If you delete all of the files (except the firmware that was added first), there would be no fragmenting risk.

I'm not a formatting purist, but I also like to format the cards regularly, rather than delete files over and over, just in case.

I thought CF technology purposely fragments files in order to make sure all segments of CF memory are written to, rather than just certain areas, to insure longer life of the memory. Maybe that's old technology?

Julian

Yep. Nand Flash technology (the core technology in CF and SD cards) gives you no advantage with respect to sector ordering (unlike a HD where it does matter). This is due to wear leveling which is what you described is called. The sector numbers have no correlation to the physical layout of the memory and therefore no impact on access times.

Access time is the primary effect of fragmentation. In the case of CF it doesn't matter.

Gee, you mean seek time on a flash card isn't of any consequence? Who knew? ;-)