Why does A New Memory Card Needs to be Formatted Before Use?

Question

Why does a new memory card or flash drive need to be formatted before using it?

All of I get from internet is just a tip to format it before use.

But they don't explain why we need to format it first.

Answer 1

Why we need to format a memory card before using it?

In order to write user data (files or directories) to a memory card (or other kinds of storage devices) we need to have a File System in place to receive the data.

Formatting prepares the storage medium to receive files and adds a File System.

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What is a File System?

In computing, a file system or filesystem is used to control how data is stored and retrieved.

• Without a file system, information placed in a storage medium would be one large body of data with no way to tell where one piece of information stops and the next begins.

• By separating the data into pieces and giving each piece a name, the information is easily isolated and identified.

Source File system

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What a Format actually do?

Disk formatting is the process of preparing a data storage device such as a hard disk drive, solid-state drive, floppy disk or USB flash drive for initial use. In some cases, the formatting operation may also create one or more new file systems.

• The first part of the formatting process that performs basic medium preparation is often referred to as "low-level formatting".

• Partitioning is the common term for the second part of the process, making the data storage device visible to an operating system.

• The third part of the process, usually termed "high-level formatting" most often refers to the process of generating a new file system.

In some operating systems all or parts of these three processes can be combined or repeated at different levels and the term "format" is understood to mean an operation in which a new disk medium is fully prepared to store files.

Source Disk formatting