for sure. I have a few things about the S2 that I find lacking, but it is a very unique and capable drone in so many areas that DJI and others just cannot even begin to compare with.

 

[ETdronehome]

I wanted to clear my SD card for the SD2 so did a little testing while I was at it.
Any of the steps I took with putting the card back in the drone were to connect with app and get to the point where I was told I couldn’t take off as I was inside my home. Therefore I can’t confirm what would happen if I had actually created some footage. See attached photo for results.