SD Cards.. do they wear out ?

[scotjimland]

Maybe a silly question, probably is, but I was just curious..

I have a 1gb Kodak SD card which has been in use for over two years and has had literally thousands of images on it.. I haven't noticed any change in image quality..
so, do they degrade and need replaced every so often or do they just fail ?

TIA

Jim

 

[American Dream]

Hi Jim,

I tend to keep any media like that away from any magnetic/electromagnetic devices especially if I have something important archived on them.All my photos are backed to cd/dvd anyway.

I have used cards for a number of years without any problems.

The main problems We've seen is where media has been left in a reader in a pc and it tried to checkdisk it on boot and corrupts the file data.The other problem is they can be affected by virus' and malware the same as any other rewritable device.

Still using some smartmedia cards in an old fuji camera from 1999.:thumb:

 

[weejohnw]

Fadin out

Hi Jim,
Back these up on your computer and or put them onto CD's
It can happen that your card will just fail to read and all pics will be lost
My son lost all his from a trip to Romania with this very problem.
Regards Wee John

 

[scotjimland]

Hi

just to clarify, it's the SD card in the camera ..

 

[GJH]

Hi

just to clarify, it's the SD card in the camera ..

I agree with previous posters.

Safest thing is to back up onto the PC after each session of taking photos, to minimise chance of loss, and to have spare cards in case the one in the camera fails when you are starting/part way through a session.

Jill uses a camera much more often than I do and tends to have several, relatively small capacity cards rather than one large capacity one.

Graham

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[Braunston]

Hi,

I have checked this question out a number of times in the past and can find no concrete evidence of any inherent time limit on these cards, one reference I found quoted some 25000 reads/writes but i couldn't confirm that anywhere else,

I totally agree with keeping backups but in answer to your original question i don't think they are time limited, just like any other storage including hard drives I would, as I am sure you already do, keep backups as often as you can, as that blokes law always seems to come up and bite you when you are least expecting it

 

[madbluemad]

Hi Jim
A couple of things. Ive never known an SD card to wear out. I have damaged one by placing it in my computer card reader instead of downloding the pics from the camera.

I have also lost one when my camera was stolen in Spain last year.

I had a lot of pics on that camera and of course I cant get them back. I now always download my pics to my computer ASAP rather than risk losing them from my camera.

Jim

 

[scotjimland]

Pretty much as I thought .. there must be a point when a card will fail .. so it may be worth while replacing mine and using the 1gb as a back up..

Shooting in Raw mode I only get about 130 pics on a 1gb card and I usually download daily .. but I like the idea of using several smaller cards rather than one big one.. when I bought the 1gb card it was quite expensive but with the cost tumbling no reason not to have a few..

Once again, thanks for the informative and helpful replies..

next question..

are A frames legal.. and do they have a braking point ..

Jim

 

[walburga]

My 1 gb SD card, with all the TT5 maps including aires for western europe, went belly up last september when we were halfway down france. We had to go back to paper maps and concentrate a bit more on road signs.
When I eventually got the card into a computer not only could it not be read, the computer could not see it !
Got TT 720 now with on board hard drive.
regards
Allen

 

[Jim]

The cards do go wrong sometimes, but even then all is not lost, but it takes a special software to retrieve the data. Backing up to CD or DVD is the cheapest but some DVDs are very unreliable. Some say that even the most poorly washed and fixed traditional photograph will outlive photos stored on a cheap CD

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[sinbad1]

My 1 gb SD card, with all the TT5 maps including aires for western europe, went belly up last september when we were halfway down france. We had to go back to paper maps and concentrate a bit more on road signs.
When I eventually got the card into a computer not only could it not be read, the computer could not see it !
Got TT 720 now with on board hard drive.
regards
Allen

SD cards are ideal for short term storage like camera photo's / short video.s etc and maybe used to transfere data etc an infernate number of times ;but as with any storage device beit a drive or SD card it can become corrupt and unreconisable as your SD card was.

Your new TT is no different than your SD card in that, if the drive on your TT becomes corrupt it too will not be reconised.

The only way to avoid is to backup your SD/Drive make a complete copy.TT are prone to corruptions as you are adding poi's etc .

Regards Roy

NB. I have read that formatting an SD card does reduce its lifespan by how much don't know

 

[hilldweller]

there must be a point when a card will fail .. so it may be worth while replacing mine and using the 1gb as a back up..
Jim

Anything electronic can fail at any time but the really critical time is the first hours. Once past that the likelyhood of failure is tiny.

The Flash memory as used in SD cards wear only during an erase before a write, you can read them for ever. Older chips had a life as low as 10K writes but now 100K and more is the norm. Just about infinite life. If you filled it every day that means you worry in 300 years.

BUT static discharge could kill one at any time, be careful if you ever find another hot dry day not to touch the contacts.

 

[JeanLuc]

Maybe a silly question, probably is, but I was just curious..

I have a 1gb Kodak SD card which has been in use for over two years and has had literally thousands of images on it.. I haven't noticed any change in image quality..
so, do they degrade and need replaced every so often or do they just fail ?

TIA

Jim

Leaving aside all the issues of backing up etc. You are talking about the card in the camera, which is only temporary storage anyway, until the pix are downloaded. Given that Sandisk, one of the prominent brands, offer a 'limited lifetime guarantee', I think we can assume that for all practical purposes, the cards can be written to / downloaded umpteen times without deterioration.

The one thing one does have to be careful about is the way in which the card is formatted. Many cameras and other portable devices are sensitive to this. They will only work with a card that has been formatted by the camera / device. If the card is formatted on a PC, the camera cannot read it.

 

[Braunston]

Hi,

Just a quick update that while not directly related to the original subject, may just be interesting regarding storage devices.

I have just purchased an 8gb micro SD card manufactured by Transcend and the accompanying documentation regarding the warranties on their products may be interesting.

There doesn't appear to be any specific time/duration stated for the Micro SD warranty only that its limited to defective product replacement and that for full details i need to check their web site, so that isn't very helpful.

But the reason for me posting is that for their other products they do give a time span which i thought may be helpful, for perhaps deciding what storage devices you may wish to chose in the future.



Their Transcend "Storejet"(tm) range of External hard drives and Solid state disks
only carry a 2 year warranty

where as:-

Their Transcend USB flash drives (except Jetflash 210/220) are now protected for as long as you own them (Lifetime warranty)

Hope that helps.

 

[NEV3]

Not sure if my problem is related but my camera's SD card has just locked up and have not found any way to unlock it from the camera menu.
I can still read the data but it wont let me write or erase.
Any ideas?

NEV3

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[Braunston]

Hi, Nev3

I don't know anything about camera's but I am sure there are a number of people on this site who could provide advice, if you don't here any replies on this thread i suggest you start a new one as the camera experts may not read this thread as its quiet old.

 

[Brisey]

Hi Nev3

I don 't know anything about SD cards, but my first thought is have you inadvertantly moved the lock button on the side of the SD card.