Magic Lantern t2i card reformatting

T

treynolds

Well-known member
So i have seen a few threads recently about magic lantern slowing down as you update your builds and things and a lot of people weren't reformatting cards often. I figured i would share with you my procedure for cleaning and updating magic lantern builds on my cards.

I have 4 cards that i use, 2 8gb AData class 6 cards, 1 16gb Patriot class 10 and 1 16gb Trancend class 6. I have been using this procedure for a couple of months now and i have noticed far fewer record errors and time outs. so here goes

1. backup footage from card
2. put card in camera and reformat (low level on)
3. put card back in computer and with Eos utility or Mac boot for you apple guys make the card bootable again
4. put newest build of magic lantern and any cropmarks you want on the card
5. test in the camera

This is my regular procedure. I could be doing extra steps or something wrong but i have noticed an improvement in my cameras speed and i less often run into buffer issues.

Let me know if you guys have something different you do in order to keep your magic lantern up to date and cards clean and useable.
 
Depends on whether or not you need the newest build.
I like keeping all my settings (gain control, mic input, etc), and only update when there is something new and interesting that sounds good (note: some releases are more experimental than others, having the latest isn't always the best).
Therefore, I keep a directory on my desktop for all the magic lantern files, including my config .cfg file that contains all the settings.

Then, my procedure is quite simple:
1) format card (in camera)
2) make bootable with utility (EOS or mac boot)
3) copy ML data from directory to root of card.

That's it, and it literally takes me 20 seconds for this whole procedure.

EDIT: Also, its got nothing to do with ML builds slowing down your card, but rather deleting small files.

Here's a little computers 101:
If you look at how data is stored on a FAT-based system, you'll find a concept called fragmentation. That is, when you "delete" a file, it doesn't actually remove the data, but just marks that space as empty (think like a cassette tape- once you've recorded something onto it, you can't really "erase" it, but you can tape over it).
The problem is, if you delete a file, there could be a file right after it or right before it in physical addresses. So, if you delete a 1 MB file, and then try to write a 2 MB file in that space, the file system is going reach the end of the "blank" area, and then start scrambling to find the next available memory address to continue. This causes the performance of both reading and writing to slow down because that one giant file is split up into multiple available spaces all over the card.
There are tools you can run to defragment storage, which basically looks for any empty space in gaps and rearranges everything to fit like a giant puzzle, with all the data jigsawed together at the beginning, and all the blank space consolidated at the end. This used to be how you clean up performance on your computer's hard drive (I think modern OSes do this in the background when sitting idle). But for something like a storage card, its just faster and easier to format the card, which resets everything to zero, and start over. Then the camera can record straight and not go scrambling for available space on the card.

Now, I mentioned in another thread that constantly updating ML will slow down your card. That's because I'm picturing a ton of little files that are being constantly deleted and replaced with new ones, which will fragment your storage. The truth is, even if you DON'T update ML often, your card will still slow down just by recording, deleting, and recording clips and pictures of varying sizes. Frequent formatting is required for optimal speed.
 
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someone should make a video tutorial for the dummy's like me!

i thought you could just replace the old files with new updated ones?
 
chrismagicc said:
someone should make a video tutorial for the dummy's like me!

i thought you could just replace the old files with new updated ones?
Click to expand...

You could, that'd work fine.

Except that the more you delete and re-write to a card (or any storage medium, really), the slower and slower it will get. This actually has nothing to do with ML, but rather how storage cards work. Even if you just shoot regular video without ML, copy the files to your computer to edit, delete and start again, you'll notice more and more buffer errors over time. The only way to keep your card running at full speed (and with high bitrate 1080p data, you need it to be full speed), you have to format after using the card a lot.

The same is true for any digital camera, btw. Its just that you don't notice the speed issues with shooting stills or with lower bitrate video.
 
taybo20 said:
So it is safe to reformat a card with magic lantern on it in the camera?
Click to expand...

Hmm. you know what, I always did it on the computer, because I was copying the files off first. I never considered this- I guess it depends on whether or not ML loads itself into RAM first, or if it requires the data read off the card the entire time.

I think it loads into RAM, because it couldn't very well be reading off the card during filming without significantly slowing down read/write speeds. I'll have to double check that.
 
I have been reformatting in the camera. After the reformat while the camera is still running magic lantern is still there. Then i shut it down and pull the card out and make it bootable again.

I do the same thing with my old magic build though, I have builds back for every stable version i have had success with. that way if the new version doesnt run smoothly on my camera i have a quick and easily accessible version to run
 
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