Best way to format & organize SD card for multiple brand CPAP machines?

[verbatim1]

I'm new to CPAP (3 weeks in toto, 1 of which was the titration week), and have used the following machines & software:
A. Philips Respironics non-Bi-pap loaner machine from Kaiser
B. Resmed A10 machine set up by Kaiser
C. Philips Respironics Bi-Pap borrowed machine from my friend
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a. Encore Basic (for the Respironics machines)
b. Rescan (for the Resmed machine)
c. SleepyHead (for all three machines)

One unanticipated problem I'm running into is that I was "sharing" the SD card between the latter two machines; but the SleepyHead software was getting confused between the two machines all on a single card.

That brings up two questions:
1. What's the best way to "format" these SD cards for cpap use?
2. How do you best organize the card to use among different machines?

[AlanE]

Sleepyhead won't know how to handle multiple machines on one card. It can handle multiple machines though. If you import data under the same profile in Sleepyhead, It will set up a folder for Machine A. If you use another SD card with a different machine on it, Machine B, sleepyhead will create a new folder for that. You will be able to move back and forth between the two machines in sleeyhead seamlessly without having to load another profile. If you need to keep the raw data it is best to either use different SD cards one for each machine or backup the SD card to your computer and erase it for the next machine.

[Sleepster]

I think the best way is to just keep a separate card in each machine. That's what I do.

[verbatim1]

Sleepyhead won't know how to handle multiple machines on one card.

I guess I empirically found that out, much to my chagrin.

It can handle multiple machines though. If you import data under the same profile in Sleepyhead, It will set up a folder for Machine A. If you use another SD card with a different machine on it, Machine B, sleepyhead will create a new folder for that. You will be able to move back and forth between the two machines in sleeyhead seamlessly without having to load another profile.

That's what I'll do then.

If you need to keep the raw data it is best to either use different SD cards one for each machine or backup the SD card to your computer and erase it for the next machine.

I can format the SD card on Windows.
Is that all it takes?

Most flash cards are best formatted either "for" the device they're being used on or "by" the device itself.

Can the Philips or ResMed machines format an SD card?
If not, what format do we use from Windows to format them?

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I think the best way is to just keep a separate card in each machine. That's what I do.

I looked around for a spare flash card formatted for a camera.
So now I have 1 card per machine.

Will a typical Windows format work just fine?

[Crimson Nape]

verbatim1,
Yes, a Windows PC can format the SD cards. Use a FAT32 format. Expect further formatting, the writing of specific files, when you insert the SD cards into each machine. You should be good to go after that.