Deleting Image Files
Images scanned to the camera’s internal disk drive remain on the drive until specifically deleted. This provides an extra level of backup protection for a job in progress, but can eventually clog the drive if images are not deleted regularly. After retrieving the images, and verifying that the retrieved files are safely stored, enter the File Manager and select (highlight) the image files to be deleted. Click the Delete button to bring up the File Delete dialog, which will display the number of files to be deleted. Click the Delete button in this dialog box to delete the files, removing their records from the disk filing system and making the space they occupied available again.
Unlike previous versions of the Better Light software, all the selected files are deleted with a single click on the Delete button. There is no method for canceling or stopping this action, so make certain the files should be deleted before clicking the Delete button.
Clicking the Cancel button or pressing the Return or Enter keys on the keyboard will cancel any file deletions and return to the File Manager leaving the selected files intact on the disk.
When a file is deleted, any unused (“available”) space on either side of the file is combined with the deleted file’s space to make a single, larger “available” space. This occurs immediately within the camera when the file is deleted, and the File Manager list will update to show the adjacent unused spaces have been combined into one unused space.
It is impossible to “fragment” the camera’s disk drive, as each image must be scanned into a single contiguous space. However, the presence of many small files scattered around on the disk may prevent any single contiguous space from being large enough to hold a desired scan, resulting in a “disk full” error message even though there may be enough total space available. Deleting some files to combine the adjacent spaces may be necessary in this instance.
Since the camera disk cannot fragment files, there is no need for special disk maintenance procedures to “optimize” the hard drive using disk utility programs. The hard drive cannot be accessed by these programs.
Hard Drive Storage Capacity
The hard disk in your Better Light control box uses a filing system with a maximum of 255 entries. Each entry is either an image file or an available space marker. The 255 entry limit is regard- less of how much space is available on the drive. Attempts to exceed this filing system maximum will return a “Disk full” error.
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